Customer Reviews

High Peak Pocatello 70 Liter Internal Frame Backpack

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm one who think that good things shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. This pack has some very nice features that the $200.00+ packs have. Bellows pockets. Plenty of room for the sleeping bag, bunches of space, easy zippers, a rain cover and is fully adjustable in all the right places.

Cons: It's a bit heavy at 5.5lbs ..but I've seen quite a few of the more expensive packs at the same weight. Also the bottle pockets aren't easy to reach with the pack on and loaded ...can be done but not easy.

I've paid more and had fewer features than this pack. Not a bad buy at all ...now I'm off to the Cascades for a good season of testing!

Fall Update:
After a summer backpacking around the Washington Wilderness areas, I would still have to say that this pack was a good buy. Plenty of room and easy to get to everything. So much room! Although a summer of backpacking sure helped point out the bad parts, two of them mainly: The back is heavy and it doesn't completely sit on your back well. The contour allows air to the back which is nice but it is as if the lumbar support is off a bit ..a little to low mainly.

At the same time, the pros outweighed the cons enough so that I didn't go back to my old pack which is *much* lighter with better padding and I used this pack through the whole 2006 season.

I took this pack on safari and basically kicked the crap out of it. It was great. Enough pockets to keep your stuff separate, but not so many that you couldn't remember where you put things. Very comfortable, and easy to reach the straps to adjust the pack. I carried water separately, so I can't comment on the other reviewer's issue with the water pockets.

I was uincredibly impressed with this pack. It was very affordable compared to all the other packs I looked at online but since it got such great reviews from others I decided to take a gamble and get it for our backpacking trip around Costa Rica. The pack has tons of different storage pockets so that you can organize things and reach them easily (my boyfriend's much pricier bag was just one giant tube which he had to unpack and repack to find things), there is also a zipper down the side of the main pack to reack things at the bottom without unpacking the whole bag. My favorite pat was that when the whoe thing is zipped up and buckled none of the pockets can be reached without unbuckling the bag so I didn't have to worry about pickpocketers getting into the bag while it was on my back in crouded streets, bus stations, etc. It held up very well for being packed very tightly and on the move for 2 plus weeks.

I bought this backpack for my Boy Scout and he loves it! Very roomy. He can fit his sleeping bag, sleeping mat, tent, mess kit, food, clothes, toiletries, and water very comfortably. Very light weight and is well supported on his body. Love the back adjuster for various body sizes. I would recommend this for any Boy Scout for hiking and camping.

Bag is strong & tough!
I used it for 10 consecutive days and had no problems with it.
There are so many different pockets for organization.
The clips are strong.
The padding on the back is flexible and adjustable to your size (s-xl).
Great buy.

First of all let me say I am extremely happy with this purchase. For what I was paying I did not expect to get such a nice backpack. Keep in mind I have not used this pack in real world conditions, nor have I filled it to capacity and worn it around to see how it performs. It does seem to have quality construction, and for the price you cant afford to not buy one. Im glad I bought this pack for my first one instead of spending three times as much on a pack that would probably be just a little bit better. If you buy this pack you automatically save enough money to buy things to fill it with. Here are my pros and cons.

Pros: More pockets than you can shake a stick at, seriously pockets for everything and pockets everywhere. Nice Rain fly location right at the bottom of the pack, which is a good location because if you put it away wet it wont get other pockets wet, whereas on other packs the rain fly pocket is at the top. Comfortable to wear, with lots of great padding. Plenty of straps so you can pack the pack full of things and strap it all nice and secure. The Price!

Cons: The sleeping bag compartment at the bottom of the bag is a bit small. I bought a +15 degree sleeping bag and it just barely fits. I was going to buy a -20 degree sleeping bag but now I am glad I didn't because there isn't a chance it would've fit. So, I don't recommend this pack for people who have thick sleeping bags. I am not happy with the water bottle holders because now that my sleeping bag is jammed into its compartment the water bottle holders are not as big.

I bought 2 of these backpacks to travel to Australia for 2 weeks. We packed 2 weeks of clothing in the packs and no straps or zippers gave way. They survived the baggage handlers, the baggage transportation system, and daily use without any damage. The zippers worked without fail. The straps held under continued use. The rain fly imbedded in the pack held the water back. This is a great travel backpack!

We bought this for our 21 year old son and it has all the features that he hoped for and more! I was happy that it was adjustable so I didn't need to know his exact measurements and he was thrilled with all of the features and storage. He was especially surprised and impressed that the rain cover is included! He has shown it off and compared it to everyone!!

