says recent testers in Backpacker Magazine's Fall/Winter 2009 edition:

Got a pile of awkward cold-weather gear to haul? Few packs we've used match this one... On family backpacking trips from Yosemite to the Tetons, our tester credited the hipbelt for the pack's load-bearing success: "The belt is rigid yet amply padded, and because it adjusts to five different angles, I was able to find the perfect fit. Even carrying loads of 70 pounds, I felt like almost all of the weight was channeling directly to my hips-not my shoulders." The smooth and precisely contoured shoulder straps never chafed, even after hours of load humping. "The wide top opening and main compartment swallow a boatload of gear- I never had space issues- and compression straps keep everything from shifting around," he reports.