For me this review has been a long time coming. I’ve always loved the Hyperlite Mountain Gear (HMG) aesthetic. There’s something so excellently balanced about the visual designs of their packs. But at the same time I am largely not their target customer — I don’t subscribe to the necessary ultralight mindset for backpacking. I have a touch more flare for the luxury of many things, all over built — regular readers are not surprised, of that I am certain.
But the Daybreak 17 is a different backpack all together. It takes the HMG styling, and applies it to what is essentially a daypack for day hiking. That’s one area where I do tend to fall on the lighter half of the scales when I head out. I grabbed this bag second hand, which I note because despite it looking new, it certainly has been used a bunch.
I’ve found this to be very smartly designed, but I question why you need an ultralight daypack.
Specs and Materials
As the name suggests, this is a 17L pack which is noted as having 6L of external volume (I have no idea what this means). In black this weighs in at a scant 593g, or for those who don’t speak ultralight, it’s 1.3lbs (the white is lighter). This is made from DCH150 (aka Dyneema). It measures out at 21” x 11” x 6.5” and has aquagaurd zippers as well. There’s certainly a couple different smaller use materials, but it’s mostly a Dyneema bag with a zipper on top, padding at the back, and some straps.
It’s nicely made, and these days it is made in Mexico which has upset followers of HMG and led to a bunch of complaints about quality (the bag I am reviewing was Made in USA) — I would urge you to consider issues with the move more likely to be growing pains, than any concrete sign of cost cutting or corner cutting.
The bag I have is cut and sewn rather nicely.
Hiking
I was stoked to take this out on a hike, I don’t really know why, but it’s likely becuase I have been wanting to test this bag for so long that I was happy it was finally happening. I knew to expect a lot of back sweat, as a dyneema panel against your back is going to trap moisture. And I certainly had that, but what I didn’t expect is how good the pack actually is for hikes.
Now, a couple of points of reference: wet weight on the bag (weight with water) was about 13lbs; I am 6’-3”; the hikes were all sub-5 miles total; I regularly hike with a more structured hunting style daypack.
The short version of using this bag for hiking is: it excels at being a lightweight bag you can carry long distances for your basic daypack needs. There’s nothing much wrong with it. But that’s not really how we do things here, so let’s dive deeper.
Photo thanks to Erin Brooks
The good bits:
- The sizing is really nice. I have a hard time seeing this as 17L as it feels closer to 19L to me. Anyway you look at it, it is a great size for carrying a smaller load, and the footprint is also a good size for even my taller torso.
- It’s comfortable to carry. At about 13lbs all in, it’s a comfortable carry, where you never feel the need to take it off. The load is balanced well, and the light padding on the back panel is welcome so you don’t have to worry much about how you packed out the bag.
- It’s more or less going to keep your gear dry from any weather. The fabric and zippers are very water resistant, such that only the seams will eventually let in water. My guess is that you would be hard pressed to have soaked gear with this bag from rain alone, but that’s me guessing.
- The water bottle pockets are exceptional. Because of the material you can press them pretty flat when not being used. But they are generously sized so you can easily most types of water bottles.
- I really like the cordage across the face of the bag, it’s nicely anchored on plastic rings so it glides smoothly without wearing on a non-replaceable part of the bag. I changed mine from elastic cordage to static iron wire, as I find that makes things a little more secure.
- The front stash pocket is cavernous. It’s huge and has a gusset. It will swallow up gear.
- The ice tool loop is useless in theory, but in practice makes a really nice spot to hang things like gloves and an InReach Mini off of (again I changed mine out to iron wire from shock cord).
- The top grab handle is thankfully sized generously. It’s nothing special, but it’s easy to grab and fits my hand well.
Ok, the not perfect things:
- There’s almost no organization available here. There’s one stash pocket inside the top of the bag, and it’s barely large enough from my car keyfob and wallet. For some this will be nice, for others this is maddening. I fall in the middle on this.
- The drain holes on the outer pockets are not very cleanly cut. They look like they were worn through, instead of some precision cut. This bothers me, but has no practical downside.
- The straps are a touch short for me, and a longer version of this bag would likely fit me better.
- The sternum strap rides pretty high on me and is not too long.
- While the hip belt stows away nicely, I question why you would ever include it on a pack like this.
- You are paying a premium for a bag which absolutely will not last as long as a nylon pack half the price.
- That back sweat concern is a very real thing, and often there was visible beads of moisture on the back panel of the bag when I took it off. Warm.
Behold, the sweat making back panel.
I should also note that HMG says this works great for Everyday Use and Commuting, which I don’t doubt at all if you are not carrying more than an iPad Pro / MacBook Air for your device.
What makes this bag special is that you don’t pay a lot of penalty for carrying it. It’s a touch over one pound, spread across two shoulders and transferring down your back — effectively feeling lighter than a down jacket on your back when it’s empty.
For me, a 13lbs load is ultralight — that’s as light as I am willing to go, because I like the finer things in life I guess. But for others, they are going to be carrying a bottle of water, small first aid kit, and a layer — with that loadout this bag would feel more appropriate.
There’s no escaping the fact it wears warm against your back, which is the only spot I question this for city use. If you are staying in the mountains and the air is keeping you cool, good to go. If you are wanting to trek this through hot and humid, it would be not fun in anyway.
Overall
Cavernous stash pocket on the front.
I want to state two conflicting things about this bag:
- It’s exceptional.
- I don’t think many people should buy it and I probably won’t keep it.
Where I have a hard time with this bag is that it’s not going to carry weight over 15lbs particularly well. It’s expensive for a bag which frankly is less durable than a North Face Jester which is $75 versus the $229 for this. And the back panel is absolutely the least breathable back panel possible.
Typically when I am done reviewing a bag I use my desire to sell it or not as a basis for whether I want to recommend it (or not). I have no desire to sell this, which means I have to ask myself, when would I use this? AT THE SAME TIME, I have no desire to use this again — so yeah.
Where this backpack excels is in three specific but common areas:
- If you are trying to throw down a lot of miles on a day hike, then go light and take this and be happy. Your gear is well protected, it’s comfortable, and it functions really well. You shouldn’t need more than 17L for something like that.
- If you are the type of commuter/EDCer who focuses more on having some extra space and your hands free, but your bag at best has a hat and a layer with a bottle of water and maybe the odd device. Yeah, hell yeah actually, this bag will rock for that as long as you never use it above 75°F.
- If you are the type who likes to travel with particular bags which are not backpacks, but you want to pack something along so you have a backpack for the odd long walk, etc. This is going to be a great bag for that, in fact a couple of reviews on HMG’s site mention walking parts of the Camino with this, and it would be great for something like that.
But that caveat is that if it is at all hot, or you are being active, your back will be drenched by the end of it. And I know I am making a lot of this, but it’s downright uncomfortable to pull your bag off and feel like beads of sweat are dripping everywhere and I didn’t use this bag above 80°F.
The bag itself is simply really good. And thus, while it’s unlikely you should buy it, it’s still recommended. But the back sweat issue is why I will move on.
Photo thanks to Erin Brooks
Quick Thought on Colors
I actually prefer the look of the white variant. However I have the black variant as that is where the deal was to be had. I don’t regret it and thus think you should get the black model. The reason being: it is more low key around town. Secondly, if you’ve ever seen a white HMG bag when it is very well used, they frankly look disgusting, kind of like used toilet paper. So yeah.