The NYA-EVO FJORD 36 — Field Test and Review
The fresh powder lay undisturbed before us as we stepped out of the treeline. Within the first few steps, I could feel that there was no more traction being provided by my hiking boots. I reached to my side, unhooked the crampons from my hip belt, and sat on a ledge to strap them on. I could also tell that there was no more traction because Matt kept slipping every other step and sliding down the steep snow-covered granite. Snowshoes and camera gear in tow, I watched Matt slip all over the snow-covered slope for another several hundred feet until we finally made it to the top. Stawamus Chief’s South Peak. Over the next few hours, as the snow continued to pile on, we descended back on the trail, crossed the gully, and up to the top of the Center Peak. With the heavy snow fall toward the higher parts of the trail, turning into rain at the lower elevations, I hadn’t taken out my camera too often during that hike. I did manage to pull it out during a few scattered moments of clear weather. But no matter. It was securely stowed and protected in the FJORD 36.
NYA-EVO ensured that I would receive this bag AHEAD of schedule so that I could bring it on a 10-day adventure in Squamish and Whistler, to get this bag some field time, get it dirty, and put it to the test. Backpack aside, Jensen and Mario at NYA-EVO are an absolutely awesome team and so accommodating. Just their demeanor alone would win me over as a customer for life. Also, if you’re ever in the Vancouver area and looking for a hike, the Chief in Squamish is a must. Second highest monolith in the world with three peaks for three times the fun. Okay, back to the bag…
We had a couple posts toward the end of 2017 that featured ongoing Kickstarter campaigns and backpacks to look out for. The FJORD 36 was one of those bags. Their Kickstarter campaign ran from October to November, wrapping up with 105 backers. To be honest, I’m quite surprised they only had 105 backers. Even though this is a sporty bag with fairly specific uses, it is drop dead gorgeous. Ever have one of those “have to have it” moments? Well all three of us at Pangolins with Packs did. This is THE ONLY backpack that Matt, HL, and I all decided to get. There have been many backpacks that two of us got, but this is the only one that we all got. At least we each got a different color.
So how did the FJORD 36’s performance measure up to its looks?
Key Features
- MAIN COMPARTMENT WITH DUAL ACCESS— The main storage area of the FJORD 36 is a large dual-access compartment. Aside from the top zipper access, the back panel has a zipper that runs around the perimeter from the top down the sides. While the back-panel access allows you to find items at the bottom without having to dig through everything above it, the opening truly comes into play when you’re using a Removable Camera Insert (RCI). If you’re carrying camera gear, this opening and the RCI allow you to see all your gear at once and grab the right lens. At the same time, if you have gear like skis or a snowboard strapped to the front of the bag, the rear access allows you to set the bag down and still be able to access the camera gear. I’ll go into more details about the RCIs later on. There is also a nylon sheet that can be zipped into place in this main compartment that separates it into two partitions. A lower part for the RCI, and an upper part to keep items separated. Note, however, that with this divider zipped in place, you can only access anything at the bottom of the main compartment through the back panel. Likewise, when an RCI is used with the backpack as intended, its contents can only be accessed through the back panel opening.
On the inside of the back panel are two small pockets that you can use to store small, non-bulky items. The top one includes slots for memory cards. This is an example of just very small details that are well-thought out in the FJORD 36.
- WATER RESISTANT FABRIC AND ZIPPERS — The FJORD 36 is made of 210 D riptstop nylon with a 0.1mm TPU laminate water-resistant coating. So while the nylon is fairly lightweight, the coating provides it with some weather-proofing. The zippers are all water-resistant YKK zips, which ensure that water doesn’t leak in easily. While hiking in Squamish, Matt and I crossed the freezing altitude during some heavy snowfall. So as we hiked, the pack became snow-covered. In addition to that water sitting on the fabric for a long time, when we crossed back below the freezing altitude the dense snowfall turned into rain. So this bag was absolutely soaked, as were we. The contents of the outer pockets of the bag were also wet, though not soaked as though they had been submerged. Being against my back and less exposed to the elements, the main compartment was completely fine, even after a few hours in the rain/snow. So all of my camera gear was completely dry. These conditions are probably among the wettest you’d ever hike in, so the bag did a decent job with the weather-proofing. The FJORD 36 also comes with a rain fly that you can wrap around the backpack in these situations, which would have helped significantly and I believe would have kept everything inside dry. But I had snowshoes strapped to the outside of the backpack and the rain fly would not fit around both the bag and snowshoes, so I couldn’t use it at all. It’d be great if the rain fly had some sort of strap system or if the backpack’s straps were able to wrap around the outside of the rain fly so that you can keep your contents dry while also carrying large gear.
