After using an Osprey Exos 58 for over two years I upgraded to an Opsrey Levity 60 in Q1 of 2019. After using it for the entirety of the 2019 backpacking season I thought I’d share my impressions so far. This review will focus on the Levity but also contrast it with the Exos for those considering a similar upgrade.
Stats
- Make: Osprey
- Model: Levity 60
- Model Year: 2019
- Volume: 60 liters
- Carrying Capacity: 10 – 25 pounds
- Measured Weight: 873 grams (863 main body, 10 compression cord) in size medium
- Date Purchased: 2019-03-10
- Price Paid: $270.00
- Usage: 13 trips (32 days / 19 nights / 143 miles)
Wide-Brimmed Hats
It all started with wide-brimmed hats. After years of wearing mesh-top baseball caps for hiking I grew concerned about the lack of sun protection for my ears and neck as well as how much sun might be coming in through the mesh itself. So, I decided to pick up a Sunday Afternoons Charter Escape hat. Unfortunately the back of the brim kept bumping into the top of my Exos even with the top pouch removed.
Now, this was something I had anticipated. I’d previously made an attempt about a year or two prior to migrate to a wide-brimmed hat just to try something different but after having it bump into my pack on every single step I took it off and went back to the ol’ tried and true. However, this time around I was insistent on keeping the hat for functional reasons which meant that I was now in the market for a new pack.
The Levity checked all right right boxes: it was a newer model than the Exos, significantly lighter, and had a similar feature set minus things I don’t care about (the Stow-on-the-Go trekking pole storage, for example, since I only use hiking poles to support my tent).
But was it hat compatible?
To find out, I did a quick comparison of listed dimensions between the three sizes of Exos 58 and Levity 60 (units are in cm since the inch measurements on the Osprey site are all decimal-y):
- Exos 58 S: 75H X 41W X 37D
- Exos 58 M: 80H X 41W X 37D
- Exos 58 L: 85H X 41W X 37D
- Levity 60 S: 67H X 40W X 33D
- Levity 60 M: 72H X 40W X 33D
- Levity 60 L: 77H X 40W X 33D
So my Exos 58 large came in at 85cm high, while the largest Levity 60 was a full 8cm shorter. Since my torso length puts me right on the border between a medium and large Osprey pack I decided to save 40g of pack weight and give myself another 5cm of hat clearance by going with the medium model. Net result: a full 13cm (5in) more hat clearance than my Exos.
My wide-brimmed hat has never bumped into the top of my Levity.
Problem solved.
Killer Features
Common to Osprey’s line of packs are two killer features which in my experience offer a game-changing combination of convenience and comfort. These are features that I absolutely won’t give up and which keep me coming back to Osprey again and again.
1. Suspended Mesh Back Panel
Like many Osprey packs the Levity features a suspended mesh back panel. What this means is that the part of the pack that actually touches your back is highly-breathable mesh and the main compartment of the pack is separated from the mesh by a two-inch air gap. This setup vastly reduces the discomfort of a sweaty back by allowing it to constantly breathe. Few things on the trail are more refreshing than standing perpendicular to the wind and feeling it blow across your back with your pack still on.
Now, to keep the mesh from collapsing against the pack body while you’re wearing it has to be tensioned. To accomplish this Osprey has made the body of the pack bend outwards away from the mesh. You can think of the mesh as being the bow string and the pack body as being the curved part of the bow. Some people dislike this setup since it necessarily moves the center of gravity farther away from your back than other styles of packs. I don’t notice a difference myself, but even if I did I think the increase in breathability would be a worthy trade-off.
2. Holster Side Pockets
In recent years I’ve migrated from using a water bladder as my primary water carry method to putting a pair of SmartWater bottles in my side pockets. The only potential downside is convenience: to drink from a water bladder you just have to put the hose in your mouth and suck whereas with water bottles you have to be able to pull them out of the side pockets, open them up, drink, close them, and return them to the side pockets every time you want to take a drink. For some packs this can be a royal pain ranging anywhere from an uncomfortable stretch to having to take off the pack entirely or asking a hiking buddy for assistance (don’t be that person). I prefer to stop as infrequently as possible and I also prefer not to be a burden to my hiking companions so I find this unacceptable. Fortunately, packs with holster-style side pockets mean you can remove and replace a water bottle one-handed without having to stop.
So what does holster-style mean, anyway? Traditionally packs have had side pockets with openings only on top, great for storing tent poles or trekking poles or anything else that’s too long and rigid to fit inside the main compartment. A holster-style side pocket has a front-facing opening in addition to the top opening which means you can access the contents of the pocket from the front. The motion is similar to reaching into the back pocket of a pair of pants with your palm facing out but just a few inches higher. By placing frequently-accessed items such as snacks and water bottles in the bottoms of your side pockets you no longer have to fiddle with your pack or ask for assistance when you need them.
For those migrating from an Exos I definitely found that getting water bottles into and out of the Levity pockets took a little getting used to, mostly because of the difference in stretchiness. However after my first overnight I had completely adjusted and I now find it just as easy as the Exos, meaning, I don’t even think about it at all.
