Backpack specialist Osprey has a stellar reputation for making fully-featured gear-haulers with high-tech back systems and high load carrying capacities – and the Aether 55 is no exception. As such, ...

I’ve been lucky enough to travel all my life, both for work and pleasure, from the arctic to equatorial tropics to scorching deserts. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the right backpack.

Recently, I looked through the photos of my Great Western Loop trip in 2007. My, my—I had such a small and light pack. But the trend has been moving in the wrong direction ever since, and for about a ...