Osprey Talon 22vs Gregory Zulu 24 LT

The Talon 22 is the default recommendation in hiking daypacks, and has been for years. It’s the pack that gets handed to anyone asking what to buy, which makes it exactly the kind of incumbent worth putting in the ring. At $175 against $169.95, Gregory’s Zulu 24 LT costs the same money, holds two more litres, and weighs less. That combination is unusual enough to be worth explaining.

36.8 vs 38.4 oz Measured weights — the Gregory is lighter while carrying 24 litres to the Osprey's 22.

Ventilation: the trampoline wins

The Zulu 24 LT hangs a tensioned VaporSpan mesh panel off an alloy steel frame, holding the pack body away from your spine so air moves across your back. The Talon uses AirScape: injection-moulded ridged foam with channels cut into it, pressed against your back. Osprey recently revised it to use less material and glue and breathe better.

It’s still foam against your back, and independent testing is blunt about the result — reviewers rated the Talon’s breathability “average” and reported finishing hikes with “a very damp shirt,” while praising the Zulu’s “awesome breathability.” On a hot climb that difference is the whole experience of wearing the pack.

Weight & capacity: Gregory again

Daypacks live or die on weight-to-volume, and this one isn’t close. The Zulu carries 24 litres at 36.8 measured ounces — about 1.53 oz per litre. The Talon carries 22 litres at 38.4 ounces, about 1.74 oz per litre, which testing flagged as one of the heaviest ratios in its class and scored harshly.

You’re carrying more pack to carry less gear. On a pack whose entire purpose is to disappear on your back for eight hours, that’s the wrong direction.

Load carry: the small frame does real work

Both packs are rated for roughly the same load — Gregory publishes 20 lb for the 24 LT, and testers put the Talon in the same neighbourhood. What differs is where that load ends up. The Zulu’s alloy steel frame and cradle hipbelt transfer weight onto your hips the way a full backpacking pack does; reviews single this out as the pack’s standout quality, calling it a backpacking pack in miniature. The Talon’s semi-rigid framesheet is softer and hands more of the load to your shoulders as you approach the top of the range.

Gregory’s hipbelt pockets are also simply better — big enough for a phone, and easy to reach. The Talon’s were criticised as harder to access, which is the sort of small daily friction you notice on every hike and never on a spec sheet.

Warranty & support: Osprey’s round, and it’s a big one

Over a decade of ownership this genuinely offsets a lot. A pack you can send back after you wreck it is worth more than a pack you can’t, and Osprey’s reputation for honouring it without argument is well earned.

Features & access: an honest tie

Two different philosophies, both defensible. Osprey’s Stow-on-the-Go lets you clip trekking poles to the pack without taking it off — a genuinely clever system and one of the real reasons hikers stay loyal to the Talon, though testers noted the stowed poles can get in the way when scrambling. It also carries a helmet and works as a multi-sport bag in a way the Zulu doesn’t try to.

Gregory answers with better everyday usability: a U-zip front panel that opens the pack like a suitcase instead of making you dig from the top, a centre-zip front pocket, oversized stretch bottle pockets, and those hip pockets. Neither is better; they’re aimed at different hikers. Tie.

76 vs 55 Overall scores in a fifteen-pack independent test: Editors' Choice for the Zulu, last place for the Talon. One test is one test — but it points the same way every measurement here does.

Where they’re genuinely the same

Both are one-size packs with enough adjustment to fit most torsos — the Zulu covers 16–21 inch torsos and 28–48 inch waists, the Talon adjusts its back panel through a similar range. Both carry around 20 lb comfortably and neither wants more. Both take a hydration bladder, though both have been dinged for tabs and clips that don’t play nicely with every third-party reservoir. Both come in women’s-specific versions — Osprey’s Tempest 22, Gregory’s Jade 24 LT — built on the same frames with reshaped harnesses. And both are made by companies that will still be repairing packs in twenty years.

The verdict

The Gregory Zulu 24 LT. It is lighter, larger, better ventilated, and carries its load better, for five dollars less than the pack everyone reflexively recommends. Independent testing reached the same conclusion emphatically — the Zulu took an Editors’ Choice award in a fifteen-pack field where the Talon finished last — and while one test is one test, it lines up with every measurable number here.

Buy the Talon 22 instead if the All Mighty Guarantee is what you’re actually buying. Over twenty years of hard use, a warranty that covers damage you caused is worth real money, and no one else in packs offers it. Take it too if you hike with poles constantly and want to stow them on the move, or if the same bag needs to go climbing and skiing. It remains a very good pack. It is no longer the automatic answer.