- STOWABLE NET— In the top of the backpack’s front face is a small pocket containing a net. The net can be completely detached from the bag, or secured to the bag, allowing it to hold a helmet, a jacket, a giant bag of M&Ms, anything really. Aside from using the FJORD 36 for outdoor adventures, I’ve also used it as a travel carry-on bag and an everyday carry bag for work/school. In those situations, I removed the net entirely and that pocket becomes a convenient, quick access pocket for small items like keys and your phone. The zipper is also somewhat hidden under a flap, which makes it a safe pocket too. One negative of the net, though, is that the G-hooks are pretty thick. So once you hook it onto the loops, it’s pretty difficult to unhook them even without gloves on. Either the loops need to be wider or the hook themselves needs to be thinner.
- LARGE FRONT POCKET WITH ORGANIZATION SLEEVES AND POCKETS — Though the large dual-access compartment where the RCI is attached is the main compartment, there is another large pocket in front. This is the organizational compartment that can house a 15" laptop, tablet, some notebooks, and small items in a mesh zipped pocket.
- EQUIPMENT ATTACHMENT SYSTEM— This is one of the defining features of the FJORD 36. The bag has two wide straps that wrap around the front face. One near the top and one near the bottom. These straps can be used to carry a wide variety of large gear, such as skis (diagonally), a snowboard, ice picks, or a tripod. Directly next to these straps are also side compression straps (4 in total: 2 on each side), which can also be used to carry gear. Wider big-mountain and backcountry skis fit in them just as well as narrower frontside groomer skis do. The buckles on all these straps are also big, which is great as it allows you to operate them while still wearing gloves. One major point I want to make though, is that the bag is pretty thick (i.e., the depth of the bag), particularly if you have an RCI inside the main compartment as that prevents you from compressing the bag too much. This means that if you are carrying your skis diagonally across the face, the skis will sit further away from your back. The increased distance between you and the skis shifts your center of gravity backward so you don’t feel as balanced as you do when carrying the skis on the side of the bag. It’s not a huge difference, but noticeable enough that carrying my skis on the side felt much more comfortable, especially if they are fat skis. Snowboards are slightly lighter than skis but it’s still noticeable. Unfortunately, there’s only one configuration to hold a snowboard anyways. So you have no choice… But if you don’t have the RCI in the bag, you can tighten the compression straps to bring the snowboard just a bit closer to your back.
- ALUMINUM INTERNAL FRAME— Inside the main compartment you can also find this aluminum frame tucked away behind a layer of velcro. If you want to lighten the load a little bit and give some flexibility to the bag’s structure, the frame is removable, but it’s a bit difficult with all the velcro holding it in. The frame itself is very light, so it doesn’t really contribute to the weight of the bag.
- EXPANDABLE SIDE POCKETS— I love my side water bottle pockets. And it makes me sad when backpacks don’t have them or have ones that are too small to fit any normal sized bottle. So I am thrilled that the FJORD 36 has not one, but TWO side bottle pockets. They’re also quite large! You can easily fit the fat 1-liter Nalgene bottles in them. Not only that, but they are very elastic. So when empty, they don’t sag open. The only issue with them comes when you try to carry equipment via the side compression straps. But this would happen with any side-carry system and backpack.
Additional Features
Aside from the main features listed above, there are a lot other ones worth calling out.
ZIPPER PULLS— On all the exterior zippers are large pull-tabs to help with easy grabbing and use while still wearing gloves. They’re made of a smooth-finish aluminum, so very durable. These pulls are also in the shape of rock-climbing nuts, which just adds a sense of attention to detail to the bag design and the contrasting colors accents the backpack’s fabric color very well (bright blue tabs for the black and while bags, and bright orange for the green and blue bags)
HIP BELT— Being an outdoors bag, the FJORD 36 naturally features a very sturdy hip belt. Similar to the equipment attachment straps and the compression straps, the hip belt utilizes a massive buckle. At 2", this one is the largest of all and can easily be buckled and unbuckled while still wearing gloves. One side of the hip belt also has a small zipped pocket for things like a pocket knife or a small pack of M&Ms. The other side of the hip belt has some webbing loops to attach whatever you feel you need. The padding on the hip belt is very thick and comfortable, making it great for long hikes or heavy loads. As far as I can tell, it uses the same EVA foam as the back panel. While these are major positives as an outdoors backpack, it is actually a drawback as an everyday commuter bag. While trying this bag out for a couple weeks as an everyday carry bag, I found that the hip belt is so sturdy that it sticks outwards when it wasn’t in use. If you drive to work everyday, that’s not a big deal, but since I take the bus and/or subway everyday, where it is always extremely packed during rush hour, the wings prodding other people as I stood next to them were a bit of a nuisance. I ended up just folding the hip belt inward between my lowerback and the backpack.
