Why We Chose The Arc’teryx Bora 65 Backpack: Comfortable, feature-packed, durable
As the 65 litre size suggests, the Arc’teryx Bora 65 is designed to optimise load stability while providing an efficient and comfortable carry for multi-day hikes. The backpack is both water resistant and extremely durable with a few handy features that make it a worthy addition to the Outdoor 100 product guide. Let’s take a closer look at the pack.
Features
A technical hip belt provides the Bora 65 with an extremely comfortable carry. This ‘RotoGlide’ design has been made to move with you, giving you better balance as the pack’s weight follows your body as you rock side to side. It’s certainly an effective way to keep the backpack weight well centred on your back and is something that makes a big difference with a heavily loaded pack.
A ‘Tegris’ internal frame and aluminium stays provide stability and structure to the pack itself, while helping to spread the load out. Tegris, to us, looks like a carbon fibre back panel designed to keep the pack’s overall weight to a minimum while still providing a good deal of load management. The material actually comes from a thermoplastic composite, bringing similar properties to carbon (including looking almost identical), with the added benefit that it won’t shatter on impact, it’s a tenth of the cost and it’s fully recyclable.
Access to the main compartment has been made easy, being either through the large drawcord opening that’s tucked underneath the lid, or via a waterproof side zip. This gives you access to what would otherwise be hard to reach items buried deep towards the bottom of the backpack.
“The whole pack is cut from a toughened 210 denier Cordura fabric.”
Other smaller pockets give multiple areas to stash bits of kit that you might need quick access to. These include the large ‘Kangaroo Pocket’ at the front of the pack which can be unzipped to offer ideal storage for both a rain shell and a midlayer. You’ve also got stretchy mesh stash pockets on the hipbelt and open side pockets, which are ideal for the smaller items on your kit list.
