Granite Gear Crown3 60 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 aside from different ultralight-style packs, in addition to its very affordable worth, are its three-sided compression and kit attachment system and an elective high lid pocket which will be added when it’s essential to carry a bear canister or want extra exterior storage for smaller gadgets. Essentially the most vital upgrades on this newest model, are the supply of an elective add-on frame-stay that will increase the pack’s higher load restrict and the power to make use of the highest lid as a fanny pack or entrance chest pocket, saving the price of having to purchase these individually.

Specs at a Look

• Gender: males’s (unisex) and ladies’s fashions accessible
• Quantity: 60L
• Weight, Measurement Common Unisex:
  • Pack with out framesheet, high lid, or elective keep: 32.6 oz / 924 g (precise)
  • Framesheet: 6.5 oz / 186 g
  • Prime lid: 2.88 oz / 81.6 g
  • Non-obligatory keep: 2.65 oz / 75 g
• Pockets: 3 closed, 3 open
• Load lifters: Sure
• Body: Inner (plastic body sheet and elective body keep)
• Adjustable Hip Belt Size: Sure
• Max advisable load: 25 lbs with out framesheet, 35 lbs with framesheet, 43 lbs with framesheet and aluminum keep
• Hydration appropriate: Sure
• Materials: 100d and 210d Robic Nylon
• Torso lengths: Unisex – 15″-24″; Ladies’s 15″-21″
• Hip belt lengths: Unisex – 26″- 42″;Ladies’s 24″-40″

Backpack Storage and Group

The Granite Gear Crown3 60 is a roll-top ultralight-style backpack with an elective high lid pocket. The within of the primary compartment is a giant open cylinder so that you can set up and refill. When packing, I prefer to stack all my stuff sacks up towards the body sheet after which stuff unfastened gadgets behind them to maximise my house utilization and refill the inside house. I additionally line the pack with a water-proof pack liner for moisture safety.

When computing pack quantity, Granite Gear doesn’t embody open pockets or the extension collar (the additional quantity above the highest of the body), so that you’ll discover that you may carry far more gear, meals, and gas than backpacks from smaller producers that don’t adhere to this business commonplace.

Notably absent is a hydration pocket within the inside, which many light-weight pack producers have began to drop from multi-day backpacks since folks favor to maintain their water on the skin. However there may be nonetheless a hook to hold a reservoir inside and a central port to run a hose that opens between the shoulder straps.

The Crown3 has two aspect water bottle pockets made with strong material which have an elastic wire working by the highest which you’ll tighten to forestall gadgets from falling out. There’s additionally a compression strap than will be run over the pocket or by it, the latter so you possibly can compress the primary compartment whereas nonetheless utilizing the aspect pocket. The pockets are giant sufficient to carry two x 32 oz Nalgenes or 2 SmartWater bottles, no matter your choice. I can attain again to tug 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 quite tight when the pack is full, so it’s finest for storing a moist water filter, unfastened clothes layers, or smaller knick-knacks like a tent stake bag or trowel. I can barely match my 1 liter prepare dinner pot into it, which is usually 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 when the pack is overloaded or if you wish to carry a bear canister over the primary compartment. The lid is linked to the again with 4 webbing straps, that are all detachable for those who take away the highest lid, so that you don’t have additional straps cluttering up the pack. That’s good – simply be sure to don’t misplace them.

Bear Canister Compatibility

The principle compartment is giant sufficient to suit a BV500 bear canister each vertically and horizontally, though I wouldn’t suggest making an attempt to pack it horizontally as a result of it is extremely very tough to get out. The identical can be true of the Garcia bear canister.

It’s also possible to carry a bear canister on high of the roll-top. The pack comes with an extended webbing strap that runs over the roll high to supply 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 may well 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 vast 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 straps in the primary compartment. You may take away it to save lots of weight, however it should scale back the snug weight carrying capability of the pack from 35 kilos to 25 kilos, so I simply depart it in on a regular basis.

