Took my Swift out for its first real test this week but ran into a little issue when it came to water.I was using a Smart Water 1 L bottle in the side short mesh pocket (worked GREAT) but had some difficulty with my 2 L platypus hoser setup. I placed the bladder inside the main pack body on top of my other gear, but every time I stopped I found that the weight of the bladder had made it slip down between the pack liner bag and the pack body. Also, I just couldn't really find a good way to route the hose, though I may just need to trim it down a bit. It ended up working okay (water was easier to find than I expected) but the bladder just ended up being a nuisance. Also, I was lucky I didn't run into much snow, or the little openings of the bottles would have made things tricky. I was considering using a pair of 1L Nalgene cantenes instead, but they have the same problem as every other collapsible bottle I've seen: sharp corners on the bottom that look like they'd tear through the mesh pockets pretty easily.

So for those of you with the Swift, or similar experiences, how do you store your water? Right now I'm thinking I'll end up using a couple empty 1 Liter drink bottles with no bladders or hoses, but would like to know if anyone's come up with a better way.

I just got my SMD Swift in Friday and haven't had a chance to really take it out yet, but I was wondering the same thing. I went on a mini hike with it and I put two 1-L Aquafina bottles in each side pocket (just to see how it handled some extra weight) and it seemed to work fine. I was able to grab the ones in the shorter mesh pocket without taking it off but had a semi-hard time putting them back.

I think if I use a Platypus bladder with the pack, I'm either going to put it in the zipper compartment for the sleeping pad and just route the hose from there, or stick it in one of the mesh pockets. To protect the mesh pockets, I might put the bottom of the platy in a thick ziploc or plastic bag.

I have a swift '11 and what I use to do was use a 1L bottle in the short pocket but I wanted to save some weight so I switched to a 1L Platy with hose. I too was worried about ripping the mesh so I just put the Platy upside down in the pocket. It works great and I've never had any problems. I'm sure you could use larger size Platy's but you'd want to reposition the weight of your load accordingly so it rides level. I went to this system mainly cause I wanted a hands free system so I could hike faster and harder and so far it's great.

And for what it's worth, I LOVE this pack! Great job SMD!