Granite Gear Virga3 Undyed Assessment: Most Comfy Ultralight Pack at a Low Worth

Regardless of their sustainable benefits, I’ve by no means been in a position to love an undyed pack. Camo appeals to my army facet. Earth tones pair with my bushcraft background. REI-esque neon colours appeal my RuPaul-esque love of the additional. Nonetheless, whereas testing the “marriage ceremony white version,” as my associate places it, undyed Virga3, two issues started to alter my thoughts.

The primary was Granite Gear’s Instagram web page, stuffed with examples of what inventive minds have achieved to clean canvas editions of the corporate’s packs. The second was how cool the pearly palette helped preserve my again on a 35-mile stretch of path trekked in almost 100-degree warmth.

The Granite Gear Virga3 and I’ve been an odd path couple for the previous a number of weeks, backpacking alongside Northwestern Illinois, specifically the Mississippi Palisades. On one hand, it sticks to Granite Gear’s broadly beloved gear group template of huge facet and frontal shove-it pockets, with exterior compression straps galore. For gear-accessibility nuts like myself, such beneficiant exterior storage in a lidless roll-top bag, makes for a light-weight resolution to gear availability. 

In contrast to its predecessor, the Virga3 additionally options beneficiant hip belt pockets and spectacular adjustability. For each the ladies’s-specific and unisex fashions, the Virga3 affords two torso and hip belt sizes. Between them, the pack can accommodate torsos from 15 to 24 inches, regulate to waists from 24 to 54 inches, and be set to slim or huge shoulders.

With a brief torso, lengthy limbs, and a penchant for powerlifting, I are inclined to resemble your least favourite huge receiver greater than your favourite ultralight hiker. So the Virga3’s ample adjustability and twin chest straps ought to make it a match made in ultralight heaven.

However, the 55L model’s beneficial most carry weight of 25 kilos hits a barely awkward spot: It’s massive for an in a single day pack. Its quantity might tempt many a long-distance hiker to pack that little bit additional. Nonetheless, it calls for a light-weight loadout. For somebody who has no downside schlepping 60-pound rucksacks, the Virga3 has been a check of self-discipline.

However make no mistake, the Virga3 is a pack that rewards diligence. 

Briefly: The Granite Gear Virga3 ($140 on sale) affords arguably the most effective bang-for-your-buck adjustability (and luxury) of any ultralight pack in the marketplace. The pack options all of the hallmarks of Granite Gear’s versatile method to gear association and availability. Like many ultralight packs, it does battle to shift weight to your hips — exacerbated by the load lifters’ tendency to settle right into a shallow angle from the shoulder straps to the pack.

Nonetheless, with a cushty harness system and twin chest straps, what weight is in your higher torso ought to carry comfortably and arranged. In its building, the Virga3 ditches a body sheet, stays, or foams within the again panel — and within the newest model, ditches dyes too.

Granite Gear Virga3 2023 Undyed Assessment

The Idea

There are few frameless ultralight packs within the Virga3’s quantity class which can be below $200. Granted, that’s as a result of many leverage pricier materials like Extremely or Dyneema. However, “ultralight” and “finances” are two trails that hardly ever cross.

Worth-wise, this leaves the 55L Virga3 within the odd place of competing with the benchmarks set by its extra common light-weight siblings, the Crown 2 and Crown 3. The place the Virga3 pulls forward, each of its 26L little sibling and its contemporaries, is in adjustability.

A private pet peeve of mine is listening to pack sizing boiled down to simply torso size, or worse, peak. If a pack’s strap refuses to contour to your shoulders, its hip belt padding ends in an ungainly place, and the form of a pack’s body causes hotspots. Which implies your expertise on the path received’t match your expertise within the retailer. 

For individuals who don’t fall squarely right into a pack’s vary of measurements, this may be annoying, to say the least. And on the most, it could possibly depart you extra liable to harm when mountaineering with an ill-sized or ill-fitting pack.

