Snugpak | Bergen | 100L | Rucksack | Fully Detachable Side Pockets

I appreciate equipment, good equipment and will not hesitate to review the gear I purchase irrespective of good or bad, happy or not. In this case as the "one star" would indicate, I'm neither happy with the equipment nor the Customer Service at Roost Sports (the outside vendor). I was in northern CA when I purchased this pack and when I recieved it I had just gone through a medical proceedure and couldn't use it for a few weeks so didn't open it up for several weeks. Once I did, I was not pleased with the overall stitching of the pack. It was single stitch and wide spaced at that. The material was adequate but light and the zippers were equally adequate. I inspected the pack further and immediately observed a hole where the cinch rain collar meets the pack at the top of the pack opening. You could easily see where the stitches didn't hit that one particular section (approx 1.5 inches) at the back of the pack opening but since that collar is under a bit of pressure when fully loaded, I deduced that it would tear fully if packed. I contacted Amazon to request a return and was told that since the item wasn't covered under the Prime Program I would need to call the vendor. I contacted Roost Sports and spoke with a lady in the Customer Service section. All she could say was that I was beyond the one month window (by about a week) and to go on the internet, find the SnugPak number and give them a call. I asked her if there was any way for them to look at the product and warranty work and she stated flatly that all shipping would have to be done by the purchaser and not the vendor amd that since it was past 30 days they wouldn't handle it. I found her attitude and emphasis strange but figured that she knew what she was doing afterall she was Customer Service. I advised her that I didn't have internet and asked for the number but she wouldn't assist further. I was a bit frustrated at this point. Customer SERVICE being the operative word, I thought I would have received better but alas..I went to a friends house and found the Snugpak webpage and looked up their warranty. The warranty states clearly that any material defect would be immediately addressed and to send the article in question back to the vendor for shipment to Snugpak. It is clear to me now that the vendor didn't want to incur any shipping charges to England and was willing to let a customer sit on a defective product as oppose to spending a few bucks to satisfy a patron. Easy enough, wish granted...I wouldn't purchase "lifes blood" from the Roost Sports if I needed it to survive. If there is only one place to purchase that one piece of kit that you desperately need and it is Roost Sports I suggest reading the very fine print that they will no doubt have drawn up by a league of Lawyers before you push the Buy button.

