How the Osprey Renn 50 Changed My Trail Days

My old pack gave up on a Tuesday in late March. I was in the garage, loading it for a day hike, and the main zipper pulled clean off the track. That pack had carried me for a long time, but it had earned its retirement. The problem was, I had not planned for it. I am 59, I live outside Missoula, and I have been hiking for about thirty years. I know what I want from gear, and I do not like being sold to.

So I did what I always do when something wears out. I read the specs, I read the reviews, and I drove into town to see the candidates in person. Tom came along, mostly to carry the things I set down. I tried on three packs with weight in them. The Osprey Renn 50 was the second one, and it was the one I kept coming back to.

What sold me was not the look. It was the AirSpeed suspension. The backpanel is tensioned and adjustable for different torso lengths, and it holds the pack off my back so air can move. On a hot climb in July, that matters. The pack is 50 liters and 3.5 pounds, which felt right for two and three night trips. It has seven pockets, including a utility pocket that became the home for my filter and my map.

I bought it in the first week of April, after retiring the old pack. The first trip was an overnight shakedown in May, and I will be honest: it took two trips to get the hipbelt and the load settled. The first night out, I had the backpanel close but not right, and I felt it in my shoulders by the time we made camp. Tom suggested a small adjustment. I moved the backpanel up one setting, and the second trip felt like a different pack.

The shakedown itself was a good reminder of what the old pack had been missing. By the end of a warm afternoon, my back used to be soaked. The Renn 50's tensioned backpanel kept air moving, and I noticed the difference before we reached the first switchback. It is a small thing until you are on the third mile of a climb.

By July, I had done three backpacking trips with the Osprey Renn 50, each two or three nights, and I had stopped thinking about the pack entirely. That is the real test. A pack that fits stops being a thing you carry and becomes part of how you move. I noticed the ventilation on a long hot climb up a drainage east of town. I noticed the raincover when a storm rolled over the ridgeline one afternoon, because I had it out and over the pack in under a minute.

I moved the backpanel up one setting, and the second trip felt like a different pack.

The moment I knew I had made the right call came in August, on a two-night trip into the Sapphire Mountains. We parked the Subaru at the trailhead, and I lifted the Renn 50 out of the back. Fully loaded, it sat where it should, on my hips, not my shoulders. The trail gained about 1,800 feet in the first two miles. On the old pack, that climb would have been a negotiation. With this one, I just walked.

The second morning, it rained. Not a sprinkle. A proper Montana soaker. Tom and I packed up in the drizzle, and I pulled the integrated raincover out of its stow, slipped it over the pack, and had everything protected before my boots were laced. The cover is removable, so when the sun came out that afternoon, it went back into the pack and stayed out of the way.

I am a person who likes a place for everything. The Renn 50 has seven pockets, and by the third trip I knew exactly where each thing lived. The utility pocket held the filter and the map. The rest sorted itself out. I could pack the whole thing in the dark and trust that the headlamp was where I left it.

One more thing about the load. I carried the usual gear: a tent, a sleeping bag, food for three days, and the Sawyer filter for water. The Renn 50 took it all and still had room for a rain shell and an extra layer. Fifty liters is the right size for the trips I do. It is not so big that I am tempted to fill it with things I do not need.

The weight matters too. At 3.5 pounds, the Renn 50 is light enough that I think about what is in it, not the pack itself. The polyester fabric has taken some abuse. I have set it down on granite, pushed it through willows, and stuffed it into the back of the Outback more times than I can count. It looks like a pack that has been used, which is exactly what I wanted.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at my kitchen table, here is what I would tell you. Try the pack on with weight in it, not empty. Adjust the torso length before you judge it, and give it two trips before you decide. The first night I used the Osprey Renn 50, I was not sure. The second trip, I was. And do not overpack. A 50 liter pack will hold more than you need for two nights, and it carries better when you leave the extras at home. If your old pack is on its last legs, do not wait for the zipper to fail on a Tuesday in March. Replace it on your own schedule.