The new Granite Gear Virga3 55L (2023) is a frameless ultralight rolltop backpack with an adjustable torso size and adjustable size hipbelt, that’s out there in a number of torso ranges, in unisex (males’s) and ladies’s fashions. The unisex males’s model reviewed right here weighs 26.9 ounceswith a hipbelt and 19 ouncesstripped with out one. Being frameless it has a most really helpful carry weight of 25 lbs, which provides you a multi-day vary if you happen to pack fastidiously and use light-weight backpacking gear.
Specs at a Glance
- Gender: Unisex (Women’s mannequin additionally out there)
- Type: Frame-less
- Adjustable Torso Length/Width: Yes
- Adjustable Length Hipbelt: Yes, as much as waists 52″
- Full Weight: 1.68 lbs
- Minus Hipbelt: 1.18 lbs
- Load Lifters: Yes
- Pockets: 3 Open
- Hydration Compatible: Yes
- Ice Axe/Trekking Pole Loops: 2
- Colors: White (undyed) or Grey/Red
- Materials: 100D and 210D Robic nylon
- Bear Canister Compatibility: A BV475 suits horizontally inside; a BV500 vertically.
- Max Recommended Load: 25 lbs
- For full specs and sizes, go to Granite Gear
Why a 55L Frameless Backpack?
When I began utilizing this backpack, I needed to ask myself why anybody would need a high-volume frameless backpack that had a most gear weight of 25 lbs. It is an efficient query, particularly since including a perimeter-style wire body would solely improve the pack weight by just a few ounces extra, however might simply improve its load-carrying capability by 50% to 100%. It’s not just like the previous days, the place including a body or a body keep would add way more weight to a backpack than one with out.
Here are just a few explanation why you would possibly select the Virga3 55L over different ultralight backpacks:
- Cost: With an MSRP of $200, the Virga3 55L is far inexpensive than many different ultralight backpacks, which have turn out to be outrageously costly. Leaving the body out assist retains the retail price even decrease. Doing so lets Granite Gear introduce ultralight backpacking to a a lot bigger viewers, which is one among their said aims.
- Sizing: The torso and hipbelt adjustability, sizing vary, and gender-specific fashions of the Virga3 55L are fairly distinctive amongst ultralight backpacks, that are predominantly designed for younger, skinny males. If you’re like most individuals over the age of 25, you’ll welcome the inclusive sizing supplied within the Virga3 55L.
- Flexibility: The Virga3 55L’s compression system makes it straightforward to shrink the pack quantity if it’s not wanted. For instance, you’ll be able to simply shrink the quantity all the way down to 40L if that’s all you want. You can’t try this with an ultralight backpack with a set quantity of 30 or 40 liters. For instance, if you happen to’re attempting out ultralight backpacking and also you’re slowly decreasing your gear weight and quantity, having a backpack that may span a number of volumes is a giant plus.
- Minimalism: If you embrace a minimalist philosophy, a frameless ultralight pack will most likely enchantment to you a couple of with a body. It actually forces you to stroll the stroll.
Backpack Storage and Organization
The Virga3 55L is a roll-top backpack arrange in traditional ultralight fashion with two aspect water bottle pockets and a entrance stretch mesh pocket. It has higher and decrease compression straps on three sides, not two, which is a signature characteristic of most Granite Gear backpacks and is available in enormously useful when you need to carry cumbersome gear like a folding foam pad, snowshoes, or a cumbersome multi-person tent that received’t match simply contained in the pack.
The roll high clips collectively on high of the pack and there’s a perpendicular high strap that holds it down. If desire utilizing a roll high that connects to the aspect of the pack slightly than the highest as a result of it gives higher clearance and compression, you’ll be able to connect the roll high clips to the clips on the higher compression strap overlaying the entrance stretch mesh pocket. This eliminates any additional webbing straps and is a properly executed design characteristic.
There’s no Y-strap on high of the pack, which is one thing you discover on packs designed to hold a bear canister outdoors and on high of the primary compartment, one thing that will most likely overload a backpack like this and make it unmanageable. If you need to carry a canister anyway, it’s most likely greatest to pack it contained in the Virga3 55L as an alternative: a BV500 suits vertically, whereas a BV475 and smaller will match horizontally in the primary compartment.
The aspect pockets are deep and may maintain two Smartwater bottles. They have a shock twine adjustment working alongside the highest so you’ll be able to pull the pockets tight to maintain the bottles from falling out. The lower-side compression strap may also run by means of the aspect pocket or over it, so you’ll be able to nonetheless have compression even when the pocket itself is full. The pack is hydration suitable with a middle hose port though there’s only a toggle inside to hold a reservoir and never a reservoir pocket.
Being frameless, the Virga 55L requires a special packing technique than a backpack with a body. In order to present the pack some stiffness so it received’t collapse once you’re packing it and to pad your again so the gear inside doesn’t poke you, it has high and backside pad pockets inside the primary compartment, behind the shoulder straps. These are designed to suit a folding foam pad like a Therm-a-Rest Zlite Sol sleeping pad.
There are a few caveats to this. You’re most likely going to need to minimize down a foam Therm-a-Rest Zlite Sol to 4 or six sections. Otherwise, the pad will probably be too thick and it received’t match into the pack pockets supplied. For instance, an entire NEMO Switchback received’t match within the pad pockets. In addition, utilizing a pad that’s too thick may also push your load farther away out of your again and core muscle groups and make it really feel heavier.
