Search Outdoors Goshawk 2.0 Evaluate

You’d be hard-pressed to make a pack that appeals to me extra than an abrasion-resistant, waterproof, exterior body pack that leverages light-weight supplies to truly haul and haul nicely. It’s an method to pack design that I prefer to name ultrahauling. And there are few corporations I belief extra to deal with that method to pack design than Search Outdoors.

So, once I heard that Search Outdoors was releasing a 2.0 of its Goshawk 4800, a pack that has spent extra time on the high of my rotation than some other during the last 12 months, I shortly detoured alongside a 2,000-mile highway journey to cease on the firm’s headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo. 

I’ve taken Search Outdoors’s bigger 103L model on many an journey. Nonetheless, for 2025, the smaller, 79L Goshawk 4800 2.0 is sporting some massive updates: a extra streamlined body, a number of add-ons, new equipment, and a doubtlessly controversial cloth changeup. 

Over the past 6 months, I’ve taken the 4800 paddling, mountaineering, rucking, scorching tent tenting, foraging, slot canyon scrambling — just about every thing that doesn’t contain getting sufficient time without work work to go looking with it. Listed here are my impressions.

Briefly: The Goshawk 4800 2.0 ($625) is a extremely sturdy, light-weight exterior body pack constructed for lengthy hauls within the backcountry. It’s modular and customizable, and designed to distribute hundreds evenly and simply. It is available in two choices, created from water-resistant-treated UltraGrid or waterproof Extremely 200X materials. With an 80L quantity, this pack might need my favourite load-hauling body in the marketplace — although not with no few caveats.

Search Outdoors Goshawk 2.0 Evaluate

Every year, twice a 12 months, I drive a number of thousand miles from exterior Chicago to wherever I’ll be combating wildfires for the season. This 12 months, I drove over 2,000 miles to the Tahoe Nationwide Forest. Nonetheless, I used to be more than pleased to take a number of hundred-mile detour once I heard that Search Outdoors was rereleasing one in every of its hottest backpacks, the Goshawk 4800, which GearJunkie beforehand reviewed in 2018.

Search Outdoors sits proper on the confluence of looking and backpacking. Its modus operandi is to leverage robust but light-weight supplies to create four-season shelters, packs, and stoves which are comparatively light-weight regardless of being overbuilt and modular.

Versatility and premium supplies, handmade in Grand Junction, are the model’s inventory in commerce. Few gadgets showcase this higher than the Goshawk. I’ve been carrying the large 6300 model for over a 12 months, once I heard in regards to the Goshawk 4800 2.0 pack. It has new supplies, a free accent, a revamped body, and, in accordance with the model, a lighter total weight, with out compromising the efficiency I’ve grown to anticipate.

So, I detoured my tour to Tahoe to go to Search Outdoors’s manufacturing flooring, see its new product lineup, and get my palms on essentially the most thrilling new pack I’ve seen shortly. After half a 12 months’s price of rucking, paddling, and mountaineering in every thing from sandstone canyons to alpine forests, I’ve received a great deal of good impressions in regards to the Goshawk 4800 2.0 — and some critiques.

Body by Body

When you’re new to exterior body packs, it’s easy. In contrast to inner frames, which merely incorporate a body, exterior frames are utterly designed round an impartial body. This permits them to assist extra weight. Search Outdoors’s design additionally lets you swap totally different packs on the body or strap odd hundreds on to it. 

Search Outdoors’s Revolution body is an aluminum U with cross stays. The place most corporations give a max carry weight for packs, Search Outdoors proclaims, “Our body will assist over 300 kilos in vertical load.  YOUR max load shall be decided by your physique, not by the pack.”

My form of advertising and marketing. 

The Revolution leverages UltraGrid for a suspension system that, even after testing dozens of backpacks, stays in my high three for consolation and functionality. It isn’t as versatile as Thriller Ranch’s frames. It isn’t as comfortable and nonslip as KUIU’s. Nonetheless, it transfers weight higher than both, and it’s way more customizable.

Moreover, with the newest iteration’s single-buckle hip belt (versus the previous double-belt), the Revolution’s suspension is extra strong and streamlined.

Most exterior body pack producers supply a number of body sizes. Search Outdoors gives six hip belt sizes in two colours, detachable lumbar cushion pads, and body extensions that allow you to regulate the body’s size — accommodating torsos from 15 to 24 inches. 

Search Outdoors makes ordering packs sans body straightforward, as nicely. And upon getting a body, you possibly can merely scorching swap packs. Granted, the Revolution’s gatekeeper and webbing-based attachment system gives quite a few methods to strap issues to the body and safe totally different luggage, however it may be clunky. Nonetheless, in basic Search Outdoors trend, its customizability is unequalled.