New for the Crown3 is an elective body keep ($12.95) weighing 2.65 oz / 75 g, that may be slotted into the plastic framesheet that provides an extra 8 kilos to the pack’s max advisable load score, bringing it as much as 43 lbs. The keep is just appropriate with the Crown3 60 body sheet. The keep is sized based mostly on the torso size of your backpack, so be sure to purchase the appropriate dimension. It’s very helpful once I must do prolonged water carries with 5-6L of water for dry tenting or once I want to hold snowshoes and additional winter traction gear.

The Crown3 doesn’t have an adjustable torso size however the males’s (unisex) and girls’s fashions can be found in a variety of sizes.

• Unisex:  Quick Torso = 15-18″; Common Torso = 18-21″; Lengthy Torso = 21-24″
• Ladies’s: Quick Torso = 15-18″; Common Torso = 18-21″

The Crown3 does nonetheless have an adjustable size hip belt, so you possibly can dial in an ideal customized match and nonetheless have the ability to attain the hip belt pockets. To regulate the hip belt size, you pull the hip belt out of the pack and fold the 2 halves collectively on the indicated measurement, which is closed with velcro. Getting a superb hip belt match, the place the belt rides in your hip bones, is admittedly exhausting for folks and really tough with out an adjustable size hip belt like this. The hip belt is obtainable in a Unisex and Ladies’s mannequin: the latter has a extra conical form to suit feminine hips.

Shoulder Straps

The shoulder straps on the Crown3 have daisy chains sewn to the skin which makes it very simple to connect accent pockets, clip-on gear like a Garmin inReach, or a water bottle sleeve to them. Additionally they function anchor factors for the 2 sternum straps that include the Crown3 and are supposed to emulate vest-style packs. I eliminated the second sternum strap and solely use one. And eventually, the Crown 3 comes with two pairs of elastic cords/w cordlocks that can be utilized to droop small bottles of water from the pack straps. I like aspect water bottle pockets higher so I’ve additionally eliminated these from the 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 12 months spherical and for a number of sports activities, the Granite Gear Crown3 60L has no equal. The identical was true of the Crown2 60 and the Crown2 38, as effectively.

For instance, the entrance and either 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 aspect of a pack and gained’t freeze up in winter.

Fanny Pack Configuration

There are additionally some precious cost-saving options on the Crown3 that you need to pay additional for when buying different backpacks. Along with its two giant hip belt pockets, you possibly can mix the highest lid with the hip belt to make a really good fanny pack, and one which has the additional advantage of hip belt pockets.

You simply have to tug out the hip belt, unclip the highest lid, and safe the highest lid buckles across the hip belt. I didn’t point out it above, however the high lid pocket has inside dividers within the Crown3, making it simpler to maintain issues separate when saved inside. That actually helps when the highest lid is used as a fanny pack pocket. And having giant hip belt pockets on a fanny pack is simply priceless. Choose pockets are crying.

Chest Pocket Configuration

It’s also possible to redeploy the highest lid as a chest pocket by attaching its entrance webbing straps to the gear loop alongside every shoulder strap. I used to be a bit of skeptical once I first noticed this, but it surely seems to be fairly helpful and simple to disengage or re-engage if you wish to take off or put the pack again on.

I exploit a entrance pocket all winter (an previous Thriller Vary Moist Rib – now not made) and I like this one which is greater and higher. It’s very handy for carrying maps and navigational assist, gloves, hats, and meals. It’s also possible to spend massive bucks on pockets like this, however having one included with the Crown3 is one other massive worth add.

Suggestion

Backpacking gear has gotten actually costly, arguably too costly, however the Granite Gear Crown3 60 may be very competitively priced for an ultralight backpack ($220), particularly if you issue within the added storage (hip belt pockets, fanny pack, and chest pocket) that different producers cost an arm and a leg for. In the event you’re in search of a light-weight backpack that can be utilized year-round and simply personalized for a variety of journeys, the Crown3 is admittedly exhausting to beat.

Chief variations between the Crown2 and Crown3

• Non-obligatory Body Keep
• Fanny pack configuration
• Chest pocket configuration
• Lengthy high webbing strap

Make sure to try the white, un-dyed model of the Crown3 60, which is fairly cool trying and reduces manufacturing water waste by 55%.

Disclosure: Granite Gear donated a backpack for this evaluate.

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