Delivering the perfect balance of lightweight construction mixed with load bearing per-formance,
the Osprey Ariel 55 pack is a women’s specific pack that is going to offer you all of the
rigid suspension system that you need, the load carrying capacity at a pretty low weight.
So it is going to be great for multi day adventures.
The first thing to talk about with any backpack is the suspension system and how it car-ries
the load and, in my opinion, that is just the shining feature of this pack.
So as I turn it around here, the Ariel packs come with custom components.
And what I mean by that is you can choose the torso length of the pack specifically
for your torso length.
You can adjust the torso in the shoulder harness once you have the pack and you can choose
the length of the shoulder harness and you can choose the size hip belt.
So you have got three different components going on here.
You can mix and match to get your perfect fit.
So there is no guessing on whether this pack fits you well.
You can order those components and you have that dialed in fit that is pretty unique to
these sort of packs.
Those components are the isoform custom fit components.
They are extremely breathable.
So you have mesh on the inside of the shoulder straps.
You have got mesh on the inside of the hip belt.
They are very nicely padded.
And these shoulder straps are very formed.
They are a women’s specific fit.
The hip belt has curves on it that are going to fit the curves of your body.
And this is just going to deliver a really great fit.
After you wear the pack for multiple days and once you kind of break in these shoulder
straps, they are going to conform to your body and they are actually going to be a custom
fit to you over the life of as you are wearing.
So really great components here, very, very comfortable, well padded and it is that shining
feature of this pack that makes it stand out against the rest.
The rest of the back panel here, you have got Osprey’s airscape back panel that has
a cen-ter chimney here that has spacer mesh on the front of it that is going to allow
warm air to escape.
It is going to keep your back nice and cool.
You do have a frame here.
It is behind the scenes.
It is an aluminum light wire frame that goes around the outside to give it rigidity.
You also have a center aluminum stay in the middle that you can’t see.
So that gives the pack a lot of rigidity.
It transfers the weight to your hips, right where you need it.
And to give it a lightweight feel, you also have an HDPE frame sheet behind the scenes
as well.
So that offers that rigidity, that support that you need.
But it keeps the weight down of the pack.
The other features here on the back.
You can access the hydration sleeve from the out-side.
So this makes it really simple.
You don’t have to take things out of your pack.
You don’t have to open up your pack in order to put that hydration system in there.
And working my way down from the top, obviously, you have got load lifter straps to dial in
that fit.
You have got an adjustable sternum strap that has got a whistle on one side.
On the hip belt, obviously an adjustable hip belt with that webbing there.
And there are even pockets on these hip belts.
So you can store granola bars, maybe a small camera or cell phone of something like that.
This top lid here does have access into the back.
So you can access gear that you want to get your hands on quickly from the back.
And this pack has got lots of pockets and lots of organization.
So we go through and look at the pockets here, it has got really long stretchy, side pockets.
And this is typically where you would see a water bottle pocket.
On this side I have a pair of tent poles just to show you that space.
So this pocket is really long.
It is going to accommodate that.
It has got straps up here that you can really com-press that down.
The compression straps on this side are routed outside of this pocket, but if I turn the
pack to the other side, you can see that I have got a water bottle on this side.
So that pocket is a lot longer, but you can put a water bottle in sideways so you can
ac-cess it really quickly.
That makes it really convenient.
And then you can route the com-pression straps on the inside of that pocket.
That way you can still access that water bot-tle, so really great attentions to detail on this
pack that make a big difference.
It is a top loading pack.
So you have access there into the top.
It has got a floating lid.
So if you don’t have it packed out completely, you can cinch it down like I have here.
Or, if you have a bigger load, you can really adjust that floating lid.
This lid comes off.
It actu-ally turns into a small day pack.
So there is little straps on the inside of that lid that you can either put around your
waist or you can hang over your shoulder.
The top access is really easy to get into the pack here, so really open.
You can access all the gear you need there from the top.
You also have access into this pack with a U shaped or a J shaped zipper here on the
side.
So if I open these compression straps on the front you can see this zipper.
Since it is a pretty big pack, you can access the middle of your pack and get all the gear
you need there.
And then you also have access into the bottom with a lower sleeping bag compartment.
This is a nice big zipper.
And there is actually a divider in there between the lower compartment and the main body.
You can toggle that off or if you have longer pieces of gear that you need to put in there,
you can undo that and just have one big pack.
But really great access into this pack through all of those different ways.
You notice that there were big compression straps on the front here.
The straight jacket compression real-ly makes this pack versatile.
So if you don’t have this packed out completely like I do to-day, you can really cinch that
down and stabilize the load.
There is compression straps on the side and on the bottom and all over the pack.
And even if you have just a really, really small load or you are storing this pack, there
are buckles here on the sides.
So it may look like these buckles don’t lead to anything, but if you have a really
small load you can take this buckle and take it all the way over to this side and really
cinch that down.
So that also makes it very, very versatile.
Right here on the front of the pack you have a stretchy shove it pocket.
I just have a couple of extra layers in there.
So that is a nice, big stretchy pocket.
You can get a lot of gear in there.
And then some last quick features.
You have got stretchy trekking pole loops here or tool loops and then you have got webbing
loops down on the bottom.
This pack can be used in a lot of different ways.
So all of those compression straps on the pack make it really versatile.
With the custom fit, you know that it is fitting you well and you know that this pack is built
specifically for you.
So all of the attentions to detail here are really important.
When you are carrying a heavy load for multiple days on the trail.
It is the Osprey Ariel 55 Women’s Backpack.