I was thinking about picking up a GoLite Gust to use as a replacement for my (heavy) 60 litre hiking pack, but only if I could use it as a daysack to pop up the hills as well. Does anyone know whether its suitable for this multi-purpose role, or is it just too spartan to carry small loads without them jangling about on my back all day?

Personal I think it would be to big to use as a daysack. The Gust is roughly 65/70 litres and a roll top and the roll top would need to roll down a long way with just day gear. I found it to big for a 4 day backpacking trip.

BW

If you get one with the 4 tie on points on each side, you can run a piece of cord between them to make compression straps and make it much more manageable. Not all of them have this. I've successfully used mine like this as a daysack and its fine.

Alternatively, unless you need a huge backpacking sack, the Jam is a slightly better design and a bit smaller.

The current Gust has the 4 tie points so if you were to get one from the likes of Hike-lite.co.uk, 1Outdoors.co.uk or Backpackinglight.co.uk you should be fine, it's a hell of a big pack with just the single in built compression strap accross the frount, jam is a cracking pack and i'd recomend it but you obviously loose on capacity. any of the guys at the above stores would talk to you about the sacks

Thanks to everyone who talked through this problem; it really helped me. I've balanced all (and brought all to mind) and finally plumped for the Jam. I picked it up from 1Outdoors.co.uk a few weeks ago and I have to say I'm very impressed - with everything! It seems fairly huge to me (the Gust must be massive - what on earth must people pack?), but when compressed down it's filled in nicely as a daysack in that time. Better though, it's replaced my 60 litre backpacking sack for fast and light weekend jollies. Less capacity means I pack less, packing less means it weighs less, weighing less means I go further/climb higher/skip and jump around more. I can highly recommend the Jam then - I guess I'll wait until winter to see if I'll need the Gust.

More importantly I must mention how great James at 1Outdoors is - the very best customer service I've experienced from any retailer anywhere; web, outdoors or otherwise. Huge kudos to him and his excellent website.