Osprey  Atmos AG 50 Pack - Men's

The pack gets a 5; REI’s in store service gets a 4. With a 20-inch torso, I fall into the gray area between a large and medium. A year ago, I bought last year’s version of the pack at an REI store; the staff person who fitted me said I should use a medium (I suspect that might have been partially motivated by the fact that they were out of size large.) “It’ll be fine; fits you like a glove.” Except that it didn’t: the pack kept riding up above my hips, even at the longest setting. It also creaked and “crunched.” I returned it, and had been using a Deuter ACT model, but wasn’t completely satisfied with it. So, a year later, at my local independent shop (one of the 10 Osprey Pro Shops in the country), they fit me into a large Atmos AG 50. I just finished my first trip with it, and am thrilled. In fairness to REI, the AG suspension is a bit tricky to get set up properly, so that plus the wrong torso length may have resulted in a flukes fit for me. Moral of the story: make sure you get the right size, and if you’re also in that gray area where sizes overlap, try on both sizes to see which really fits better. (By the way, the medium pack cover fits the small and medium packs very well; it does not fit the size large - the extra 2 liters of volume mean you need the size large pack cover.) Now, about the pack. This is, hands down, the second-most comfortable pack I’ve ever worn. (The most comfortable was a Dana Design Terraplane I had 15 years ago. It’s still made, under the Mystery Ranch label. It made 80 pounds ride like 40. Luckily, I’ve outgrown that nonsense, and now carry 20-30 pounds, based on the season and length of trip.) The AG suspension lives up to its name. It’s more like putting on a comfortable jacket than strapping on a backpack. The load rides firmly on my hips, in a luxuriously padded hipbelt that tightens down smoothly, and stays put (no welts or bruises on the hips.) I haven’t used the Fit on the Fly extension yet, but may use it to extend the padded portion of the hipbelt another inch or two on either side; I haven’t decided, but it’s good to know it’s an option. I’ve never felt the weight shift from my hips to my shoulders (unless I purposely do so.) The shoulder straps wrap around my shoulders without any gapping, and the load lifters can be set to pull that last little bit of weight completely off your shoulders. All in all, I’ve never worn a better suspension. Now that we’ve dealt with the most important part of the pack, let’s look at the features. I find the pack has just the right number, type, and size pockets to let me pack all the need-it-during-the-day stuff on the outside of the pack; I never need to dig into the main compartment to get anything on the trail. (The pack doesn’t have an outside access to the main compartment, but with the setup of the pockets, it doesn’t need it.) The hipbelt pockets are actually large enough to hold a small camera, or lunch and snacks. I didn’t have any issues opening or closing them while wearing the pack (of course, I didn’t stuff them full, either.) The side pockets are a stretchy mesh, and hold my water filter on one side, and my Nalgene bottle on the other. The double-entry feature lets me store my water bottle at an angle, where I can access it and replace it without taking off the pack (there’s a little pull loop that you can use to hold it open while you replace the water bottle.) However, if you use a Platypus bottle or Nalgene Cantene, you may not be quite so happy. They are an inch or two taller than a Nalgene bottle, and extend forward just enough that you might bang your elbow as your arms swing. The shove-it pocket is generously sized, and also stretchy mesh. The double compartments in the lid also work great. The larger one holds a fair amount of gear (for me, a rain jacket, rain pants, pack cover, and gloves.) The smaller one is perfect for things I won’t need the entire trip: car keys, cell phone, and wallet. In a really thoughtful touch, Osprey put the key clip in this smaller pocket (in previous years, it was in the larger compartment. The main compartment has a semi-removable divider you can use to create a sleeping bag compartment (there’s also a zipper that lets you access this compartment from outside the pack. As a personal preference, I don’t use this feature, and simply load my bag into the bottom of the pack and then pack everything else on top of it. So, I undo the webbing straps from the buckles on one side of the pack, and let the divider flap fold down along the sewn side, out of the way. The 2018 version of the pack also features sleeping pad straps on the outside of the pack, across the sleeping bag compartment access. While I don’t strap things to the outside of my pack (another personal preference), I do like these straps, and don’t remove them. I can tighten them to take some of the stress off the zipper on that compartment. (If it would fail, the straps would also hold the compartment closed until the trip was over.) All in all, I may have just found my “forever” pack. I really can’t think of any improvements that are needed.

I am so disappointed. I ignored the reviews that mentioned the irritating squeak. Osprey sent us a 4 paragraph email, giving instructions of how to possibly remove the squeak. They were also apologetic and tried to work with us, and said if the attempts to fix it did not work, we could return it. My wife and I have owned a couple of Osprey backpacks that we have absolutely LOVED so we know this is an exception. We wish there was another option with Osprey and we'd go with it, but we need a 50 so we can't. We will continue to buy Osprey in the future, just not this one. Sadly it has to go back.