Edit: I have downgraded my rating for this bag. It will no longer be used for my intended purpose. I had a light piece of trim on the top lid of one of the Rocket pouches just start unraveling for no apparent reason. This trim piece prevents the nylon fabric from unravelling. I found that lack of quality totally unacceptable. The trim piece in question is a flap over the Rocket pouch zipper (the zipper for keeping contents in the pouch), and it does not get a lot of wear or stress. The way the stitching fell apart caused me to lose faith in all other stitching on this bag. This is a no go for me as a backpack has to be able to reliably carry gear. I upgraded my bag to a Karrimor Sabre 60-100 which has a much better build.I have bought a few of these to use as long distance bug out bags. I am pretty impressed with this pack. The bag is made out of a lighter fabric than some other well known brands (511/Maxpedition, etc). The fabric used is 500D nylon. I believe old army issue ALICE packs were made out of 420D nylon. So, I am not too worried about the bag falling apart. Most of the stitching on my packs was good. However, I will mention some minor stitching issues a little later in the review. Although it appeared as if the main seams were only single stitched, I inspected them closer and realized they were double stitched. Snugpak apparently sewed the seam, and they placed a piece of fabric trim over the fabric ends and single stitched the trim piece over the other initial stitch. The second stitch was concealed by the fabric trim, and it was visible when I moved the ends of the trim piece up. As a test of the packs strength, I loaded my bag up to about seventy pounds, and it showed no signs of giving. It was also surprisingly comfortable to wear with that much weight. The pack has an internal frame made out of flat stock aluminum. The frame is a simple light weight aluminum bracket that is in the shape of a giant "U". The frame slips into two sleeves that are sewn into the pack, and it is easy to remove. The frame is not adjustable for length, but it can be removed and bent to the contour of one's back. The back padding is very soft and provides a lot of comfort. The back padding also has a nice ventilation channel to help keep one cool. Even though the padding on the shoulder straps appears thin, they were very comfortable with a lot of weight in the pack. The straps have a little bit of adjustment for length at the top and bottom. There is an adjustable height chest strap that has a little piece of elastic on one side (to give a little expansion for movement). The hip belt rides a little higher on this pack than a traditional waist belt as this pack was designed to be worn with a battle type belt. Some might not like that, but I find it quite comfortable. Also, the pack is very lightweight for its volume. The empty weight of the pack is about 5.5 pounds, and it has more capacity than a large Alice Hellcat pack.The design of this pack is pretty utilitarian. There are not tons of pockets on this bag. Inside of the main compartment is a pouch for about a 100 ounce water bladder. The water bladder pouch is positioned on the left hand side of the pack. I think that is an odd placement due to unbalancing a load, but I am not using the bladder pouch to carry a water bladder. There is one zippered medium sized pocket on the inside of the lid (holds SAS pocket guide, a deck of survival cards, a tube of stormproof matches, pair of Mechanix gloves a walkie talkie, batteries for walkie talkie, fleece balaclava, and some water purification tablets). There is one large zippered pocket on the exterior of the top lid (holds Snugpak All Weather shelter and stakes, a monocular, a shemagh, an LED headlamp, a baseplate compass, extra paracord, N95 mask, a ziploc bag full of wash cloths, and a pair of safety glasses). The last pocket is on the bottom of the bag. It is for the detachable rain cover. I also fit my Snugpak poncho inside of there. All of the zippers on the pack are large tooth plastic teeth design which should prevent them from binding with dirt. The zippers are not YKK zippers, but they appear to be high quality none the less. The two Rocket pouches are both just storage compartments with no internal pockets or dividers. There are two exterior mesh pockets on the main pack that get covered by the Rocket pouches. Those pockets can still be used to store skinny items when the Rockets are attached. I store a Fiskars X7 hatchet in one exterior pocket and a Becker BK 9 in the other, and both tools are barely visible when covered by the Rocket pouches. I like the stealthy storage pockets. I also like the idea of having the detachable Rocket pouches. I plan carrying essential survival items in those pouches, and I plan on purchasing the Snugpak Yoke System. If I ever had to ditch my main pack, I could at least carry my pouches of essential survival gear.I have made a few modifications to my packs. I attached fastex quick release buckles to the straps that hold the Rocket pouches on so those can be removed quicker. I also used a sewing machine to triple stitch every seam I could possibly sew in my bag. There are a few I will have to hand sew as the foam padding that rests against the back prevented my sewing machine from doing those seams. Speaking of seams, there were a couple of areas on my pack that were only single stitched. One side of each of the large zippers on the main pack's storage pockets were single stitched (not the ones holding the Rocket Pouches on). I did not understand that, but it was simple to sew most of those with a machine. I did not reinforce the pocket zipper on the interior of the lid as it is beyond my sewing abilities to do a good job. I also ran another row of stitching around the draw cord that pulls the top of the bag shut as that was single stitched. I also installed a heavier gauage of shock cord in on the front of the bag. I removed the the two cord locks and replaced those with wheel cord locks (ones that sinch top of US GI ALICE pack shut). There are no springs to go bad on the wheeled cord locks. The heavier gauge shock cord and wheeled cord locks are not essential to change, but I am making my pack last for a long time.There are a couple of other things that I wish were included with this pack. My bags came with a rain cover that stows in a pocket located on the bottom of the pack (I think Snugpak is making this an additional purchase in the future). The cover is a great touch, is easy to install, and protects the bag from getting wet during a rain storm. The problem I have is that I wish the bag had drain grommets on the bottom of each compartment as no rain cover is always 100% waterproof, people can take an unexpected dip in a creek, and there is potential of a water bladder leaking in the main compartment. I also wish the pack had the quick release buckles to detach the Rocket pouches.Is it the perfect pack? No, it does have a few issues as I have already mentioned. However, I believe it is excellent for my application. This bag is very strong and exceptionally lightweight for its large capacity. Do not fear this bag because of the modifications I am putting into it. In all honesty, it is a very good bag. I am just beefing it up for an extended rough use.Pros:Huge storage area with relatively lightweight packVery comfortableCan be adjusted for size depending upon use (30, 70, or 100 liter packs)Easy to loadLarge top storage pocket for quick access to essential itemsInternal frameLarge zippers that should not bind with dirtHeavily sewn main seams and strapsAttachment points for bed roll on bottom of main packPack expands up and not away from body when filledStraps for latching tent or bed roll to bottom of the packConsNo drainage grommets in packNo quick release buckles on the side compression straps for detaching Rocket pouchesYoke is separate add on purchaseSome areas were single stitched (a few zippers and trim)Edit: I did acquire the Yoke for my bag. I think it is an essential addition to this pack.