Water Bottle Retention
The Exos featured stretchy mesh side pockets with a flat loop that was just large enough to fit around the neck of a SmartWater bottle. I don’t know if this loop was actually intended to be used as a bottle retainer but that’s what I used it for. Once you’ve had water bottles fall out of your side pockets and roll away while navigating steep terrain (as I did in the Enchantments, although I was able to recover them) you’ll always want to have a retainer of some sort. It also swapped out the flat retainer loop for a smaller cord loop which is too small to fit around the neck of a water bottle. To compensate I girth-hitch a one-inch diameter elastic hair tie to the cord loop and then stretch the hair tie around the necks of the water bottles.
Water Bottle Sizing
The distance from the front opening of the Levity’s side pocket to the back corner of the pocket is eight inches. The distance from the bottom of a 700mL SmartWater bottle to the neck is just a hair over eight inches, which makes them perfectly sized for these pockets. It places the neck at exactly the right location for the retainer loop and the top of the bottle protrudes about two inches from the pocket, making them easy to locate by feel and grab onto. Because the body of the water bottle is as long as the pocket is deep you don’t have to worry about the bottle sliding into the pocket and disappearing since it’s already resting against the back.
My experience has been that larger SmartWater bottles (specifically the 1L) are too long for the side pockets: they stick out too far for use with a retainer loop which makes them prone to loss.
Fabrics
The Levity is primarily constructed from two fabrics:
1. NanoFly
The higher-wear areas of the pack (the side pockets, front pocket, and the top of the top lid) are made out of Osprey’s NanoFly material, a 210-denier Cordura nylon with 200-denier ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene ripstop threads woven in (UHMWPE is more commonly known by the brand names Dyneema or Spectra). It’s important to note that only the ripstop grid is UHMWPE as opposed to Hyperlite Mountain Gear’s packs whose fabrics are entirely Dyneema.
2. Silnylon
The main compartment and the rest of the top lid are made from a Cordura-branded 30-denier ripstop silnylon. This fabric is unnervingly semi-transparent: if you place a bear canister inside the main compartment any stickers on the canister are easily readable through the material.
For comparison, the Exos is constructed from 100-denier nylon with a 210-denier nylon bottom.
Stretchiness
Neither of these fabrics are the least bit stretchy. Contrast this with the side and front pockets of the Exos which are made from an incredibly stretchy material. In order to be able to actually store gear inside them the Levity’s pockets are “bellowed” such that the material arcs away from the main body of the pack.
Waterproofness
I reached out to Osprey customer service regarding waterproofness and they responded that the two fabrics have a hydrostatic head somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 millimeters. Since anything below 1,500mm cannot be considered rainproof according to the ISO 811 standard this means that the Levity would not be waterproof even if you took the time to seal the enormous amount of seams. A Nylofume pack liner is still your best bet for keeping your gear dry.
I did some rudimentary bathroom testing to verify the waterproofness myself. With the outside of the front pocket facing downward I used a faucet to fill it until the water line reached the drain hole at the bottom. After a few minutes not a single drop of water passed through the NanoFly fabric and the outside remained dry to the touch. I then dumped 700mL of water into one of the side pockets and observed the same results.
I poured another 700mL of water into the top lid with the silnylon bottom facing downward. A single drop formed on the outside of the fabric. However, the water line was high enough to reach a seam in the fabric where it began to “rain”.
Top Pouch
The top pouch on the Levity has a single zippered compartment containing only a key clip and is not removable. The material on the top of the top pouch is NanoFly and the sides and bottom are silnylon. Each of the top four corners of the pouch has a small loop of cord for use as an attachment point. The bottom edges of the sides of the pouch are elastic, something that will come in handy in a future post when we discuss ice axe attachment.
On the Exos the key clip is instead located in a second, smaller zipped compartment on the bottom of the top lid, and the entire lid itself is removable. When I was using the Exos as my primary pack I removed the top pouch to save weight and stored my ditty bag and other miscellaneous gear at the top of the main compartment. Although this arrangement wasn’t ideal, I just got used to the idea of occasionally having to dig through my entire pack just to find a water filter or something else which had slipped down the sides past the tent and quilt. I also picked up an S-clip and attached it inside the main compartment specifically to keep my car keys anchored so that I wouldn’t have to worry about losing them. When I moved to the Levity I was initially annoyed that I couldn’t save weight by removing the top pouch. However, after using it to store the ditty bag, water pouch and filter, bathroom kit, and a host of other small items I realized that having a much smaller space to search for all of my more frequently-accessed items was a huge convenience and I now greatly prefer having the top pouch.
Key Clip
Unfortunately the key clip on the Levity is sub-par as the design offers very little resistance to escaping keyrings. On no less than three trips I’ve found my keys still in my top pouch but separated from the clip, causing a minor panic the first time around. After being burned a few more times I got fed up and used a file to remove the key clip while keeping the tether intact and replacing it with a Litesmith micro carabiner which features a surprisingly strong gate.
