Just arrived at OM Mansions is the latest Osprey Stratos 26 daypack which, along with the rest of the Stratos range has been completely overhauled for summer 2010.
The original Stratos sat somewhere below the Atmos in the Osprey range and was aimed at all-round walking use, however it was slightly pedestrian in a hard to describe way – it kind of felt like the poor country cousin to the slick Atmos - but also, in our experience anyway, the alloy frame had a tendency to dig into the side of your lower back.
So the first thing we did when got the new Atmos out of the box was load it up and try it on. And the good news is that first impressions are that the new version is appreciably more comfortable with the Airspeed back system, which combines a tramponlene mesh and alloy rod frame sitting comfortably against our back and transferring load seamlessly, rather like th original Atmos in fact.
And there's nothing poverty spec about the pack's features either. It has all the mod cons you expect from Osprey and a few more for good measure. So you get belt pockets, a neat shoulder strap pocket, two lid pockets, side stretch pockets with compression straps that go either over or under and Osprey's innovative Stow On The Go trekking pole holder system. There's also a stowed rain cover sitting at the base of the pack under the distinctive Osprey logo.
What you don't get are fancy, ventilated closed-cell foam straps – as seen on Osprey's Hydraulics range and the Atmos series – and at 1150 grammes, it's not super-lightweight, though it's not exactly insanely heavy either.
We chose the 26-litre version for review because with modern lightweight kit, it's quite capable of carrying everything you need for a summer day walking on the hills. Oh, and we love the cactus greeen colour.
Price for the Stratos 26 is £75, which isn't cheap, but reflects the massive feature list and excellent build quality. An Atmos 35 would cost you around £25 more.
Full review to follow. More information at www.ospreypacks.com.
