Anyone who has ever lugged a heavy pack around for a few days is familiar with the feeling of the load shifting it's weight back and forth from one shoulder to the other with each grueling step. Add a few hills to the equation and the sensation becomes even more pronounced. Since their inception, internal-frame packs have had relatively few changes made to the design of the actual suspension. In the last year or so, a few designers have come up with a creative new idea that combats this age-old problem of load shifting. The solution was to create hip-belts with the ability to pivot with the central axis of the frame. This allows the padding around your hips to move with you, still supporting the weight of the pack. Since the hip-belt attachment can swivel on the frame, the usual shoulder-to-shoulder weight transfer is avoided. This provides wonderful load stability, comfort, and easier hiking.

Last summer, Lowe Alpine upgraded their line with a new pack incorporating this system. The Wilderness is an expedition pack that takes all of the features made famous in their previous packs, with a few new ones added. The most notable is the utilization of a swiveling hip-belt design as mentioned above. The suspension is extremely well padded, fully adjustable, and stable. The frame will handle big loads comfortably, and also allows for more efficiency since the belt does not impede each step like a traditional pack suspension.

The Wilderness is equipped with very practically located compression straps, allowing it to function as a 65 litre pack with the ability to expand to a full 80 litres of internal capacity when need for longer trips. Even fully loaded, the Wilderness sits lower than most expedition packs of its size allowing for easier canoe portaging when used for tripping. There are plenty of options for the secure strapping of external gear, such as sleeping pads, water bottles, or poles. Also new is the ability to access the middle of the bag quickly thanks to a cleverly designed entry-system. The usual Lowe Alpine philosophy of making features practical while avoiding silly gimmicks has been applied well here. This has resulted in a great pack that avoids being overly heavy, while at the same time not sacrificing durability or the ability to handle serious load carrying ability.

The Wilderness 65+15 comes in two frame sizes. The smaller size is the ND, or Narrow Dimension. It is designed to give an optimal fit to women, men with narrower shoulders, and teen hikers. Each size has a tremendous amount of adjustability, so together they cover the full gamut of body types. The Wilderness ND was particularly well received by women hikers who wanted a good fit without buying a "girly" looking pack, as well as by men who were a bit slighter of build who enjoyed having a good fit without wearing a "pink" pack.

Lowe Alpine is not the only company using this new swivel hip-belt system. For instance, we also sell the excellent Arc'teryx Naos 70 that uses a similar type of suspension. However, the Wilderness comes in at around $200 less than the Naos when it comes time to pay for it. I would also argue that the compression and access features on the Wilderness are also more useful, so in my mind it is a much better value.

To sum up, I thought that this pack deserved mention as being are best all-around expedition pack for the second year running. The Wilderness 65+15 is a backpack that will take you wherever you need to go. If you are looking for a pack that will give you the ability to carry loads in comfort, this one is worth taking a look at. It is designed handle all of the trail hiking, canoe tripping, mountaineering, and travel that you can throw at it. We will be adding this pack to our rental fleet this year in both size configurations, giving folks the advantage to "try before you buy". Hopefully those who are interested will be able to take advantage of this so they can experience this pack firsthand. Happy hiking!