We all love getting out into the hills with old friends. Especially ones that we haven’t seen for a while. It’s an opportunity to have a catch-up, reminisce over old times, and hopefully to have a new adventure or two together too.
Three year’s ago I was sent an Osprey Mutant 38L rucksack to test and review. That old sack quickly became a favourite for most of my mountain adventures, and over the years it started to feel like an old friend. It had shared many, many days on the hill with me, but sadly, had begun to look a little sad and tired, and I’d pretty much retired it.
When Osprey announced that they were bringing out a newer version of my old sack, I just had to get one to see how it compared.
On the face of it, the new 5th generation of the Mutant looks and feels just like my old sack. It was immediately comfortable to carry, easy to pack, and just seemed to have everything in the right place.
I used it initially on a hill walk in the Northern Fells of the Lake District. I loved the cut and shape of the new bag, and the back system, although not benefiting from the Osprey Airscape back, which increases air flow, immediately moulded itself to the shape of my back, and was simply lovely to carry around on a walk.
The Mutant is really a mountaineer’s rucksack, hence the deliberate lack of the Airscape back system. It’s design is such that it fits closely, giving a lot of freedom of movement when climbing or scrambling without being over-bulky – especially important when climbing up narrow rocky gullies or snowy couloirs.
I particularly like the way the Mutant sits just above my harness when climbing, giving good access to my gear loops on my harness. Having said that, the Mutant has spacious gear loops on the waist belt, one on either side, and I very quickly found myself using these instead of the harness ones.
Over the last two months I’ve used the Osprey Mutant for a wide range of mountain activities. I’ve scrambled up Pillar Rock with it, and Threaded the Needle on the Great Gable Napes Traverse. I’ve taken it up Dow Crag, Gimmer Crag, and Raven Crag on rock climbing days, and it’s been to work with me on navigation courses, and on Mountain Leader Refresher courses.
In late August I headed out to the Alps for a couple of weeks of classic mountaineering, and decided to use the Mutant as my mountain sack throughout. Its twin ice axe attachment points work really well, keeping your tools secure and the pick of each axe well out of harms way when not in actual use. One of the major benefits of the Mutant is that it has a floating lid, which means that you can really stuff the rucksack full when you’re heading out for an overnight trip into the high mountains, and the rope carrier under the lid gives even more storage space. The integrated helmet stow is becoming a standard feature on many climbing sacks, and the one on the Mutant works really well. The lid itself has a huge pocket – easily big enough for map and compass, hat and gloves, guidebook, and a few snacks, and I even squeezed in my compact camera too. But the real advantage of the Mutant is that the lid is also completely removable. This means that for the walk up to a mountain hut you can stuff in lots of gear, including your overnight kit, but when you head out onto your chosen route you can trim things down, take the lid off, and go lighter weight with a slimline sack that’s just perfect for climbing and mountaineering. Without the lid Osprey use what they call a FlapJacket, which is a simple storm flap that keeps the worst of the weather out.
It’s hard to find anything negative to say about the Osprey Mutant, but I suppose there is just one tiny niggle. The buckles for attaching the lid to the rucksack actually work a bit loose, and I do find that when the sack isn’t full the lid has a tendency to slide down the back of the rucksack because of this. I don’t remember this happening with my older version of the Mutant. As I say, it is a very minor complaint though, and all in all I really love the new 5th generation Osprey Mutant. It does feel a bit like I’ve got my old friend back, and I can’t wait for the winter season to kick in so I can test it out in full Scottish conditions.
The Osprey Mutant retails at around £130, and is right up there with my top choice of rucksacks for the 2018-2019 season. For all the technical details from Osprey, go to their website here.
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