Rab Misfit 27L Climbing Pack

The kind folk at Rab and Lowe Alpine sent me a climbing pack to try out through their rewards program, The Mountain People.

Introducing the Misfit 27.

The Misfit is marketed as an all rounder cragging pack suitable for days by the boulders to trad adventures.

Personally I've found it a really good in-between pack. For me it's not quite big enough for my trad rack, helmet, harness, jacket and most importantly, snacks (maybe I pack too many snacks), but this aside if you have a kind climbing partner who doesn't mind the extra weight training and is willing to carry the trad rack, it works well for a day at the crag. 

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With a nice wide zip opening, the Misfit accommodates well for quickly finding those misplaced items inside. When open it gives a bird's eye view of the contents, meaning you're not spending precious minutes blindly rummaging around inside only to pull out that mushed up banana you forgot about instead of your suncream. 

The Misfit houses two external pouches, one stretchy mesh for a water bottle, and one non stretch pocket, sport climbers would find useful for a clip stick. In addition, the large external top pocket is perfect for keys, phones or there is a smaller internal pocket for those keep safe items. 

Being on the smaller side (5ft 5') I was worried about the back plate being too big for me but it fits well. The shoulder straps are a little wide for a female fit but the chest strap works in my favour here. I wouldn't want to carry to much weight in it for very long without a more substantial hip belt. 

Given the smaller size and lack of helmet attachment I'd recommend this pack more to the sport/bouldering crew than those looking for a trad pack but it's definitely a good all rounder and it will accompany me on many days out. All in all a great pack for days at the crag if you're not expecting to carry rope and a full of trad rack.  

I'll add that the first time I used the pack was flying back to Canada from the UK. I had multiple comments on what a great cabin bag it was and people asking where I got it from. They were right. it was a pretty perfect cabin companion, fitting nicely under the seat in front of me and enabling easy access to everything without straps and buckles flying around the place. The simplicity of this pack is refreshing for both travel and climbing and is a feature I really like about the Misfit.