Montane Trailblazer® LT 20L Backpack

Used it as a daily bag on my 4-month South American backpacking trip in different weather and climates.

Lost both chest straps in the first two weeks. Actually I lost and managed to found those several times until they got lost for ever. At least one end of those should be abled to be fixed more steadily. Without chest straps it was not the same bag anymore. I found the bags main opening not to be the best solution, specially if bag is not full. I liked the mesh posckets, tho connections with front zippers are useless and would prefer these to be on their own. As I was wearing a camera or a phone on my chest pockets and encountered quite many sudden rains, at least one of them should be waterproof. I wish the bag was more compressble into its own pocket or smth while not in use. All in all it has a long way to go for perfection.

I've taken this bag through a challenging 7 day, 170km fastpacking hike in Corsican mountains. I spent countless hours for finding a perfect pack and ended up choosing the Trailblazer 20 LT.

The positive

* Very comfortable to wear

* Very lightweight

* Very small

* Looks great

* Waterproof even through strong rain.

* Pockets on the straps are very good for sunscreen, gloves, phone etc

* Side pockets are stretchy and could fit 750ml bottles easily

The negative

* Pole attachment system is pretty useless for running. The poles kept bouncing around no matter how hard I tried. I ended up running with poles in my hands. I'm not sure how they do it in the promo video. Good enough when you are walking though.

* I almost lost the chest harness straps twice. When you take the bag off, they can easily detach.

* The chest harness straps loosen after a while. Throughout the day I needed to tighten them.

* Probably due to constant loosening and tightening they are already chafing after my first hike.

* A few seams have torn already

* The main compartment locking clip takes time to unlock in a hurry, as you have to press on the narrow edge. My sleeping bag manufacturer with a similar system has figured this out - make the user press on the wide edge to unlock.

The so-so

* I understand this is due to unisex size, but I feel there are a little too many straps dangling everywhere