Well REI was having a 20% off sale and it was one of the packs i was looking at so I thought I would buy it while it was cheap. I could return it if I decided to get a pack elsewhere
I went to the Marmot store and checked out what packs they had. Marmot definitely had a better selection of alpine packs. Although many people here have recommended the smaller frameless packs I’m not sure that’s what I want so I decided to stick with the Mercury pack. I loaded up a bunch of gear into it and went snowshoeing Saturday. It held my gear, has straps for ice tools, is big enough for weekend outings and was comfortable.