The Zpacks Tremendous Nero 50 is a high-capacity frameless backpack with a modular and interchangeable shoulder strap system that allows you to swap between fastpack-style vest shoulder straps or typical shoulder straps utilizing the identical pack bag (See this video for directions). We examined the fastpack model shoulder straps, which allow you to preserve water, meals, and necessities shut at hand. Being frameless, the Tremendous Nero 50 has a most really helpful load of 20 lbs. It’s optimized for carrying ultralight however cumbersome masses, together with a hammock sleep system or an artificial insulated backpacking quilt. Carry a a lot heavier load, and your shoulders will damage.
- Gender: Unisex
- Weight: 15.8 oz (incl vest straps)
- Quantity: 50L
- Sort: Frameless
- Shoulder Staps: Fastpack Model (vest)
- Pockets: 3 exterior
- Hydration-ready: No
- Load Lifters: No
- Detachable Hip Belt: Sure
- Waterproof: Sure and seam-taped
- Materials: Extremely 100X
- Bear canister compatibility: BV 475 and smaller match horizontally, BV500 vertical
- Professionals: Vest sleeves can maintain as much as 20 oz bottles, waterproof backpack
- Cons: Max load restrict of 20 lbs, cord-based aspect compression is awkward to make use of
Backpack Storage and Group
The Tremendous Nero 50 is a high-capacity waterproof backpack made with sturdy Extremely 100x, a woven 100 denier Extremely Excessive Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) face cloth laminated to a water-proof lining and seam-taped to forestall leaks. The pack bag is configured as a rolltop with buckles that meet on prime of the pack as a substitute of the edges. It has a big mesh entrance pocket and stable aspect pockets in a normal ultralight backpack configuration. The Tremendous Nero is just not hydration-compatible, nonetheless, and there’s nowhere to hold or retailer a water bladder contained in the pack or run a hose by a hydration port.
The Tremendous Nero 50 has two cord-based aspect compression straps, configured in a z-shape, that are good for attaching lengthy, skinny objects like trekking poles to the edges of the pack however are restricted of their capability to use numerous compression. There are a pair of cord-based sleeping pad straps on the base of the pack, that are very useful and straightforward to make use of, in addition to a prime webbing strap, which may also be used to hold a foam pad.
The again of the pack behind the shoulder straps is unpadded, though the pack comes with a foam sit pad and elastic straps to carry it in place. It does a surprisingly good job of padding the again, though you might want to watch out in the way you pack so objects like hard-sided bear canisters don’t poke you from behind. If you might want to carry a bear canister, my recommendation can be to get your self a backpack with a body for again safety in addition to a heavier load-carrying capability.
Backpack Suspension and Vest-Model Straps
Being frameless, nearly all the weight carried within the Tremendous Nero 50 rests in your shoulders, limiting its max really helpful carry to twenty kilos or no matter your shoulders can tolerate above that. Whereas there’s a hipbelt included with the pack, it’s a easy webbing strap design to maintain the bag near your torso and forestall it from bouncing in the event you resolve to run or jog. Whereas it closes with a beefy buckle, it’s simple to lose as a result of the ends of the webbing strap are usually not doubled over and sewn to forestall it from slipping off. This can be a ending error that we weren’t pleased to see.
Regardless of that, the fastpack-style shoulder straps are fairly cleverly designed. Every strap has three exterior pockets: one massive sufficient to carry a 20-oz water Smartwater bottle, a second sized for gels and snacks, and a 3rd with a zipper sized to carry a smartphone. The pack comes with two sternum straps related to the vest straps alongside daisy chains, which additionally assist preserve the straps from sliding off to the edges of your shoulders.
Mountain climbing with vest-style straps is handy as a result of you may preserve your “workplace” (maps, telephone) and “kitchen” (snack, water) simply accessible with out having to cease to dig stuff out of your backpack. It additionally helps distribute a few of the load, significantly water weight, to the entrance of your torso, bettering your stability on rocky scrambles and serving to to take care of your momentum when climbing. However regardless of the burden redistribution, you’re nonetheless restricted to a 20-pound most comfy carry for the reason that Tremendous Nero is frameless.
The fastpack straps are padded with spacer mesh and are fairly comfy. Whereas they’re connected to the packbag with tri-glide clips and webbing, the tops of the straps are additionally related with a yoke that runs alongside the highest of your again beneath your neck when worn. Its objective is to maintain the width between the shoulder straps mounted so that they don’t aspect off the edges of your shoulders – the yoke is absent on packs with Zpack’s typical shoulder straps. Whereas the yoke is innocuous with lighter masses, it turns into extra noticeable and even painful if you more and more overload the backpack (at the least for me.)
Whereas there’s a pattern amongst backpack producers so as to add fastpack-vest model straps to their backpacks, there are nonetheless limits to how a lot gear weight your shoulders can carry, absent a body and load-bearing hipbelt. Whereas the Tremendous Nero 50 is a brilliant enjoyable pack to hold lighter masses, I’d warning you about making an attempt to load it up like extra typical 50L backpack with a body.
Given its carry weight limitations (20 lbs), I nonetheless suppose the Tremendous Nero 50 can be an excellent backpack to make use of in the event you carry numerous sleeping insulation like a chilly climate hammock system with a prime quilt and underquilt or an artificial insulated sleeping quilt which might profit from being packed uncompressed to “use” up the pack’s quantity.
Advice
The Zpacks Tremendous Nero 50 is a water-proof, ultralight rolltop backpack made with Extremely. It’s obtainable with an interchangeable suspension that makes use of typical shoulder straps or vest-style fastpack straps. Whereas the fastpack-style vest straps are efficient at distributing load throughout the back and front of the pack, they don’t improve the load that may be comfortably carried by the backpack above 20 lbs. We do really feel that the Tremendous Nero 50 can be appropriate for carrying cumbersome sleep insulation, even in its uncompressed type, offered that your total load doesn’t exceed the prompt most gear weight carry.
Disclosure: Zpacks donated a backpack for overview.
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