The Virga3 units out to sort out this by having 4 completely different becoming choices, all that includes a torso adjustment system that means that you can choose between two widths for the shoulder straps.

The unisex model affords two sizes for torsos between 18-21 inches and 21-24 inches, and two hip belt sizes between 26 and 52 inches. The ladies’s mannequin covers torso sizes from 15-18 to 18-21 inches, with two hip belt choices overlaying a variety from 24 to 52 inches.

A Observe on Quantity vs. Load

Adjustability apart, the Virga3 is aimed toward a really particular market area of interest. The candy spot for a lot of ultralight packs runs 35-50 L — sufficient quantity for ultralight mileage whereas imposing selective packing. At 55 L, the Virga3 has to compete with ultralight compatriots just like the Zpacks Arc Blast 55 and Hyperlite Southwest 55, that are rated for 30-40-pound masses.

In addition they compete with equally priced lightweights similar to Granite Gear’s Crown 2 and Mountainsmith’s Scream 55, which may comfortably haul 35-45-pound masses. However with a beneficial max carry weight of 25 kilos (the identical capability as its smaller 26L mannequin), the Virga3 calls for trekkers with self-discipline to pack flippantly.

The Compartmentalization: Construction, Storage, and Pockets

As with most Granite Gear packs, there’s a easy litmus check to know if its method to gear association will give you the results you want. In case your packing routine is both a) shove all of it in, or b) compartmentalize every little thing into storage cubes to present the pack construction, the Virga3 will in all probability enchantment to you. Whilst a gear junkie who likes panel loading choices, the Virga3 left me little to need for gear entry. 

Internally, the pack contains higher and decrease again wall pockets, with a compression strap between them to securely maintain a foam sleeping pad — or considerably awkwardly safe a hydration bladder. This provides the Virga’s frameless nylon shell a little bit little bit of help alongside the again panel. Nonetheless, massive sizes of common pads, such because the NEMO Switchback, may need to be reduce all the way down to measurement to comfortably match within the pockets.

It’s additionally price noting the Virga3 is taller and narrower than most of Granite Gear’s packs. I discovered that I might nonetheless match 3400-size Hyperlite storage pods comfortably — and 4400-size with some work — to bolster the pack and compartmentalize my gear. 

On my treks, the cavernous entrance mesh pocket working a lot of the size of the pack was simply in a position to swallow high-demand toiletries like rest room paper and bug spray, together with snacks, a raincoat, and hat, with room to spare. When you can’t match it into the shove-it pocket, then the twin compression straps working over it ought to safe it in place.

One thought: The identical can’t essentially be mentioned of the only, straight compression strap working over the pack’s rolltop closure. I discovered this strap struggles with securing extra inflexible objects like tents and bear canisters.

Nonetheless, on condition that the Virga3 sports activities Granite Gear’s hallmark huge facet pockets, now sloped for hydration entry sans shoulder dislocation, you’ll hardly ever should safe something to the pack’s prime. In my exams, I used to be simply in a position to match 1L and 1.5L Smartwater bottles concurrently in every pocket, with room to spare.

Along with a shock twine cinch topping every pocket, there are two facet compression straps — the bottom-most of which may be routed beneath the pockets to make drawing a bottle simpler. Topping off the exterior storage are two hip belt pockets that, whereas a tad small for the biggest of Otterboxed cellphones, are generously spacious for an ultralight pack.

The Carry 

I packed out the Virga3 with quite a lot of loadouts between 15 and 25 kilos, each with and with no pad. And, like many frameless packs, it struggles with load switch — although it struggles lower than most. 

And not using a pad, cinching the pack’s load lifters shifted the pack’s weight to my hips minimally. Nonetheless, it did produce a pleasant concavity alongside my mid-back for wonderful air flow. With each a pad and stuffed packing pods to bolster the pack’s construction, I might get what felt like 40-45% of the pack’s weight on my hips — with appreciable fiddling. 

