Mountain Hardwear PCT 55 L Pack - Men's vs REI Co-op Beyonder Pack

The pack has held up well enough in both the rocky high desert as well as alpine bristlecone forests over my first season with it. The detachable day pack turned out to be a lot more useful than I originally expected when I ordered this pack, Great for small day hikes or dropping your main pack at camp to summit with the daypack. Daypack is pretty comfortable with a 3L bladder although a chest strap would be nice. Biggest gripe I’ve seen about the bag is the front mesh pocket, it hasn’t been a tear concern for me personally even in pretty thick brush, and I hardly use it for anything but wrappers anyway so rain getting the contents wet is not a concern for me either

For me That is one feature that is essential on a high-load capacity pack. Having said that, to my surprise the pack still was quite comfortable to wear! One other feature that I find myself lost without is either two rows of vertical daisy chains OR having some kind of horizontal clip strap. Since I intend this as a hike pack, I like having those features for attaching quick access items like jackets. I can still roll mine up and stuff it under the top load lid and it works just as well