STERNUM STRAP — The FJORD 36’s non-removable sternum strap uses a rail attachment. You can learn the finer details about sternum straps on our article about shoulder straps. But in short, these pipe-attachments have the benefit of allowing the wearer to fully customize the height of the sternum strap, but also runs the risk of being ripped off the pipe/rail when airport luggage handlers get a hand on it. The buckle also serves as a whistle, like many outdoor backpacks do now.
STABILIZER STRAPS— Similar to all other hiking backpacks, the FJORD 36 has stabilizer (or load adjustment) straps, which pull the weight of the backpack forward, shifting the center of gravity closer to you. I have found these straps to be one of the design flaws of the FJORD 36, with the error simply being — they’re not long enough. When the stabilizer straps are tightened, they work great. However, once you take the backpack off and want to allow the shoulder straps to flop down, you need to completely loosen the stabilizer straps. Often the stabilizer straps actually come out of the buckle cause there is not enough slack. This means having the loop the stabilizer strap webbing back through the buckle once you need to get back on the road. This can be resolved with longer stabilizer straps, or a tighter buckle that doesn’t allow the straps to loosen so easily.
HYPALON BASE— The bottom side of the backpack is made of a highly weather resistant material developed by DuPont called hypalon. Hypalon is chlorosulfonated polyethylene synthetic rubber and is suitable for enduring extreme temperatures and UV light, and resistance to chemicals. It’s the same material used in inflatable boats, so it’s quite impervious to water. Still would not recommend that you use this backpack a flotation device though. Having this material as the base is great. The 1.1mm layer is tough and can get dirty so you’ll feel comfortable setting the bag down on any sort of terrain.
HYDRATION BLADDER — The FJORD 36 is also compatible with hydration bladders. At the top back of the main compartment, there is an eyelet for a hydration tube as well as clips for the tube on both shoulder straps. BUT, oddly there is no sleeve to hold the hydration bladder in the main compartment, which is understandable because with the RCI in the main compartment, there’s not really anywhere convenient to put the sleeve that wouldn’t interfere with the camera insert. Instead, there is another eyelet in the fabric that separates the main compartment from the secondary large compartment and you can use the laptop/tablet sleeve to hold your hydration bladder. This increases the distance between your back and the water, which will cause your center of gravity to be slightly further back than it would otherwise.
DRAIN HOLE — Another feature that makes me feel like NYA-EVO put a lot of thought into small details is a small drain hole at the very bottom of the secondary compartment (the one with the laptop sleeve). This is to let water out if you throw any wet gear in your bag. This is the only backpack I’ve seen with a feature like this, though I haven’t really found that I needed this yet. Typically, when I remove my outer layers that are soaking wet, I just keep them on the outside of the bag by tying them down the with compression straps.
Removable Camera Insert (RCI)
Like most camera bags, the FJORD 36 includes a modular camera carrying case. The RCI can be carried on its own and fully closed, or inserted into the main compartment of the backpack where it is held in place with a couple Velcro straps. The RCI has a bunch of removable pieces that let you split it into multiple partitions in whatever configuration you prefer, which would depend the size of the camera body you have and lenses you carry. With the FJORD 36, you can get a small, medium, or large RCI. I opted for a small one, as I typically just carry one body (Canon EOS T5i) and a standard zoom lens. Those in itself don’t even warrant the small RCI. So I also carry a gorilla tripod, cleaning pen, extra batteries and memory cards, a charger, and my Peak Design Capture clip. Depending on what I’m doing and where I’m going, I might carry a cheap telephoto lens too. A professional photographer could definitely fully utilize a large RCI.