The draw back of getting completely different shoulder width choices, twin chest straps, and a variable size hip belt, is that these options require extra dialing in to search out the optimum match — for a frameless, ultralight pack, changes are that rather more crucial. 

I discovered that with the shoulder straps anchored huge, they hugged my traps extra flatly than most packs. And with the chest straps cosy, what weight was on my higher torso felt safe and distributed throughout my chest.

Nonetheless, this might not be comfy for everybody. And whereas I used to be in a position to get dialed in, I discovered myself extra hesitant to regulate the suspension for climbs and descents — lest I upset some variable. 

The Correction

The sensitivity of the suspension could also be resulting from a standard trait I’ve seen amongst Granite Gear packs: The shoulder straps are inclined to anchor at a shallow angle. This may very well be a private adjustment difficulty, however I’ve seen it amongst quite a few individuals trekking with GG packs. And I believe it comes down to 2 points.

Granite Gear’s ReFit hip belts are fantastically adjustable. Nonetheless, to allow them to be pulled out and adjusted, Granite’s packs are inclined to have a little bit of respiratory room within the panel the belts go by to anchor them to the pack. This enables their packs, close to their max carry weight, to slip downward a bit relative to the hip belt.

Compounding this, their packs’ flat bottoms, whereas produced from sturdy high-tenacity 210D nylon, haven’t any straps working below them. This makes them extremely straightforward to pack, however supplies much less reinforcement in opposition to the packs’ bottoms below load. The top consequence: The packs can sag, inflicting the load lifter to run shallow.

The sturdy frames Granite Gear’s extra heavy-duty packs such because the Blaze 60 and Perimeter 50, counteract this nicely. Nonetheless, with an ultralight frameless pack just like the Virga 55, this sinking tendency could make for a fiddly becoming, and is a con price noting. 

The Consolation

OK, so the pack has a barely bizarre load lifter angle, sinks a contact, and tends to attract extra weight into your chest (albeit evenly). How does it really really feel? On my treks, surprisingly comfy. 

The Virga3’s ReFit hip belt affords a light-weight, comfy waist wrap befitting a flowy-shirted romance-novel-cover Prince Charming. The shoulder straps strike an excellent compromise between reinforcement and pliability. And it’s good to have the benefit of the twin chest straps and adjustable anchor factors to contour to my shoulders. 

I believe that swiveling shoulder straps would enable for even higher contouring. I might be curious about seeing if chest straps with an elastic part would make for a extra dynamic match. And, I’d like to see a Virga that’s much less inclined to sag below weight (remember that max 25-pound weight restrict).

Nonetheless, as soon as I acquired every little thing dialed in, the Virga3 provided a cushty keep on a well-designed suspension system sans body or framestays. 

Granite Gear’s Virga3 Undyed: Conclusion

The Virga3 is an odd fellow. It’s affords a high-capacity carry, with low capability limits. It brings inclusivity, a greater match, and approachable pricing, whereas demanding ultralight know-how and expertise to dial issues in nicely. Whilst an ex-military bushcraft kind who opts to be the pack mule in any group, I can’t assist however love the Granite Gear Virga3. 

It’s fiddly. However it carries fairly comfortably, way more adjustably, and miles extra cost-effectively than most every other ultralight pack in the marketplace. On prime of that, it nonetheless affords the intuitive gear accessibility you count on from Granite Gear. Even when it fell out of my pack rotation, I might nonetheless preserve it round as a chosen loaner for buddies. 

Lastly, the Virga3’s white coloration makes use of, impressively, 98% undyed materials, a 55% discount in water — and nonetheless held up on path.

My advice? The Virga3 will supply a top quality carry at an ultralight value. Nonetheless, if doable, purchase it from a brick-and-mortar retailer the place you may go to get it fitted to ensure it’s best for you.