Considering the numerous reviews stating the snugpak bergen usually arrives poorly stitched, I expected To do some minor repairing when it arrived. True to expectations, it did indeed arrive in a sorry state. I have included photos. 1) The cinch bag at the top was completely unsewn and left with large fraying edges by a span of about 7 inches. 2) one of the zipper stops was completely missing and I had to rig thread there to render it useable. 3) one strap was sewn very shoddy.Despite this, I love the Bergen and would buy more. It is an excellent value for the money and the utility.* However I see one area that is an inherent design flaw built into the Bergen itself. The zippers which hold the removable side bags seal upward instead of downward. Thus the weight of a full side bag, as well as gravity and torc will be forever trying to pull that zipper down making that area a permanent potential weakness. The zippers don't self lock either.It's comfortable even when full and does not interfere with range of motion.

After a lot of research on this item I decided to take the plunge rather than use my PLCE Bergan. Now I don't know if I've just been unlucky here but I've noticed some pretty poor quality control on this item. As I had to get away I packed the Bergan and noticed immediately the poor fit of the top hood. The material was crumpled (obviously by the machinist at the factory) and the velco patch was way too big and appeared to have been just thrown on the bergan - not the correct size for patches to be (in fact the velcro was 3 times the size of a patch). The logo was printed onto the material and not embroidered as I have seen by other reviews on the same Bergan. So I appear to have a particularly bad copy of the item, but if its real, a very bad original, OR I have just been very unlucky. In this modern world quality means everything regarding the consumer. To add to the problem of the overall quality, both Rain Covers were missing from the Bergan (separate contact made to Manufacturer). Snugpak needs to look at overall quality control before despatch. Hopefully this will be resolved by the actual manufacturer.

very impressed with the bergen snugpak hasn't cut any corner's on quality but having looked over the bergen I'm a bit sceptical about the single stitching on the main compartment only time will tell 4 star's reason being I wasn't given a rain cover with the bergen I emailed the supplier who said the rain cover was no longer supplied with the bergen in the discription it says that a rain cover is provided in the same colour as the bergen but they said they would contact snugpak to see if they had any they would send me one so 5 Star's to the suppliers so please change that part of the description its a bit misleading or and fast delivery also 5 Star's

Bought my Bergen, came pretty fast, not the same pack as the one above, mine has no loops at the bottom for poles/ice axe, came with no rain cover, a little flimbsy with the single stitching, took it to wild camp in knoydart in scotland, both side pouches tore open during my 2 week trip and i abondoned them as they were of no use, the stitching started to come apart after just a few days which was a little worrying, in all i personally wouldn't take it on anymore than a weekend camping trip to a camp site, am once again looking for a pack that won't fall apart on long trips..i won't hold my breath..bit disapointed with it and wouldn't recomend it to serious long haul trekkers.

The pouches and compartments are brilliant: plenty of space and very easy access. The backpack looks great too with its symmetrical design. The material quality is brilliant, keeping clothing dry on long and wet expeditions. However, the strap padding is thin and weak which can make for an uncomfortable experience with frequent use. With a backpack with so much capacity, it is a shame to say that if this backpack was anywhere past 70% full, you are going to get sore shoulders after a couple hours and this is coming from someone who is young! Other than that, it is a great backpack and is one of the best I have used in terms of accessibility.

I recently went trekking across Iceland with this pack, spending several days on the trail. The 20kg load vanished on my back. It does take some time to get the correct configuration for the individual but once you get it right it is a fantastic pack. Very durable too, the pack took plenty of abuse being thrown on to obsidian fields and rocky terrain. An impact that put a few dints in my aluminium canteen left the pack unscathed, so I can testify to its toughness. This is a serious bit of kit, the loops and hanging points provided a handy place for rope, hooks and soggy river shoes too.I can not think of a better way to put this pack through it's paces. Ice, rain, rock; the pack took it all and is ready to go on the next adventure. I would recommend getting a good ortlieb dry bag as a liner and you have a winning combination.