Osprey Viva 65 Review – New Version for Women

This Osprey Viva 65 review is about the new and improved version of the popular pack for women with a fully adjustable harness and rain cover included.

Key features

What this is about

This Viva 65 pack for women is a part of Osprey’s Volt and Viva series. The packs from these series for men and women have been redesigned for 2019 and in my recent text, I outlined the main new features in the new version.

So this Viva 65 is the larger of the two packs for women, and this new version is on the market together with the previous version, so do not get confused. This is a women-specific design and it is also fully adjustable so you can be sure you will be able to have your perfect fit. This implies an anatomic shoulder harness appropriate for a female body, a shorter torso size, and the hip belt designed for a women’s hips.

This is a top-loading pack with a floating lid and collar. You also have a bottom compartment with a removable divider between the two sections. The divider is with buckles, just a shelf and without an inner zipper which would prevent small items to slide down. You have an inner sleeve for a 3-liter hydration reservoir (not included).

This pack is built in one size, so you do not have sub-sizes typical for many of the Osprey’s series. But this is why it is completely adjustable.

Overview of features

The suspension

This is the most important part of any pack and this holds in particular here because what you have is a fully adjustable harness. This means two separate things:

• Adjustable shoulder harness (torso length). For this you have a Velcro connection behind the back panel, so all you have to do is to detach the harness and slide it up and down, and then press all back to engage the hook and loop connections. You have a range of 14 – 19 inches (36 – 48 cm). The picture below shows that you have some markers to guide you.
• Adjustable hip belt. Not many packs have this, but you have it here. This is what they call Fit-on-the-Fly system which includes extendable fins which are also with Velcro so you can move them forward or backward. Here too you have markers visible in the picture below. The hip belt is with a dual-density pleasant foam.

The pictures above show how to adjust the harness. Both mentioned features combined will give a perfect fit, and they also allow persons with different body size and shape, family members for example, to use the same pack.

The harness is supported by a lightweight peripheral LightWire 3.5 mm aluminum frame plus an HDPE frame sheet, so you have flexible but strong support for the load. The back panel and harness are covered with spacer mesh for ventilation, this type of the back panel they call AirScape pannel.

Load lifters and adjustable sternum strap with a whistle are in place as expected. But here too you have some nice addition, there are upper and lower buckles for the load lifters’ attachment. So you should use the lower if your torso length is at the lower end.

Pockets

You have 7 + 1 pockets here. To start from the lid, you have an external zippered pocket on the top and yet another mesh zippered pocket underneath the lid. You also have side stretch mesh pockets for water bottles or for any other item which you can store there and fix with straps. One large hybrid panel-mesh shove-it pocket is on the front.

The hip belt is with dual zippered pockets. You also have one separate zippered pocket on the bottom for the rain cover which comes with this pack.

Attachment points and straps

• You have Osprey’s famous Stow-on-the-Go system to attach your trekking pole poles when you are on the go and need to have free hands to take a photo or to scramble on the route.
• Dual compression straps are on each of the sides.
• Dual removable straps are on the bottom section, for a sleeping pad or anything similar.
• There are two tool loops on the bottom, and those are paired with bungee tie-offs higher on the pack.
• Dual daisy chains are also on the front of the pack.

Please see more in this video by the brand:

Specifications

• Weight: 4.21 lb (1.91 kg).
• Volume: 3967 cubic inches (65 l).
• Max carry weight: 50 lb (27 kg).
• Dimensions: 30 x 15 x 13 in (76 x 38 x 33 cm).
• Frame: aluminum.
• Fabric: 210D nylon diamond ripstop & 600D pack cloth.

Osprey Viva 65 pack vs Competitors

To better understand all the features of this pack, I thought it would be good to see it side by side with some other packs built for women. So here are two top-notch packs from renown brands. Kelty is with the most affordable price as usual. But Viva 65 is the only pack here with the rain cover. Please follow the links for more details.

Final thoughts, rating, pros & cons

This is an expensive item, but note that you have the bonus rain cover which you would pay $25 – 35 if ordered separately. Please see how I rate this pack, the same criteria are used for all the packs here in the site:

Osprey Packs Viva 65 Women's Backpacking Pack

9.4

Volume-Weight ratio

9.4/10

Features & bonuses

9.4/10

Comfort

9.4/10

Pros

• Completely adjustable suspension.
• Rain cover bonus.
• Quality materials and workmanship.

Cons

• A bit expensive.

Buy from Amazon

Buy from Osprey

If you need more options, please check in my page with packs over 56 liters of volume. Only the top brands are presented there. You might want to check their Renn 65 pack which is a new model and also designed for women.

Note that this is not a sponsored post and I am not paid by the brand. Please use the comment box below in the case of questions or comments. Have a nice day.