Making of a Goshawk

A number of months in the past, I helped biologists survey precise goshawk populations within the Tahoe Nationwide Forest. One ornithologist described Goshawks as “absolute items,” raptors larger than anything within the space, however with a compact wingspan that made them extra maneuverable inside areas of dense cover.

An absolute, maneuverable unit. That’s a fairly good description for the eponymous pack I used to be utilizing to hold my digicam gear throughout that survey. The Goshawk line is a crossover between a looking and a backpacking pack. It’s a rolltop with two aspect pockets and particulars that put it in a category of its personal.

Structure & Design

The Goshawk 2.0 is available in two sizes: massive and large. The Goshawk 4800 model is 79L (although it may be moderately rolled right down to haul hundreds as little as 35 L). The 6300, in the meantime, ranges from round 60-103 L. Notably, this doesn’t embody the amount of the aspect pockets or what you possibly can strap between the pack and body.

In contrast to many roll tops, the Goshawk additionally has a waterproof zipper alongside the entrance left aspect. It’s a straightforward frontal opening system that has supplied improbable water resistance, even throughout my rainiest hikes. 

The aspect pockets are large, simply able to swallowing tall Nalgenes with room to spare. Additionally they function a chinchable shock-cord-and-lock system and water drainage holes.

Notably, they’re very tall — an intentional compromise towards carrying looking tools (and an unintentionally nice function for photographers). Usually, this might make getting water bottles out and in of them a ache. Nonetheless, you possibly can simply connect Search Outdoors’s water bottle holsters to the Revolution’s hip belt, negating that draw back. 

The Goshawk does lack any entrance shove-it pocket, a backpacking pack staple. Nonetheless, Search Outdoors gives tons of equipment, together with the included Talon, to spice up exterior storage (extra on these in a bit).

Weight

Most individuals hear the phrases “exterior framepack” and assume heavy. Nonetheless, the Goshawk 4800 is definitely pretty mild for its quantity. With a minimal weight of three kilos, 8 ounces, it’s aggressive with or outright lighter than most of the packs on GearJunkie’s information to the Finest Backpacking Packs.

And when you think about that it has a 79L capability, its weight turns into much more engaging. The most important packs on that record are the Gregory Baltoro 75 and Mountain Hardwear AMG 75 (each 75 L), which weigh 4 kilos, 13 ounces.

Supplies

Most of my expertise with this line was with the behemoth Goshawk 6300. It’s my go-to winter and paddling pack. Clad in Extremely 400X, it’s a composite of UHMWPE and high-tenacity polyester, with a water-proof movie backing. It’s among the many most lauded new backpack materials. It has best-in-class abrasion resistance and tear power. 

The waterproofness of Extremely packs will depend on their seam sealing and the water resistance of their zippers. Nonetheless, the material itself can deal with nearly any form of splash or rainfall. Full dunking is a bridge too far, although.

Lengthy-term, on the size of years, UV and abrasion may cause the waterproof movie backing in UltraX sequence materials to delaminate (significantly within the lighter weights) and high-stress seams to degrade. Nonetheless, the face cloth will take an absolute beating for years to return.

So, it was a shock that the 4800 wouldn’t are available Extremely 400X. The 2025 2.0 model is available in two materials, Extremely 200X and UltraGrid, with the aspect pockets swapped from UltraGrid to UltraStretch mesh.

The pockets are straightforward to know. UltraStretch gives a improbable compromise between stretch and abrasion resistance. Nonetheless, I used to be curious in regards to the physique cloth change-up. The 4800 is a smaller pack. Extremely 400X is perhaps overkill, however what’s mistaken with slightly overkill? 

Because it seems, Search Outdoors needed extra colour choices than 400X gives. In any case, black cloth can get scorching shortly. The Extremely 200X was lighter in each colour and weight. The UltraGrid, in the meantime, whereas nowhere as abrasion-resistant as UltraX materials, is quieter (nice for hunters), brings down the value by $55, and is a top quality ripstop cloth that provides extra longevity (nice for backpackers).

Within the Subject

I spent a 12 months placing the 6300 and the previous Revolution body by way of their paces earlier than I touched the Goshawk 4800. It was my go-to coaching platform for wildland firefighting. I rucked with as much as 150 kilos by way of the mountains of Jap Nevada. It was additionally my primary paddling and winter backpacking platform — particularly once I was carrying a scorching tent. 

