Atlas Packs Athlete vs Hyperlite Mountain Gear 3400 Southwest

Important: Choose the Adventure or Athlete hip belt – otherwise you will have literally no padding on your hips. I don’t recommend using the bag without a hipbelt either. The Adventure belt is more comfortable as it provides two layers of foam padding and a wider webbing and buckle – it’s also bigger and bulkier.

I already have a really light weight set up and didn’t really need the comfort of a bigger back pack or padding. So I got rid of my older atmos for a hyper lite southwest 3400, way simpler bag and less bulky and dropped almost 3 pounds in weight for me. Super comfortable for me mostly because I don’t have a lot of weight in there anyways. Just depends how you feel

I also purchased a Capture Clip from Peak Designs which allows you to fix the camera to the shoulder strap in place while hiking – a great addition to this pack.

Also, the strap on the top of the pack that goes over the top to the back strap is too long when the pack is not very full, like on a dayhike. So it flops around annoyingly.

went to colombia for three weeks. great pack for a carry-on. i only travel via one carry-on bag; makes travel much easier. used it on a few day hikes as well

o This is on the heavier end of the spectrum in terms of mainstream UL packs black adds more weight as well.

The shoulder straps and frame stays were not aligned at all with everything a half to full inch off side to side. It just had sloppy stitching all around, IMO. I also don't think the backpack is built well enough to hold heavier loads, like I would have thought. I would have to sew on my own load lifter straps