Lightweight Innovation: Gregory Fury 40L Pack

Published on 07/27/2012

By Billy Brown

We’ve been fans of Gregory for a while now, and with the burly Baltoro and wide range of women-specific packs like the Jade and Deva series, you’d think there would come a time where they would run out of innovation. That may be true someday, but that day is definitely not today.

The Fury series is not a huge departure from their packs – they’ve still got the emphasis on backpanel breathability, support, and comfortable storage, but the Fury sports these in a lighter, more streamlined form for minimalist packers.

We had a tester load up the pack with gear and sent him up Mount Shasta, a 14’er in Northern California, with a snowboard jimmy-rigged to it to see how it handled, and it came back with a fairly glowing review.

Our tester noted that even with a full pack and improvised snowboard storage, the shape of the frame and strategic cushioning in the shoulder and waist straps was comfortable and supportive throughout the summit attempt, and despite its slim build, our tester reported that the 40-liter pack had ample room for hydration storage.

“The two water bottle holsters on each kidney were well placed with respect to weight distribution, and there was room for my hydration reservoir.”

In addition to the main interior compartment, stretch kangaroo pocket and top lid pocket, there were enough features on the exterior to satisfy our testers.

“The packs had extra loops for ‘biners and external storage, loops and straps for trekking poles and an ice axe,” one tester said. “And plenty of cinch straps to keep everything locked down.”

The Fury’s most popular feature was the reversed top lid (see the video above), which opens towards the back of the pack, allowing it to lean back, keeping the straps and backpanel out of the dirt. Since these areas tend to end up sweaty, dirt tends to stick to them

“The reversed top loading access to the pack was brilliant because I rarely lay a pack on the ground shoulder-strap side down, since I don’t like to put a muddy, wet or dirty pack on my back.”

The only beef that our testers had was that the waist strap pockets were too small to carry more than one Clif Bar each. But then again, we’re pretty big eaters.

Overall, the Fury 40 was a hit with our testers – a lightweight, comfortable pack with plenty of storage for a day trip or an overnighter.

Earn cash back on the Gregory Fury 40 Pack