Black Diamond Mission 50 Backpack

Worth every cent!
March 02, 2011

All around excellent pack. I just used this pack for a weekend in the White mountains. I used it for ice cragging and for a Mt. Washington summit with overnight stay. It cinches down well to hold small amounts and expands amazingly to hold your larger overnight loads. I actually fit more into this pack than I could a friend's 65ltr bag. It utilizes the space very well and doesn't have unusable pockets when the bag is totally full. It carries the weight like a dream. The shape of the bag helps with this, but could also force you to put too much weight up top. This bag is excellent for climbing. It has ice clipper attachments and gear loops on the waist strap. I haven't rigged it up yet, but feel like this pack's waist strap will be excellent for pulling a sled. My only complaints are: I'm 6'2" 180lbs and got a size large bag. It fits my frame well, but without any layers on I could cinch the waist strap all the way down. So it could stand to not be so big. The ice tool pockets are awesome, but they seem to be designed specifically for BD tools. It took a little effort to get my Petzl quarks into them. I found it easier to put the tools in before loading the rest of the bag. This is the one exception to my above comment. All in all I fell in love with this pack. It seems sturdy and has really robust, but light materials. I can't wait to get many more trips out of this pack!