Atlas Packs Athlete vs Osprey Aether 65 Pack - Men's

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.

With the new materials, technology and the Osprey brand-name I decided to go in on this bag. The bag is extremely comfortable fully adjustable and distributes weight evenly and overall feels great! The fact that it’s a 65L forces me to take only the essentials plus a little extra without overweighing the bag and making the trip uncomfortable. I expect I’ll have this bag for many years to come and I appreciate the quality behind it.

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.

It was a tad uncomfortable at times but it might just be an adjustment that needs to be made. I used this pack on a 8 day/7 night trip across the Bob Marshall Wilderness covering 85+ miles. The rain fly works just fine. Zippers on the waist strap can be a little difficult to close while wearing the pack

With the new materials, technology and the Osprey brand-name I decided to go in on this bag. The bag is extremely comfortable fully adjustable and distributes weight evenly and overall feels great! The fact that it’s a 65L forces me to take only the essentials plus a little extra without overweighing the bag and making the trip uncomfortable. I expect I’ll have this bag for many years to come and I appreciate the quality behind it.

Second, for full disclosure, I have not been compensated for this review, and I own 14 or more Osprey products. All that said, I did not have this particular size and design so I ordered it and WOW!! The design and function is only exceeded by the product appearance appeal! Truly exquisite design and engineering delivered perfectly in every way. This size is perfectly suited for its design and there is no wasted or frivolous space. Utterly masterful in how Osprey always seem to get it right

This means that you need to loosen the straps to carry water essentially making side compression useless. This was a very poor design the straps should have been routed underneath the bottle holding material.