Dawn Pack

I've owned this pack for a couple of years now, and have used it often. I used it a lot at first, but now that I better understand its limitations I use it less often.

On the Plus Side

* It's really lightweight and you can stuff a lot of things into it, maybe more than you really want to carry, considering it has no padding on the back and only 1" webbing for a waist belt.

* The lack of bulky padding means you can wad it up and stuff it in your regular pack and bring it a long as a summit pack.

On the Minus Side

* Beware of carrying hard or sharp objects in this pack. Because the fabric is so thin, it easily abrades or tears when pinched or scraped between something in the pack and, say, a rock. NOT a good pack for rock climbing or any other activity where it will see significant abrasion. I took this thing up the S. Face of Lone Pine Peak, and it got a whole bunch of little tears all over from scraping on the rock. The heavier Dyneema bottom is durable, however, and has stood up to abuse.

* The top drawstring runs through a sleeve formed from the silnylon material of the main compartment. The fabric does not allow the string to pull easily (it's kind of grabby), so closing and opening the pack can be annoying.

I've had this pack for about a year and have had really good luck with it. It's usually my "go to" pack when I want to go fast and light and plan on not staying overnight. As Steve said, this isn't the kind of pack you want to tackle that monster offwidth in. It's simply not going to stand up to the abuse. That said, this is an excellent pack for lightweight 3 season ventures. For those of you who have your overnight pack weight under 15-20 pounds, this is a great pack. I have not personally carried more than ~14 pounds and have never had a problem, but I can't see going much over 20 pounds and being happy. There is no frame and and no back-panel sheet, so whatever is inside the pack is what you're going to feel on your back. But for 14oz, I can live with that!

The one feature I really like about this pack is the back and side pockets. The back pocket is just big enough to stuff all your "quick-get-to" stuff like food, chapstick, glasses, etc. And the side pockets can carry my platypus bladders (1 liter on each side) perfectly.

The only thing that is slightly annoying with the pack is closing the top. As Steve noted above, the top of the pack closes with a drawstring through one of those plastic stopper that work with a spring. The fabric from the top of the pack, when you pull the string, will begin to pull into the plastic piece, thereby making it more difficult to close. Usually with some fidgeting it will close right away.

That said, I really like this pack and have used it often.