Pa'lante V2

“9.5lb baseweight is not too much. I have the regular Pa'lante V2 and recently did a trip where I carried minimum 1 gallon and at most 2 gallons of water. I'd have a gallon container inside my pack vertical against my back and the rest in side pockets. It felt fine. I also have a regular Cutaway. Apparently they make larger volume Cutaways now. The regular one is much smaller than the V2, which is smaller than the Desert pack. The packs are fairly similar in that they're just a basic pack with a rolltop. The Pa'lante seems to me like it rides low on my back and sort of wants to fall away from my back, and the shape of the main compartment is larger at the top so it holds more stuff at the top than the bottom which makes it sound like it wouldn't ride low, but it does. The Cutaway is pretty much the same size top to bottom and doesn't feel like it rides low. I don't know if that's a function of the length of the straps or what. Plusses of the Cutaway over the Pa'lante: 1. The straps. Very comfortable, good useful pockets on the straps. The Pa'lante strap pockets aren't quite as good, especially for a water bottle. A water bottle will be right in your face. The Nashville pockets keep the water bottle out of your face. 2. The large uni-pocket. You really can reach all the way into it to the back, at least on the regular size. That big pocket has some stretch to it and can hold quite a bit as needed. Plusses of the Pa'lante over the Cutaway (in my opinion): 1. The bottom pocket with side entry I think is better than user-side entry. When the pack is full and heavy I just cannot get into the user-side entry. I can always get into the side entry. Pa'lante does a good job of making the opening of the bottom pocket not a gaping hole where stuff will fall out. It's also a much larger bottom pocket than the Cutaway so you can put more stuff in there. The trash port is nice, too. 2. One advantage to having 3 separate outer pockets rather than a big uni-pocket is that when the pack is empty the 3 pockets don't turn into a shapeless blob for your stuff to fall out.”