One of the harder parts of the using camera carriers like this is figuring out the optimal way to set up the partitions. But once you figure that out, you don’t really need to change it up too often. Getting the partitions exactly where you want them can also be annoying because the Velcro will literally stick to any part of the interior of the carrier. This isn’t specific to the FJORD 36. It applies to all sorts of camera bags and you’ll just need to have patience when arranging the dividers.
The RCIs are mainly 300 D ripstop polyester with high density cross-linked polyethylene foam.
Comfort in Field
The FJORD 36 has thick EVA foam padding along it’s back panel providing plenty of cushion and the same padding in its strap and hip belt. So the cushioning is plentiful. The sternum strap, stabilizer straps, and hip belt all do a good job of distributing weight and the aluminum frame helps the bag retain its shape. When the RCI is in the bag, sometimes it can feel like the back panel pushes outward, making it a bit convex. But it’s only very slight and not very noticeable when wearing the bag. As mentioned before, the main issue with comfort is just when you are carrying heavy gear (e.g., skis) and strap them to the front of the backpack, causing your center of gravity to shift backward more than it normally would. The back panel also has a wide air flow channel in the shape of the Nya Evo logo, which helps prevent a lot of sweat build-up.
Durability
Most of the FJORD 36 is made of a 210 D ripstop nylon. This is relatively low Denier for a sporty backpack. The TPU laminate and YKK water-resistant zippers add to the ruggedness. Though it is still fairly thin, being ripstop is great for improving durability. The base of the bag is Hypalon synthetic rubber. It’s a super durable compound and is very thick. So there’s no way the contents inside the bag will poke through the outer layer.
So far, I’ve used this backpack while hiking the Chief near Vancouver, but also as a day pack for skiing a couple times, as a carry-on for a couple flights, and as an everyday carry bag for a few weeks. So far, there have been no signs of wear and tear. The front face of the white backpack does get dirty very easily, but this is less of an issue with all the other colors, which are all dark.
Ideal Usage
One of the more difficult parts of the FJORD 36 is figuring out when you should use it. It’s great for adventure photographers and adventure-seekers.
It also does a decent job as a travel carry-on bag, being large in volume and having some small pockets. But it’s not very well-suited for everyday carry, where you really need all those small organizational pockets, which the FJORD 36 lacks.
So if you’re traveling somewhere for some outdoor adventures, definitely bring this as your carry-on bag. But if you’re looking for an EDC bag, even with all the compression straps tightened, this might not be the right one.
Wrap-Up
TL;DR
Positives: Great looks, can be operated while wearing gloves, different options for how to strap gear, water-resistance and hypalon base, sturdy padding on back and hips, small details are very thoroughly thought out.
Negatives: Wide profile pulls the center of gravity backward when gear is strapped in, load-lifting straps keep falling out and are too short, G-hooks for helmet net are very difficult to undo.
- Utility: 5 of 5 — Though there are other backpacks with similar equipment carry systems for skis and snowboards, this is the first bag I’ve seen which effectively combines that with the large modular camera inserts. PLUS, a drainage hole in the backpack. Who even thinks of that?!
- Organization: 3 of 5 — Though there are a couple smaller mesh zipped pockets and a laptop/tablet sleeve, there is isn’t a whole lot of organizational features, which is pretty understandable for a bag designed to hit the slopes while carrying ice-climbing gear. On the other hand, the RCI does a good job keeping your camera gear in check.
- Construction: 4 of 5 — The nylon could be denser, but being ripstop with a TPU laminate coating certainly helps. And that hypalon rubber is as some really solid stuff.
- Aesthetics: 5 of 5 — This was the first bag that all three of us saw and wanted to buy. There is a lot of attention to detail in both the bag design itself and the looks. The contrasting zipper pulls add a nice accent to the overall looks.
- Comfort: 4 of 5 — Plenty of padding throughout the back with a wide air flow channel, but difficult to balance the weight when a lot of equipment.
- Life-Integration: 3 of 5 — The carrying system itself isn’t hard to learn how to use and is similar to many other bags. But still takes some getting used to. The hardest part with this bag may just be figuring out when is the best situation to use this backpack.
- X-Factor: 4 of 5 —The FJORD 36 is a very exciting bag if you find the right time to use it.
Thanks for reading! As usually, comment below if you have any other questions or any backpacks you’d like us to review!
Here are some more pics from from our trip in Canada. Poutine. The French-Canadian equivalent to communion.
