Mammut Ride 30L RAS 3.0 Backpack for Sale, Reviews, Deals and Guides

This is a great airbag pack that is perfect for full days out in the mountains. I've never had to use the airbag in anger so I won't pretend to review that feature, but it's a well regarded system. It also suffers from all of the potential travel headaches of canister based systems. Things I really like: 1) The main zipper pulls and buckles are easily manipulable with gloves on (even mittens if they're not over bulky). Well done. 2) It's fits all of the gear you need for a full day in the mountains. I can fit a full lunch, extra layers and gloves, emergency bivvy and food, tool and repair kit, and a 1.5 liter water bottle in the main compartment. I've also fit aluminum crampons (or mr chomps ski crampons but not both) and a minimalist harness in there as well. The avalanche tool pouch is big enough for a real shovel and probe along with my skins. The fleece lined goggle pocket is fine for goggles + snacks. 3) Things strap to it easily wihout a lot of excess straps flopping around. The vertical snowboard carry and ice axe attachments are simple to use. I also like the little plastic loops at the base of the carry straps, they are perfect for strapping your helmet to. Splitskis work well carried A-frame also using the compression straps, but don't use it this way in avalanche terrain since this configuration interferes with the airbag deployment. 4) It's reasonably lightweight for an airbag pack. Things that aren't perfect: 1) The bag isn't the best for riding with heavy or bulky loads. It doesn't deal well with loads over 25 pounds or so and when full it's a portly little 30L bag that rides a bit further from the body than I'd like. Making it slightly longer and thinner would be my preference. The straps are surprising comfortable up 30 lbs or so, but because the doesn't ride super close to your body it has a larger impact on snowboarding and hiking dynamics when fully loaded than other packs I've owned. Not a dealbreaker by any means but it's not great particularly when you add the awkward load of a snowboard to the very back of the pack. It does just fine with smaller loads and the compression straps work well to hug it in as much as possible. 2. It doesn't have backpanel access. Backpanel access isn't a big deal for everyone but I really like the ability to easily access my whole pack without undoing compression straps and/or taking my board of my back. This is particular handy when booting up a couloir for example. 3. Diagonal ski carry system does not work well for splitboard skis, I imagine it'd be OK for all but the fattest of skis but I'm still not totally sold on this method of attachment. A frame works well but makes the airbag feature useless. 4. My version doesn't have a hipbelt pocket. Looks like they fixed that. Bottom line: Great bag for a full day of backcountry snowboarding with the added bonus of an airbag. I find I use this pack happily all winter and don't particularly notice the extra couple of pounds from the airbag. Then volcano season (spring) hits and all of a sudden my other pack feels featherweight. Bonus!