June 2026

Intro

For a good while we've had a number of ~20L "days packs" cued up for testing. The problem is we've not found time to test them. So, providing genuine, thorough reviews of small packs when our focus is on long distance treks has become tricky.

Context

Back in the day, we were interested in day packs that could double as side pouches / pods on larger backpacks, allowing users on long treks (punctuated by short stays) to leave their large pack at camp and switch to their 20L pack for short round-trips. However, a) this isn't really how we go about things, and b) with the design and introduction of the 11L Towers, we've largely abandoned the "day pack as side pouch" approach.

The Dragonfly attached to the Predator30 mothership (in power supply mode)

Moving On

Over time, we've moved to more lightweight climbing packs with larger capacities as we've extended our range on unsupported treks. As you can see in the image above, we have a 30L Karrimor SF Predator with an 18L side pouch in the form of a Blue Ice Dragonfly.  Nowadays, we tend to use one or two Towers (depending on the season) to supplement 40L or 50L packs.

The Crux AX50 and an Electric Peacock PAX Tower doing the heavy lifting. 

Minimum Capacity Consensus

I asked our overseas members what their smallest capacity packs were that saw regular use on serious treks:

• The lowest capacity pack among the group was 30L.
• My lowest capacity pack is Blue Ice's 32L Wadi (which will be tested this summer).

And that's pretty much going to be the lowest capacity pack we're likely to test (as long as it can be comfortably extended). For example, this summer the Wadi will be paired with a modified Savotta 12L vertical pouch (on the Wadi's front face) and a Scramble Tower in horizontal mode (across the top, where a rope would normally go).  I've added some shoulder strap padding reinforcements just in case.  So the Wadi goes from 32L to 55L and will handle 12 days of unsupported trekking (hopefully). The Wadi (designed as a climbing / haul pack hybrid) is very tough (1000D High tenacity Nylon 6.6) as is the Savotta 12L (500D Cordura) and yet this setup with a Tower is not much over a kilo.

Sub 40L Special Mention Post

All this is to say, that going forward we're going to drop the "Lightweight (<400g) ~20L Pack (+ Side Pouch)" and instead have a more general "Special Mention" post that covers interesting packs whose native capacity is under 40L. Such a post may, for example mention ~20L packs like:

• Blue Ice's 18L Dragonfly (the current 210D Nylon 6.6  - Blue Ice went through a bad patch between 2019-2022 but have since recovered their design mojo)
• Mountain Hardwear's UL20 (210D high tenacity Cordura) - similarly packable to Blue Ice's original Dragonfly 18L, and
• Blue Ice's Wadi 32, if it lives up to expectations

But such a post will be more of a heads-up than detailed review.  We still have our views on such packs (especially on their design and the materials used), we're just not in a good enough position to back them up with empirical evidence.