Black Diamond Speed 30 ($64.98) - lightweight backpack

The Black Diamond Speed 30 is my favorite daypack. Figures that it's being discontinued, but on the plus side, it's on closeout sale at Mountain Gear. If you want to help me out with a little commission, click the Mountain Gear banner below first

then come back and click on the link to the pack or search for "Black Diamond Speed". A small hassle for you, but I'll earn 7% commission if you do it that way. Only about $4 for me, but no extra cost to you.

If you travel light and you don't need to carry a bear cannister like we do in the park, you could pull off an overnight with this pack, but only if you travel light - 30 liters aka 1800 cubic inches is tight for most people. I can do it if not for the bear cannister thing, but then I don't bring luxuries like changes of clothes. Hell, when I was younger, I used to go without luxuries like food and sleeping bag and go out for three days and two nights. That was cold and uncomfortable, and one time I started hallucinating when bad weather came in and I got really cold and hungry and dehydrated, but I digress.

Anyway, this pack is really light, really comfortable. It has some new fabric that sort of kind of self-heals after a small puncture, but this is not the most durable pack. I do NOT use mine for cragging and would not even dream of hauling it. For a day of backcountry skiing or a long day hike when the CamelBak just isn't big enough, this thing is the ticket.

I try to keep my day and day and half packs below 2 pounds and this one comes in at 1lb 15 ounces, so it makes the cut. It's the most comfortable pack that I've had at this weight and the price is right.

My only complaint is that the closeout is BLACK. Why do backpack manufacturers do this? Give the people what they want I suppose. I could have gotten the black one on sale myself, actually, but black packs drive me crazy when looking for stuff inside it in the dark (and when you do winter stuff, you ALWAYS end up out at night). So I ended up paying full price for the orange one, since I couldn't find it on sale. If you don't mind black though, this is an awesome deal.

If you want the new version, which comes in two sizes (28 and 33 liters) and can be stripped to 1.5 pounds in the 28L version and comes in Grey and Yellow (excuse me, Marigold and Gravel), then you can get it at full price from Backcountry.com and, if you use the link below, I'll even get something like 5% commission

Black Diamond Speed Backpack - 28-33 L from Backcountry.com (full price - $99.95)