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My friends, welcome to this episode of the Outdoor Gear Review. I hope you all are doing well. Up for review today is an Osprey backpack, the Kestrel 45 LT. This is a great little backpack that I've enjoyed using. With that being said, there's many pros and some cons that you need to know of before you consider purchasing this pack. I've been testing this pack out for numerous months, and I have to say I've been very impressed with just about everything concerning it, with the exception of one thing. That one thing we will talk about in just a moment. For now, let's start by taking a look at this backpack and
all of its features. First things first, we have the lid. Starting at the very top, we have four loops so you can attach whatever you want to the lid itself. We also have a back zippered pocket, which gives you access to this entire area here for storing gear. With this lid here, it is permanently attached to the backside of the backpack. So, in other words, you cannot remove this. Also, it is not free floating, meaning you cannot raise this up or lower it down depending on the loadout that you have inside of your backpack. We do have two buckles here to secure it. And on the inside, we have a zippered mesh pocket along with a clip for your keys. If you're wearing this backpack, this is the right side. So, on the right
side, we have a compression strap with a buckle that attaches to this front pocket. We'll talk more about this front pocket in just a moment. What we have here on the side is a stretchy hydration sleeve. So, you can put water bottles inside of this. You can put gear inside of this if you want to. Here on the side, you have an access point so that you can angle your water bottles so that you can easily grab them when you're wearing this backpack. Down at the bottom, you have a compression strap. If you turn this pack around, you have basically the same features plus one. We have the compression strap with
a buckle that attaches to the front pocket. We have the stretchy hydration sleeve. We also have the second access point for that hydration sleeve. Down at the bottom, we have the compression strap, but this one has a buckle on it. And that's because up here, we have a zipper that allows you to open up this backpack. This allows you to open up this pack in a really strange way. If you undo these compression straps for the bottom of the pack and continue to unzip this, this gives you a sort of makeshift side access point. This is interesting. And how useful this is depends on how well you pack this backpack. Looking at the front of the pack, you have this large sleeve here.
You also have a rain cover that is included with this backpack. I tend to keep it in this pocket because it's easier to access instead of using the dedicated rain cover pocket, which is down at the bottom. When this pack is full and you need to get this out, that could be a little bit of a struggle. That's why I keep it here so I can easily access it. This pocket here is rather large. It goes from the top basically all the way down to the sleeping bag compartment. Speaking of the sleeping bag compartment, this is the same zipper that gives you access to the side of the pack. This has three zippers on it, so
you can access it from the side and also from over here. So, if you want to access the sleeping bag compartment, you can do this. You do have to disconnect these two compression straps. Down here, we have the rain fly pocket. Above the sleeping bag compartment, we have numerous straps for attaching gear. Going up even further, we have two more loops. When looking at the back of the backpack, we have a grab handle up here at the top. Here, we have a hydration port if you decide to run a hydration bladder inside of this pack. We have the harness system, load lifters, numerous straps, sternum belt. Everything here is adjustable as you would expect. We have the waist belt down here. Each side has its own dedicated zippered pocket. The waist
belt, naturally, is fully adjustable. When it comes to the torso system, that too is also adjustable. We have lots of mesh, lots of foam, plenty of gaps to promote ventilation. Moving to the inside of the backpack, there's not a whole lot to talk about. You have the expandable lid with a draw pull up at the top. You have a hydration bladder on the inside that can support up to 3 L. You also have a hydration bladder support hook. And folks, that is all. Before I start with my list of pros and cons concerning this backpack, let's go over some stats. First, this is available in numerous colors, black, green, and blue. This is the green
color. You can find this in multiple sizes, 28 L, 35 L, 45 L, and 65 L. This was designed for backpacking purposes, namely shorter duration trips where 45 L offers enough capacity for your adventure. Speaking of which, again, this is a 45 L backpack, and the torso system can be adjusted from 18 in to 22 in. The waist belt measures 30 in all the way up to 50 in. When it comes to the materials, this is made with a 300 denier polyester that features a ripstop and also a water repellent treatment. The pack also has YKK zippers. Concerning the frame system, we have an internal steel frame that is combined with the Airscape back panel padding. It measures 26.8 in by 13.4 by 11.8 in wide. And the weight of this backpack is surprisingly high at 4
lb 3 oz. Concerning the weight limit, Osprey does not state this information, so I can give you all my best estimate based upon my use and my experiences with this backpack. The max loadout that I've carried in this system is 30 lb, and at 30 lb, it was very comfortable. I loaded it up to 35, and I begin feeling the system stress a little bit. 35 in a pinch is what I believe is accurate for this system. If you go up to 40 lb, you're certainly hitting the upper end of what this was designed to carry. And lastly, my friends, this backpack costs $200. Now everyone, let's talk about the pros and cons that I have with this backpack after many months of use. Speaking of use, I've used this for backpacking
purposes. I have also used this for moto camping purposes. Load up the backpack, put it on, hop on my motorcycle, and take off. For both purposes, this has worked really, really well. The first positive that we have to talk about is comfort. With 30 lb loaded up inside of this backpack, it is incredibly comfortable to wear. It fits correctly. The loadout rides close to your back, so it doesn't move around. At the same time, that loadout is very well controlled. Due to the small design, there's not a whole lot of leeway as far as the pack shifting goes. The compression straps, they do exactly what they are supposed to do. The harness system, the waist belt, the padding, all of that absolutely excellent and
