Gourdon Reviews

Bagged a Gourdon 25 as the 20’s were out of stock. Surely a bag-o-legend. Does exactly what is say’s on the tin. Well made, robust, waterproof, lightweight and (in black) almost unbranded. Nice.

Gourdon 20 is a fantastic little rucksack. Bought 1 for my wife, she got fed up with me borrowing it so i had to buy 1 for myself. The wide shoulder straps are very comfy and the removable back pad makes a very handy sit mat at tea breaks. I dont bother using the hydration pouch because the mesh side pockets easily take a 1 litre Sigg bottle which can be accesed while wearing the bag. I recently used it for a days winter walking in the Mamores and strapped my crampons and ice axe on the outside using the bungee compression straps. Build quality is very good as are the materials it is made from. If you are after a small day bag you will not get better at this price. As you can tell i love this little rucksack.

I bought this backpack for commuting via bike in london. Recently my shoulders were playing up after using a courier bag.
The gourdon is amazing, i cant bgelieve how much i can fit in without it seeming overly heavy. The strapos are comfortable enough for a 7 mile each way commute. The pack looks great and is totally proofed from the elements.
Highly recommended, the price is quite literally amazing for the bags. Great work alpkit!

Just got my Gourdon 20 after a bit of a wait…but boy was it worth it! Absolutely delighted with all aspects of design, quality, value.  What a fantastic bit of kit Alpkit, well done!

I bought the G20 for adventure racing last year and found it worked perfectly .....my kit remained dry for once! In fact it works so well my son now uses it to keep his books dry walking to school!...looks like I going to have to order a G30 to replace it! I’ve used it for commuting and day trekking and my son has even given it the nickname’tardis pack’ with reference to its seeming endless capacity!The only possible improvements to the G20/30’s I would recommend are:
1)a velcro tag to keep the hydration waterpouch from slipping down.
2)an outer bungee (good for holding jackets between showers)

My new G30 has just been well and truly tested during an incredibly wet race meeting at Silverstone. I’m a circuit marshal, so I bought the orange one to go with all my other orange garb - it passed the test through some utterly torrential rain and 40mph winds by keeping my dry stuff dry and the wet stuff out. Very pleased
The only thing I have to work out now is how to open a dry bag in horizontal rain without letting water in… maybe I need a person-sized version to stand in?

My window G2o is now 16 months old with daily use on my short commute keeping papers clothes and gadgets dry. It is a shame the window is no longer on newer models as the solution to reflectives stripes is folding a spare cycling tabbard and placing the reflective bit in the window during the winter. It still has many years of life now the proud owner of 2 see through bike puncture patches for miniscule holes (how did that happen??) adds to it’s developing ruggedness. If it is lucky it will get on the Vietnam and Cambodia bike trip in November and spread the Alpkit word even further

Thanks for great products

The Gourdon 20 bag is a great choice for multi day or ultramarathon races and despite conventional wisdom, that little bit more is worth it. At first glance it doesn’t seem to add up as an ideal candidate for the lightweight standards of a typical mountain marathon, it’s heavy, it doesn’t have waist pockets, you can’t really reach the side panels and the padding is awful, but when you use it, it soon becomes clear that these features are simply luxuries that we have all become accustomed to. The truth is that we can compete with less and still survive.

The first thing I noticed was the weight. This is a much heavier bag than an OMM, Raidlight, Inov8 or even an Osprey equivalent, but I knew that it was waterproof, so during training sessions I had to decide if it was worth it. Late September rain was no match for this bag, even the tissue paper placed carefully on top of a packed lunch survived completely intact on a bike ride to work. The only problem was the back panel which caused some amazing rubbing and magnificent sets of grazes every time I used it. A simple solution was to tape a piece of sleeping mat to the bottom half of the bag which not only made life much more comfortable but also came to prove the point that this was indeed a piece of gear fit for long distance events.

I took this modified bag on the A class course in the 2009 OMM. It stayed dry, it didn’t move about, it didn’t cause any grazes on my shoulders or back, I managed to fit my water bladder in there and I stuffed some sweets and flapjacks in the side pockets. To compensate for not having waist pouches I carried food in my hands which combined with a thumb compass wasn’t a problem at all. Additional extras over the weekend were a couple of Airlock stuffsacks and the hood from my Filo jacket which gave some much needed comfort during the night in a hoodless, top only sleeping bag.

I’ll be using my Gourdon again and again on races like these, it’s amazing. Accept the small limitations, adapt your strategy for the weekend and enjoy a dry sleeping bag.

Great! Just got one of these. A few initial thoughts: First impression is that the shoulder straps are a bit close at the top, but they seem to get more confortable with a wee bit of wearing and weight.

2nd thought, my previous ‘standard’ style rucksack wore thin at the bottom after a few repeated scambing around the abrassive cuillins - it will be interesting to see how this holds out.

But along with other poeples comments, it might be nice to a see the ‘Rugged Gourdon’ with a bit of mesh, a side pocked, and a ‘tough bottom’! It would still weight far less than other options

Another backpack I have has wee whistle on the breast strap, which add zero grams extra weight, and might be useful someday!

Another fantastic Alpkit product, highly recommended. Although I agree the larger bags would benefit from bungee etc like the small bag.