Deuter Durascent Pack Review
By Graham Johnson
I've always liked simple alpine packs. Too many bells and whistles make things heavier, more complex and introduce more failure points.
I've never owned a Deuter pack before—the reputation that precedes them is a solid, very comfortable but heavy pack with lots of features. While Deuter seems to still offer this in their tramping packs, their climbing oriented packs have (mostly) flipped the script of late—stripped down, lightweight but durable packs for alpine climbing in three families of packs—the Guide Series, Durascent series and Ultra series. While some of the Guide packs stick to the heavier/feature laden side of things, the Durascent series (a 16L, 30L and 44L, each with a men's and women's model) are the lightweight, performance focused designs. The Ultra series (26L and 60L in both men's and women's) are even lighter still and made with ultra durable Dyneema fabrics. Which bring me to this: I purchased the Durascent 44+10 and have been testing it for the past few months.
I see the Durascent series as a direct competitor to the venerable Arc'teryx Alpha series (of which I own and love both the 30L and the now discontinued 40L and SK 32). The laminated type fabric of both is lightweight, waterproof (Deuter claims IXP4 level of waterproofness—basically as long as you don't submerge the thing it'll stay dry) and extremely durable. As an added benefit, the inside is all white, making it very easy to see your stuff inside. In the 44L this is really nice because it is essentially a very long tube with a pocket in the front. The 44 has a removable stiffened foam 'framesheet', but crucially it has both a real hipbelt and load lifters on the shoulder straps—things the Alpha 40 lack. While the Alpha 40 is a great pack for carrying a relatively short distance and then climbing with it mostly empty, the 44 is much more comfortable to carry long distances while still climbing well. The Alpha 40 weighs in at 715g, while the Durascent comes in at 890g.
I have been using this pack for my bigger trips for a few months now and now have some informed opinions on it.
I'll start with the bad:
The front pocket. While generally a useful place to store stuff you want quick access to, this front pocket is essentially a locked vault when the pack is full. It's extremely difficult to dig a bare hand in there to grab a snack or a head torch and impossible with a glove on. With no other pockets on the bag, this is a real issue—so much so that I put my torch and other essentials in a little stuff sack in the main compartment. I've had this problem on other packs of this style but this is by far the worst. Another, kind of moot, complaint about the pocket is that it is inaccessible when carrying tools as the handle of the axe is right over the zipper. The fact that the handles are secured by velcro instead of bungee means that you can't just push them out of the way to access the zipper. But none of that really matters when it's so difficult to get into the pocket even if you can open the zipper.
The framesheet. As mentioned earler, the Durasecent has a stiffened foam back panel to provide support. However, when maxed out with a double rack, three season tent and four days of food it didn't quite deliver the carrying comfort I would have liked, so I sneakily added in a very light wire frame from another backpack which helped considerably. With a lighter load, this isn't necessary.
The good:
There are lots of good things about this pack's performance. Maybe I'm just a good packer but this packs very well—some packs seem to be too wide or too deep—this gets the proportions right for both being a load hauler and a climbing pack. The compression straps are just long enough to fit over a full-sized z-rest foam sleeping pad (although I used a 3/4 size while testing). Everything is very tidy and streamlined—very little to get caught while you're scrambling through the bush.
The carrying comfort is good, very good if you consider how minimalistic it is. While the hip belt is minimalistic, it is far better than a simple webbing belt found on other alpine packs. Just don't expect it to provide the same comfort/support as your tramping pack. I like how the hip belt moves with me while I have it on while climbing/scrambling, where I would generally unclip with a more substantial hip belt.
Two tools are easily held by the aforementioned (non-removable) velcro straps and bungee-head locker, with a handy loop to keep the picks from flopping around.
Despite the fact that I've never been a huge fan of roll-top packs this works well and can comfortably accommodate a full 54L of gear while being able to roll it down to compress smaller loads. If you're carrying less than about 30L, however, there will be a bit of extra room. A single top strap works well for compressing the load or a rope. There are loops for a helmet net but this was not tested. One could easily rig a bungee system on these loops if they desired for crampons or other extra bits. I've had zero issues with durability or water resistance. The pack has a relatively flat bottom so it can be placed on the ground without needing to be propped up.
While I still love my Alpha 40, the Durascent has been the more frequently selected pack if there's any significant walking/carrying involved. If they could make the front pocket functional this would be a great pack for any sort of day involving alpine or ice climbing, or wet weather tramping.
3.5 stars