absolutely comfortable. Speaking of the harness system, this is fully adjustable, and you can dial in your fit. You can get everything here to fit you perfectly. The torso system and the way that it's adjustable, it's great. I wouldn't say it's the best out there, but it's really, really good. All you have to do is take off your backpack and slide this up and down. Very simple, very easy. Continuing to talk about comfort in relation to the harness system and the back paneling, ventilation is very well controlled with this backpack. say it's very good. It's not the best out there, but it's very good. We have 3D mesh here on the harness system itself. The same is true with the waist belt. And then with this
back panel, we have lots of recesses, plenty of mesh, and that's going to promote ventilation. If you're carrying this on a hot day or you're pushing yourself, you are going to sweat. You are going to get wet. But, when you can compare this to many backpacks, you won't be as sweaty. So again, ventilation with this system here is good, very good, but it's not the best out there. For $200, the sort of ventilation that you get with this system here, it makes a lot of sense. Concerning the materials, they are very good and have proven themselves to be rather strong. We have YKK zippers, which are very smooth, and they're definitely the best quality zipper out there. I will say that I find it interesting that Osprey
has, at least for this backpack, gone with a polyester material instead of a nylon. Polyester is cheaper, it's less expensive. At the same time, it's not as strong or as lightweight as nylon. Because this pack is made from polyester, it does contribute to this pack weighing quite a bit, and we'll talk more about that in just a moment. The pack is definitely well made. All of the stitching looks great, the seam work. This is a top-notch, well-made, well-constructed backpack. At the same time, it's well thought out. All of the features, they work, and they do exactly what you would expect them to do. So again, we have three access points, the bottom, the side, and the top. The top I've used. The bottom I've used. I have
yet to been in the situation where I needed to access this pack from the side. It's a feature that could be useful, but the way that they've implemented it, it's not the most useful. It's a nice feature to have, but the question is, are you actually going to use it? Again, as I mentioned before, you really have to plan on using it. You need to make sure that you have those objects, those items that you may want to grab close to this access point for this to make sense. We do have plenty of pockets and organization options here, like you have with most packs today. There's no surprises here. It's not too limited, and at the same time, there's not too many. We have a good balance of pockets. Speaking of pockets, the waist
belt pockets are good. When you're wearing the backpack, you still have enough space inside of those pockets for smaller items. Concerning the lid, you have plenty of space on the top and also on the inside for storing gear. Then you have this front pocket here. There's a drainage hole down at the bottom. So, let's say you have wet gear, rain gear, maybe a tarp, maybe a rain fly. You can stick all of that in that pocket, and the water will drain out. That, everyone, is a smart feature. When it comes to the hydration pockets, they too are excellent. I have no complaints there. The truth is, my friends, I do not have any big complaints outside of just one when it comes to this backpack.
The complaint that I have is in regards to weight. This is a 45 L backpack, which is considered to be rather small. It's a little bit bigger than a day bag, but it's small for an overnight bag. 45 L, and this weighs over 4 lb. There are 75 L backpacks that don't weigh this much. It goes to the materials. Polyester material, not as strong, and definitely heavier than nylon, and it shows with this pack. Yes, this is durable, don't get me wrong, but the weight with this pack is significant. You can very easily go out and find 45 L backpacks that weigh 2 lb. This weighs double that. It's over 4 lb, and it's noticeable. It's noticeable in the sense that if you grab this backpack and pick it up, you're
going to think to yourself, "Oh, it's not that heavy." But once you load this up with your gear, and you add food and water, you're going to say to yourself, "Wow, this pack weighs a lot." And it's really because this pack weighs so much. It's not just your gear and your loadout. This pack has a substantial weight that comes with it. And I think that's something that Osprey really does need to work on when it comes to their systems. It is 2026. The company needs to begin figuring out how to drop the weight of these backpacks, because the rest of the industry is moving on from ultra-heavy designs. Their packs are just as comfortable carrying heavier loadouts while being lighter weight. This is an
area that I would highly recommend Osprey to look at and possibly address. They got the designs down, but again, it's 2026. It's time that they brought these weights down, because 45 L, 4 lb, that's a lot of weight for such a small backpack. Something else, this is the LT version of this backpack, which stands for lightweight, but yet, it's not lightweight. So, my question for Osprey is this, if 4 lb for a 45 L is lightweight to them, what do they consider to be heavy? Because to average individuals like us, 4 lb is a substantial amount of weight for such a tiny backpack. Going back to the materials, I do think it's a little bit strange that the company has gone with a polyester instead of a nylon. The company's been known for using the best
of the best when it comes to materials for the longest time. Polyester is generally reserved for lower-end backpacks, budget-friendly backpacks. This is $200 for a 45 L. I'm not sure if polyester is the best choice when you're offering this pack again for 200 bucks. And that, my friends, is something to think about. Make sure to comment down below and share your thoughts. What do you all think about this backpack? 45 L, 4 lb, $200. If you found this episode helpful, or at least entertaining, please hit the thumbs up. I do appreciate it. I purchased this backpack with my own money, and that's because this channel is agenda-free. I'm not here to sell
products. I'm not here to sponsor products and do stuff like that. This channel is all about sharing information with you all so you can decide what you want to do with your own money, and that is all. With that, I'm done. Take care. Be well. Strength and honor. See you.