This review is rather meaningless since I received it just a few days ago and haven't taken it out yet, but here's just first impressions: as a low cost bag that's a little dated, this should work just fine. It's missing a lot of features I would have liked (e.g. hydration pack, removable day pack, water-proof seems and zippers, additional cinching straps, pass-through's for the side pockets). And one thing missing from this and almost every pack is molle webbing. I realize this adds a military feel, but molle webbing is really useful.

There's an interesting design for an ice pick carrier. It may be a common design, but basically there are two looped straps at the front-base of the pack, and aligned vertically, there are two cinching straps around halfway up the pack between each side pocket and the main pack. You apparently drop the handle of the ice pick through the base loop so it's just dangling, then swing up the handle and cinch it to the cinch strap. Since there's a set of loop/cinch straps on either side, I guess you can pick which side you want it on, or maybe it's to carry two ice picks....dunno. There are some additional loops that are difficult to see in the image, but are located at the front of the pack just above the sleeping bag section by the orange colored tabs. Not as useful as molle webbing, but at least it's something.

It does include a rain cover, which is semi-useful, tho personally I'll replace it with a backpack covering poncho since the rain cover would allow rain to get in along the back and then seep into the backpack from the back.

As an expedition pack, it may be an entry level model, but it IS an expedition pack, meaning it's built tough and designed to last. The material is thick denier on the bottom and fairly tough materials throughout. This bag will not fall apart from you or rip easily when walking through any sort of brush. It's tough, and that's something to like. It's also a lot cheaper than a lot of other bags out there. As a bag that will last and last, you couldn't do much better on price than this bag.

It's a top loader, which a lot of people don't like as much these days, but that's nothing to scoff at, and only adds to the overall toughness of the main compartment.

The top flap has two pockets stacked vertically with plenty of space. The lower pocket zips along the back and holds the rain cover. The upper pocket zips along the front and there's plenty of space in there. It could hold an old fashioned mess kit, maps, valuables and still have room to spare. The main section is fairly large and does have a zippered bottom which opens to the sleeping bag section (also pretty big, big enough to hold a 20 degree sleeping back, tarp, and all tent fabrics). You could also undo that zippered flap and have one super long compartment. In front of the main compartment are two pockets, one is very large, and accessed from above (big enough to hold a folded 5 gallon plastic container with room to spare). The front-most pocket is unorthodox, the zipper runs vertically opening to what I think is a valuables section for easy access. There's an additional elastic mesh pocket to prevent smaller contents from spilling out. I'm not sure why this design was chosen. The large pockets on each side of the main bag are much more spacious than I expected. I've got tons of toiletries and extensive first aid kit plus rope and duct tape in one pocket, and the other holds an emergency fuel gel folding stove, my GSR minimalist plus alcohol stove, extra soup tin with holes for starting wood fires, dry tinder, tons of batteries (just in case), and my ultralight knee pads. I still wish there were pass-through's between these side pockets and the main bag (ideal for trekking poles, or a hatchet) but still oh well.

The shoulder strap system is pretty cool. You can adjust it up or down in intervals of about an inch and change or so, from small to XL. The shoulder straps have additional cinching straps to pull the top of the back closer to minimize movement. Like with many packs, the hip belt is removable. In my short trekking tests, it worked just fine. I can't remember the name of the buckle technology but supposedly it's tougher than normal plastic buckles...we'll see. Incidentally, make sure to cinch everything down before you walk and make sure you adjust the torso properly. In my first hiking test, I notice the top of the bag moved incessantly unless I cinched everything down so tight things started to hurt and I worries about breaking the straps at the seams. Then I realized that my torso length required a higher setting and once this was done, the pack settled nicely without over-tightening any straps and was comfortable to walk with with minimal pressure on my shoulders. In fact, though many of you may find this normal, it was a big surprise to me just how big of a difference the fatigue would be when the waist belt could could carry all the weight and the should straps acted only to balance the top. A pleasant surprise. My final test hike was 6 miles and my shoulders felt surprisingly pain free.

For an almost laughably low price, you'll get one seriously tough pack that won't (I should say shouldn't since I haven't gone out with it yet) break down on you while in the field. And frankly, while I didn't want to pay a lot, I also wasn't going to give up on ruggedness of the bag. So if that's more important than all the other features, go for this bag. Even if you decide to get another one in the future, this bag is tough enough to last forever and hang around as a back-up back, bug-out bag, or a loaner if a friend ever needs one.

This is a great backpack and used in for a 7 day trip in NY state park over rugged terrain. It has an attached rain fly that came in handy to keep the whole pack dry. Great for the price and zippers are sturdy and the many pockets is fabulous. The inside compartment unzips internally to allow for a longer storage area. The only interesting thing was that the pictures on Amazon show a detachable hip sack. It is true that the hip/waist straps come completely out of the pack but there is no detacable sack that I found. I think this is either sold separatly or was missing from mine. Either way this is a great value and useful backpack. You'll like it.