Nothing ruins a backpacking trip quite like realizing your pack hates you. One mile in and your shoulders are sobbing, your hips feel personally betrayed, and you’re starting to wonder if carrying a small boulder would’ve been more ergonomic.

Enter the Osprey Ariel Plus 70: a giant, $410 promise that this time your gear-hauling experience will be less medieval punishment and more trail queen luxury. Supposedly built for epic adventures, heavy loads, and people who pack like they’re fleeing civilization forever, this pack claims to do it all. Naturally, I had to see if it could survive me — and vice versa.

This beast is built for serious business: weeklong trail missions, gear-stuffed weekend trips, or any backcountry journey where you’re lugging more than your dignity. It’s one of Osprey’s biggest women’s packs (for men, there’s the Aether Plus 70 — same idea, different tailoring). And let’s not pretend $410 doesn’t sting a little. That’s the price of two nights in a cheap motel, or roughly 72 freeze-dried meals you’ll resent by Day 3. But in exchange, you’re promised a small kingdom of features: nine external pockets (because losing gear in a black hole of nylon is a rite of passage), a breathable AirScape back panel, and a removable top lid — aka the “brain” — that transforms into a surprisingly functional daypack.

I put this pack through its paces in three wildly different terrains: 30 miles through Olympic National Park, 42 miles across Pictured Rocks in Michigan, and 38 dry, sun-blasted miles in Joshua Tree. I even lugged it up climbing approaches stuffed with ropes, harnesses, and that smug sense of superiority climbers carry around.

Osprey Ariel Plus 70. (Helen of Troy)

The good? Honestly, a lot. The top “brain” pockets are MVPs — easy to access, gloriously spacious, and perfect for snacks, headlamps, and the growing collection of weird pinecones you swear you’ll throw away later. The water-resistant ripstop nylon is tough enough to survive being scraped along sandstone, dragged across limestone, and absolutely soaked during a snowstorm-plagued flight. (Everything inside? Bone dry. Somehow.) The AirScape back panel does a surprisingly solid job keeping you cool — even while hauling up 1,300 feet in the desert, I didn’t feel like my back had transformed into a swamp.

The meh? Those hip belt pockets are basically decorative. I could maybe cram a ChapStick and half a granola bar in there — if I believed in dreams. And for a pack made for big hauls, I expected more plushness on the hips. After a few 15-mile days, my iliac crest felt personally attacked.

Still, for all its minor sins, the Ariel Plus 70 pulls off what few packs can: It makes carrying a ridiculous amount of stuff feel not-totally-miserable. It’s sturdy, smartly designed, and ready for just about any adventure you throw at it — so long as you don’t expect it to make you coffee.

Bottom Line: If you’re ready to throw down some cash for a pack that can go the distance (and then some), the Osprey Ariel Plus 70 is a reliable, trail-tested companion that won’t leave you sobbing into your trekking poles. Just… maybe bring a separate snack pouch.

Author: Mary Andino is a frequent contributor to Terrain.

Top image: The author modeling the Osprey Ariel Plus 70. (Zack Marlin)