Once you get a pad into these pockets, it’s greatest to go away it there and never take it out and put it again in each time you need to use it. I discovered it very ungainly to do that, not like packs which have exterior pad sleeves just like the Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60, the place it’s trivial to tug the pad out to make use of it to sit down down once you need a relaxation. Unless you’ll be able to sleep on 4 sections of a Zlite Sol, this implies you’re most likely going to need to carry the lacking sections of the Zlite Sol to place underneath your torso and put the Virga3 55L underneath your legs once you fall asleep at evening. That’s fairly frequent really. That or carry a separate full-length pad with you.
Once packed, the Zlite foam pad will flatten out in opposition to your again, so long as you don’t overstuff the backpack. Since it’s frameless, the Virga3 55 tends to barrel if you happen to pack the primary compartment too tightly. This is to be anticipated and the norm for a frameless backpack. It takes slightly experimentation to pack a frameless backpack, however generally, you need to pack your gear considerably looser than in a framed pack with a stiffer again panel.
While the Virga3 is rated as a 55L pack, it feels a lot bigger than that if you happen to depend the extension collar. In the previous Granite Gear solely counted the primary compartment of their quantity specs and never the extension collar or the open pockets on the outside of the pack, so the pack has a minimum of 55L of capability, and possibly extra like 65L. It’s large for a frameless backpack. Huge.
Backpack Suspension and Hipbelt
The Virga3 55L has an adjustable torso size so you’ll be able to size or shorten the torso to suit higher. This is completed by elevating or decreasing the shoulder straps that are hooked up to daisy chains behind the shoulder straps. Granite Gear has thoughtfully marked the torso size similar to the positions in inches so you’ll be able to simply reposition the straps utilizing the gated buckles that join them to the daisy chains.
Frameless backpacks with adjustable torso lengths are fairly uncommon, as a result of frankly, torso size isn’t as necessary as in a backpack with a body the place the hipbelt does the majority of the carrying. It doesn’t harm to have an adjustable torso on a frameless backpack, particularly one as elegant and light-weight as this one, however you’ll be able to simply carry 25 lbs in your shoulders, in order that facet is a nice-to-have, not essential.
That stated the actual worth of the adjustable torso on this backpack is the truth that you’ll be able to modify the width of the shoulder straps. That in my thoughts the actual worth of the adjustability on this pack. It’s additionally an actual drawback, particularly with vest-style packs the place one measurement suits all sizing doesn’t work nicely throughout a variety of chest widths and depths for women and men. Granite Gear has all the time had some backpacks the place you’ll be able to modify the width of the shoulder straps, in order that they’re conversant in this challenge and the best way to tackle it.
In addition to adjustability, the shoulder straps on the Virga3 55L are S-shaped which most women and men discover comfy. They have daisy chains sewn to the entrance, so you’ll be able to connect bottle sleeves or pockets to them when you’ve got ones you already desire. Alternatively, the pack comes with 4 elastic bottle keeper cords that you should use to connect smaller ridged bottles to the shoulder straps. I like my very own third celebration pockets higher.
The shoulder straps include two sternum straps so you’ll be able to switch extra of the load off your shoulders and onto your higher chest, considerably just like the vest straps which can be showing increasingly more on lower-volume packs. This is completely non-compulsory nonetheless and you’ll simply take away one of many sternum straps if you would like a extra conventional really feel.
The hipbelt, just like the shoulder straps, is adjustable when it comes to size, so you will get match. It’s additionally fully detachable and simply held in place with velcro if you happen to determine to not use it. Since this can be a frameless pack, the hipbelt is doing much less load carrying than your shoulders, so its actual worth is twofold: it retains the pack near your torso so it received’t throw you off steadiness and it has pockets. The pockets are literally fairly giant and handy to make use of with ample area for snacks or electronics.
Alternative High-Volume Frameless Backpacks
What different frameless, high-volume backpacks can be found?
You may also get a backpack with a detachable body or body keep and use it like a frameless backpack. For instance,
- The Granite Gear Crown3 60 liter pack has a detachable body sheet and high lid which lowers its weight to 32.6 oz. It prices $240 and is kind of comparable in design to the Virga3 55.
- There are different high-volume ultralight packs made by Hyperlite Mountain Gear, like their 3400 collection (55L) packs, however they’re way more costly costing $375 and up since they’re made with Dyneema DCF.
Recommendation
The frameless Granite Gear Virga3 55L can be utilized for quite a lot of mountain climbing and outside journeys so long as you retain your pack weight underneath 25 kilos. I get a kick out of utilizing the brand new white undyed coloring, though there are additionally many examples of hikers who’ve illustrated their packs with colourful designs on Granite Gear’s Instagram Feed.
There are just a few explanation why you would possibly like this backpack as an alternative of a smaller-volume frameless backpack or one with a body. With an MSRP of $200, the Virga3 55L is kind of reasonably priced in comparison with different common frameless backpacks (see 10 Best Frameless backpacks), particularly these made with Dyneema Composite Fabrics or Ultra. If you need to strive ultralight backpacking, the Virga3 55L is an efficient starter pack to experiment with. It’s additionally amazingly light-weight for its quantity, but additionally straightforward to compress if that quantity just isn’t required. This is especially helpful if you happen to’re going by means of the method of changing heavier backpacking gear with lighter extra compressible options that require much less quantity. Finally, when it comes to sizing, the Virga3 55L actually covers the bases in the case of becoming all kinds of individuals throughout all genders, shapes, and sizes. There’s little question that the Virga3 55L is a way more inclusive backpack that may assist extra folks get pleasure from the advantages of ultralight backpacking than a lot of the different frameless backpacks out there at the moment.
Disclosure: Granite Gear donated a backpack for assessment.
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