Main Compartment
The Levity features a single top-loading main compartment for storing the majority of your gear. The top cinches shut with a cord-and-toggle mechanism and there is no extension collar for increasing carrying capacity. The interior features a hydration bladder sleeve with a small port to feed a drinking tube through. Unlike the side and front pockets there is no drain hole at the bottom of the main compartment, however in the bottom of the hydration sleeve there is a drain hole through the back panel.
The Exos also has a top-loading main compartment with a similar opening mechanism.
Shoulder Straps
The shoulder straps on the Levity are noticeably flimsier than on the Exos and yet they’re still surprisingly comfortable and functional within the prescribed load range. There’s no daisy chain or pockets for holding gear, just a single semi-elastic band across the front of each strap.
Cameras
During my time with the Exos I was using an Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark II Micro Four Thirds camera with a Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 G pancake lens weighing 363 and 58 grams, respectively, for a total camera weight of 421 grams. For easy access I attached the camera to my shoulder strap using a Peak Design Capture Clip v3. This setup was both convenient and comfortable and served me well for a couple years.
When I upgraded to the Levity I also upgraded to a better (and heavier) camera: a Fujifilm X-T20 APS-C camera with a Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR wide-angle lens weighing 383 and 375 grams respectively. This increased total camera weight of 758 grams was workable on the Exos but it was too heavy on the Levity, causing the shoulder straps to twist.
To address this I picked up a Peak Design Pro Pad. This creates a rigid backing on the strap, giving it enough structure to prevent twisting. It also increases the surface area over which the weight of the camera presses which makes it more comfortable to carry.
Bear Canisters
I own three bear canisters:
The Backpacker’s Cache is more enlongated (hot dog-style) and can fit vertically in the Levity’s main compartment without any hassle. Stored horizontally it presses up against the sides and stretches the fabric taut but it’s still doable. The BV 450 is short and squat (hamburger-style). It fits both ways within the compartment with a little less hassle than the Backpacker’s Cache. Finally, the Contender is basically just a smaller version of the Backpacker’s Cache so it easily fits with no fuss.
Comfort
Despite the minimal padding in the waist belt and shoulder straps I find the Levity to carry comfortably day after day at its rated limit of 25 pounds. The heaviest load I’ve carried with the pack was on my 2019 trip to the Enchantments (LighterPack). Although I forgot to weigh my food (embarrassing!) if we assume the standard two pounds per full day of backpacking that would have brought my weight up to around 27.23 pounds – and since I always overpack food it was most likely closer to 30. In any case, my shoulders were very sore at the end of the first day but fine after that.
On a side note, I frequently see people saying that the load rating of a backpack includes the weight of the pack itself (meaning, you should subtract out the pack’s weight from the load rating to see how much gear weight it can actually support). While this makes absolutely no sense to me I decided to once again reach out to Osprey customer service for the authoritative answer. The load rating on Osprey packs does not include the weight of the pack. You’re welcome.
Durability
Initially I was concerned about the durability of the silnylon fabric due to its thinness. However, in most places this fabric is obscured by either the top lid, front and side pockets, back panel, or the reinforced bottom so wear and tear due to abrasion isn’t a serious concern. After an entire season of use (19 nights and about 140 miles as of this writing) the pack is hole-free and I’m no longer worried about durability. The only visible wear is some slight fuzzing of the material that reinforces the opening of the holster pockets.
Summary
The Levity 60 is my favorite pack so far and I’m planning on continuing to use it for the 2020 season. It’s the first truly ultralight offering from a major manufacturer and the mesh back panel and holster side pockets deliver an unmatched combination of comfort and convenience. It’s a great pack for those looking to dip their toes into ultralight backpacking since you can try it on at any REI and many find the combination of REI’s return policy and Osprey’s warranty reassuring (although, since most regular folks only go backpacking one or two weekends a year I don’t think the warranty is actually a huge benefit in practice). For $50 more than the Exos you get a 30% reduction in weight, a significant savings. However, for the budget-conscious it’s worth remembering that the tried-and-true Exos is still the most popular pack for successful PCT thru-hikers. In other words, while the Levity is a nice upgrade you won’t be missing out by going with (or hanging onto) the Exos.
Meta
Hey look, I reviewed a product people have actually heard of! Embarrassingly I started the first draft of this review way back in July but since the backpacking season kept going and going it got delayed, and then I got busy with the cabin. After so many revisions and photo shoots I finally just wanted to get this stupid thing done so I could move on to something else (probably the Lunar Solo with a bunch of little things in-between). The scope got reduced, I originally had a section on how I packed the Levity and how to attach an ice axe, both of which will be introduced as separate posts in the next week or two. In any case it feels good to finally be “done”, although the plan is to keep updating this review as I keep using the pack.
History
- 2019-11-12: Original version
- 2019-12-16: Clarification on waterproofness
- 2020-01-01: Added more specifics to the Comfort section as well as a note on whether the load rating includes the pack’s weight
- 2020-01-18: Fixed a typo: the measured weights are for the size medium, not large
- 2020-05-21: Added a section on the key clip