TETON Sports 55L Scout Internal Frame Hiking Backpack

To start, I’m 6’1″ 185 lbs and bought this pack for me for the purpose of 2-3-day back country camping trips with 5-10 mile backpack hikes through mountainous terrain, which I’ve been doing regularly for the past 25 years or so. I’m a bit of a minimalist, so no fancy propane stoves, lanterns, or the like for me, and i was hopeful this pack -with its advertised smaller size- might be a good fit my purposes as most packs of mine end up with a lot of empty space I don’t use. I was pleased with the look out of the box. Zippers and seams appear strong, intelligent design with plenty of pouches and places to tie stuff, such as my cooking pot, on the outside. It took a little figuring to sort the straps for my height and get the waist belt resting on my hips instead of cinched around my guts. Although I manged it in a totally satisfactory way, ideally, I may be a little tall for the pack and would imagine it’d fit better if I were a few inches shorter. As far as it’s size vs my wide shouldered average adult male frame, it fits wonderfully with no indication of being too small to affect mobility or add extra joint pain at the end of 5-10 mile walk through rugged terrain than any other pack would. My one struggle with the pack was attempting to fit my 10-degree mummy bag (an average adult bag you’d pay $60 for at a store) in it’s stuff sack into the bottom sleeping bag compartment. There’s simply no way I was gonna fit it in, and i even tried taking it out of the stuff sack to try and stuff it in the compartment alone. No go. Thankfully, the sleeping bag compartment has an internal zipper that can be opened to allow it to be joined with the main pack compartment, which i did and simply stuffed my bag and stuff sack in from the top of the main compartment with no struggle and no discomfort upon putting it on my back and walking down my road a bit. However, after adding my tent to its proper place on the outside bottom and throwing a small tarp in the pack, the space remaining is not great. Because I’m a minimalist, generally needing only plenty of socks, a hoodie, and maybe a set of thermals, I’ll be fine having enough space for 3 days food and my remaining gear. I pack my water off my belt loops, so i haven’t looked at the water bladder and don’t intend to.

So, to summarize, I wanted to write this review for anyone who might be looking at this pack for similar stuff that I do. It’s price and quality are solid. And it will suit my situation wonderfully. If you want to pack a 10-piece orchestra and your entire wardrobe and stay gone for 7 days, you may want to consider something larger. Once I’ve gotten some use out of it, I’ll hand this pack down to my 5’8″ 120 lbs daughter, whom it will fit wonderfully, and buy one a bit bigger for me. Quite likely my new one will be Teton as well based on the winning balance of price vs quality of this of this pack. 4 stars is the best I can give without having spent more time punishing it outdoors.

Update: I’ve now taken this pack on 4 trips, which included a number of miles off trail bushwhacking through brush, climbing over deadfall, and scaling rocks. The pack is handling it all fine with no signs of failure. I’ve used the rainfly in action and can confirm it’s well designed and does its job. Over these four trips, I’ve become more sure that this pack is not suitable for my 6’1″ height (however, i’ve made it work with no discomfort and only minor annoyance), so i just received Teton’s Hiker 3700 today for me and gave this pack to my shorter daughter. Ratings change to 5 well deserved stars.

I’v got about 25# in it so far. Even a fullsize axe fits nicely close to the body for efficient weight bearing. I think even though it has great storage options, I might still want a belt to carry the “need to carry” things.

You can safely overpack if needed; it has some decent ways to “dangle” pots & pans etc. Sleeping roll goes on last and is not utilizing precious space. Good elastic cord for last minute items like a jacket on the outside.

Una gran mochila. De hecho la compré, porque justo tengo otras mochilas de esas marca,
son de buena calidad y duraderas. Lo único que noté que no me agrado tanto, es que en la
foto el color se mira morado y cuando me llegó es como guinda, tipo vino, no está feo el color
es bonito, pero sinceramente yo la encargué por el color, porque yo quería una morada y como
tengo una verde y me gustaba mucho, quería por el color morado.

I like this but the 65L was larger than I wanted and I should have waited for the next smaller size to be available again instead of buying this. That said the backpack is great, sturdy and hold a heck of a lot. So great for those that want to carry 2 weeks of supplies or more. Was easy to adjust and has all the features and pockets I need. All in all a very nice backpack and highly recommended for the price. Empty weight is good and construction is great. Time will tell how it holds up. The rain cover is good to and no issues so far in NW rain. Unless you are willing to spend much more for a very very light weight pack I would recommend this.