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Granite Gear Crown3 60L Backpack Evaluation
The Granite Gear Crown3 60L is an reasonably priced ultralight backpack with a modular design that may be simply configured for ultralight backpacking, thru-hikes, and winter mountaineering. The issues that set this roll-top backpack other than different ultralight-style packs, apart from its cheap value, are its three-sided compression and kit attachment system and an optionally available high lid pocket which might be added when you’ll want to carry a bear canister or want extra exterior storage for smaller objects like hats, gloves, and navigation instruments. Probably the most vital upgrades on this newest model, are the supply of an optionally available add-on frame-stay that will increase the pack’s higher load restrict and the flexibility to make use of the highest lid as a fanny pack when mixed with the Crown’s detachable hip belt.
Specs at a Look
- Gender: males’s and girls’s fashions obtainable
- Quantity: 60L
- Pockets: 3 closed, 3 open
- Load lifters: Sure
- Adjustable Hip Belt Size: Sure
- Body: Inner (plastic body sheet and optionally available body keep)
- Hydration suitable: Sure
- Sizing:
- Unisex Common 2.4 lbs/1.09 kg; Torso 18-21″; Hip belt 26-42″
- Unisex Lengthy 2.6 lbs/1.18 kg; Torso
- Girls’s Common:
- Girls’s
Value and Weight
Backpacking gear has gotten actually costly, arguably too costly, however the Crown3 is definitely very competitively priced for an ultralight backpack. (The value solely went up $25 from the Crown 2.) Whereas it’s not made with a water-resistant materials/material like Dyneema DCF or the brand new Extremely woven material obtainable from smaller pack firms, Robic Nylon is a fairly sturdy materials. I personal Robic Nylon Packs that I’ve crushed on for years which can be nonetheless in good situation, whereas I’ve thrown away Dyneema DCF packs which have holed, worn out, or simply plain fallen aside with much less use.
There are additionally some beneficial cost-saving options on the Crown3 that you need to pay additional for when buying different backpacks. For instance, the pack has two giant hip belt pockets which different pack firms cost $30 a chunk for. You possibly can mix the highest lid with the hip belt to make a really good fanny pack that has the additional benefit of hip belt pockets, saving you one other $100 in case you have been to purchase a standalone fanny pack. Lastly, the highest lid can be used as a entrance chest pocket, which is absolutely handy if you’ll want to verify maps/GPS, eat snacks, or regulate hat and gloves layers continuously saving you one other $100 bucks if bought individually. I illustrate and study these features additional under, however I feel they’re better of breed choices that
Backpack Storage and Group
The Granite Gear Crown3 is roll high ultralight-style backpack with an optionally available high lid pocket. The within of the primary compartment is an enormous open tube so that you can arrange and refill. There isn’t a hydration pocket within the inside, however there’s a hook to hold a reservoir and a central port to run a hose that opens between the shoulder straps.
The Crown3 has two facet water bottle pockets made with strong material which have an elastic wire working by means of the highest which you’ll tighten to forestall objects from falling out. There’s additionally a compression strap than might be run over the pocket or by means of it, the latter so you possibly can compress the primary compartment whereas nonetheless utilizing the facet pocket. The pockets are giant sufficient to carry two x 32 oz Nalgenes or 2 Smartwater bottles, no matter your desire. I can attain again to drag out a bottle or substitute it with out taking off the pack.
The entrance mesh pocket is additional tall and made with a sturdy mesh. It’s fairly tight when the pack is full, so its greatest for storing moist water filters, free clothes layers, or smaller knick-knacks like a tent stake bag or trowel. I can barely match my 1 liter prepare dinner pot, which is commonly moist inside, when the primary physique of the pack is full.
The highest lid is floating, so it may be raised to suit over the extension collar (the additional material on the tp of the primary compartment above the highest of the body) when the pack is overloaded or whenever you wish to carry a bear canister over the primary compartment. The lid is related to the again with 4 webbing straps, that are all detachable in case you take away the highest lid, so that you don’t have additional straps cluttering up the pack.
The Crown3 high lid pocket
The Crown3 is made with Robic Nylon which isn’t waterproof so I like to recommend lining the pack with a plastic bag or pack liner (see Comparability of 5 Ultralight Pack Liners) to maintain your gear dry if it rains. The pack doesn’t include a rain cowl, and even in case you use one, you’ll nonetheless wish to line the within of the pack with a water-resistant bag of some type.
Bear Canister Compatibility
The principle compartment is giant sufficient to suit a BV500 bear canister each vertically and horizontally, though I wouldn’t advocate making an attempt to pack it horizontally as a result of it may be very very troublesome to get out. The identical can be true of the Garcia bear canister.
You may also carry a bear canister on high of the roll-top. The pack comes with a protracted webbing strap that runs over the roll high to offer high compression and is lengthy sufficient to suit over and round a big bear canister. Which may be sufficient to carry the canister on high, however it could actually nonetheless slip out sideways if you need to make some dynamic strikes when scrambling. I like to reinforce the strap with the floating high lid to carry the canister in place. The lid is extensive sufficient that the ends match over a BV500, stopping it from sliding out sideways.
Backpack Body and Suspension
The Crown3 has a plastic framesheet that’s tightly packed into the zippered pocket behind the shoulder strap in the primary compartment. You possibly can take away it if you want, however it’ll scale back the snug weight carrying capability of the pack from 30-35 kilos to 20-25 kilos, so I simply depart it in on a regular basis.
New for the Crown3 is an exterior body keep weighing 2.65 oz / 75 g, that may be slotted into the plastic framesheet to make it stiffer and provides an addition 8 kilos to the packs max really helpful load score. The keep is barely suitable with the Crown3 60 body sheet. The keep can be sized primarily based on the torso size of your backpack, so be sure to purchase the correct measurement to your pack.
Compression and Exterior Attachment System
One of many issues that makes Granite Gear Packs distinctive is their three-sided compression and attachment system, making it very simple to strap or connect cumbersome gear to the skin of the backpack, together with snowshoes, foam pads, and different winter traction aids. If you’d like a backpack that you should utilize all yr spherical and for a number of sports activities, the Granite Gear Crown3 60L has no equal. The identical was true of the Crown2 60, as effectively.
For instance, the entrance and each side of the pack have two tiers of compression straps which make it simple to strap snowshoes to the skin of the pack. I exploit this each winter, which lasts for shut to six months in New Hampshire. The compression straps, that are made with precise webbing, and never string, shut with buckles that are far simpler to make use of for attaching cumbersome gear to the facet of a pack and received’t freeze up in winter.
There are such a lot of methods to strap gear to the skin of the Crown3, that I liken it to the Swiss Military Knife of backpacks.
The shoulder straps have daisy chains sewn to the entrance which makes it simple to connect accent pockets and different devices to them. Lastly, there’s a protracted webbing strap that loops excessive of the roll high to safe a bear canister, by itself or together with the highest lid pocket.
Fanny Pack Configuration
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