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World’s Lightest day pack – Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Lightweight Day Pack Review

By Dave Roberts   

on July 26, 2011    No ratings yet.

World’s Lightest day pack – Sea to Summit Ultra Sil Lightweight Day Pack Review

Ok, this is old news by now, but searching online for this piece of kit sees a few reviews that deride this as an impractical gimmick. Just search for the pack on Google Images and see how many people have actually taken a pic of this pack in the field! The nearest is on page 6 where someone dared to venture onto a grass verge.  Here at M&R we’re not ones to follow the crows, so we decided to see for ourselves whether this is a useful piece of kit or a total waste of money and actually test it on a proper hill.

The bottom line is that it weighs in at a tiny 68g and costs just shy of eighteen squids. Produced from lightweight sil-nylon, it swallows a 20litre load with ease. It is available in a range of colours, and we went for OMM yellow as opposed to the other choices of blue, red, green or graphite. As you’d expect from something of this weight, there’s no bells and whistles. There’s a large main compartment that’s closed by a zip, with no pockets or attachments ton the outside. About the only thing you can attach this to is your shoulders or, once packed into the built-in stuff sac, a keyring. Yes, it does pack that small.

Small and light is one thing, but is it practical for any sort of outdoor activity? At only 68g, you can stow this as extra storage if you’re on one of those weeks away where you’ll be camping and maybe hostelling and need some extra capacity. It’s ideal for carrying extras to the hostel, rather than taking a larger pack for these extras. It then packs away in your main pack, or you can use it as a stuff sac to organise your gear further. If you’re going to need a daypack for short walks once camped, then it’ll do the job – but won’t be comfortable if you weigh it down. It also doubles as a carrier for water bottles if you have to camp away from water and need to walk a short distance to fill up. Anyone who’s tried to carry more than 2 platys will sympathise.

As an all out daypack, it’s not the most comfortable but it’s not been designed to be your first choice pack. If you need a small capacity pack that you can carry in luggage or a backpacking pack, then it’s ok. The straps could do with being more comfortable and they sometimes come loose. You could also do with a couple of mesh pockets on the outside. But all that’s irrelevant. It’ll get you to the summit and back, no problem.

To test it further, we decided to see if it would suffice as a wild camping pack. At first glance, this sounds ridiculous, but with a tarp and a lightweight bag, is definately within the realms of possibility. In fact, check out this link to see how we’ll put our money where our mouth is and use this, and only this for a proper, mountain, Snowdonian wild camp!

Summary: Tiny daypack that’s perfect as a summit pack if you’re wild camping, or as an extra bit of storage if you’re backpacking and need to carry your shopping to the hostel.

Features:

  • Packs down small so it easily fits in pockets, purses or luggage
  • Simple, streamlined design so it’s light and low profile
  • Volume is about 20 Litres
  • Siliconized Cordura® for strength and durability
  • Bartack reinforced stitching on all stress points
  • Two-way zipper closure

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Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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