The 4800 wasn’t given any simpler trials. Preventing fires within the Tahoe Nationwide Forest requires mountaineering steep and unforgiving nation. Coaching with each the previous and new Revolution frames, aspect by aspect, introduced into sharp aid how a lot the brand new hip belt modified the body’s really feel.

I may dial within the previous one’s belt a bit extra. Nonetheless, its smaller double buckle system had sharper corners. The brand new single-buckle system bites much less. It’s additionally simpler to regulate and is significantly easier to function whereas sporting gloves.

As for the 4800’s cloth change, I’ve but to note an actual distinction in efficiency. I’ve dragged it alongside sandstone shores whereas paddling the canyons of Lake Powell. I’ve watched puddles type and drain off it whereas kayaking, solely to seek out every thing nonetheless dry inside. It’s even been a heavy-duty roll-top for my multiday firefighting gear. 

I’ve carried the Goshawk whereas portaging a canoe a mile by way of mountains. I lived out of it for a cross-country highway journey. Hell, I surveyed and photographed nests of the very chicken it was named after, whereas schlepping off-trail in drainages choked with tan oak and mosquitoes. And I can’t say I’d fairly have taken some other bag.

Equipment Galore

A superb third of the worth of a Search Outdoors pack is its suitable equipment. That is true for many exterior body packs. Search Outdoors’s equipment library is shorter than the likes of Thriller Ranch and Stone Glacier. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless well-rounded and versatile.

With the 2025 relaunch of a number of of its backpacks, the corporate now consists of its common detachable lid and Talon. Nonetheless, in addition they supply another lid, the Mesa, which may convert right into a waist pack. And in contrast to most convertible lids, it’s constructed for consolation.

The Mesa doesn’t fairly stand as much as the consolation of Thriller Ranch’s exterior body backpack-convertible lids. However Search Outdoors does supply a 20L storage accent, the Merlin, which might be connected to any of its packs to broaden frontal storage, worn as an impartial daypack, or mounted to the Revolution body for heavier hundreds.

Search Outdoors additionally gives totally different variations of the Talon, its frontal storage and compression compartment: mesh and three totally different colours of UltraGrid. Additionally they supply bottle holsters, hip belt pockets, additional gatekeeper straps, and two totally different sizes of load cabinets — for securing awkward hundreds to the body. The corporate even gives a bow hitch for hunters trying to maintain their palms free whereas mountaineering.

Total, Search Outdoors’s accent lineup is well-designed, and the gatekeeper attachment system gives a wide range of methods to hitch something to the Revolution body.

Small Gripes

The most important exclusionary function of this pack is its price ticket, which ranges from $581 to $636, relying on the chosen cloth and options. It’s a hefty, although justified, value. You solely want to purchase one body, and Search Outdoors makes it straightforward and comparatively cost-effective to order different packs, which you’ll be able to scorching swap as wanted.

For somebody who simply takes the occasional 2-4–day, fair-weather backpacking journeys, the Goshawk is probably going overkill. It additionally lacks the basic frontal shove-it pockets — escewing them in favor of equipment that may safe a wider vary of substances (albeit with extra fiddling). And never providing the Goshawk in 400X is a loss for these searching for the very best sturdiness. 

A private pet peeve: The aspect pockets don’t have a cutout to assist you to run gatekeeper straps beneath them, if you happen to want, to make getting gadgets out and in of the pockets simpler. Six months, and these are my worst complaints.

Search Outdoors Goshawk 2800 2.0: Carrying Conclusions

The Goshawk 4800 has turn into my favourite all-rounder pack. It’s among the many most snug I’ve ever used. It handles the heaviest hundreds higher than some other pack I’ve used. It’s simply essentially the most versatile pack system I’ve examined. 

Moreover, once I stopped in Grand Junction, I noticed the small workforce that handcrafts every pack. I noticed the signature of Paula, who sewed my pack, on the tag between the seams. And I famous how constantly good the stitching was on each pack on the ground. 

This pack is nice for packrafting, backpacking, kayaking, surveying, canoeing, wildlife pictures, and looking. About the one occasions I wouldn’t be glad to default to carrying the Goshawk 4800 are once I’m in a slender canyon, on a cliff, or simply having fun with a day hike. Even that final one has an asterisk. I typically simply swap a unique Search Outdoors pack (such because the Silverton) onto the identical body for day journeys

The Goshawk 4800 is a kind of uncommon examples of a jack of all trades that actually can haul rattling close to every thing, darn close to all over the place, with next-level consolation. Regardless of the journey — after you shed a tear or two for the up-front funding — you’d be hard-pressed to seek out an journey the 4800 received’t deal with, with flying colours, higher than many extra task-tailored backpacks.