Mammut Neon Light 12 Review

The Neon Light 12 is the smallest pack in our selection and among the lightest. Our testing team found it to be comfortable but occasionally frustratingly small.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

The Neon Light is among the more comfortable packs in our review. It's a fairly low volume pack, so the back length is correspondingly small. This lets it ride right in that sweet spot where it doesn't interfere with your chalk bag or your helmet. The pack also sports a nice taper from top to bottom. These two qualities, combined with the well-padded back panel, make this small pack big on comfort. Shorter climbers, in particular, might find a good fit here.

Climbing Utility

The Neon offers a pretty functional feature set. The hydration system has its own pocket and works well with all reservoirs, and the sternum strap buckle is also a whistle. The outside of the pack has a useful number of attachment points yet remains streamlined. The hip belt is removable (most hip belts in our review are), and there is a space to tuck it in when not needed.

For a bag this small, the Neon has a lot of pockets: there are three, not counting the hydration system pocket. An internal mesh pocket harbors the key clip and is big enough for your headlamp, phone, and a couple of bars. The two external pockets are a bit bigger, but they're hard to use when the pack is full. The outside external pocket has a 40cm shock cord loop that Mammut says is a leash for a camera. Our testers rarely carry dedicated cameras, and when they do, they're reluctant to put them in an unpadded pocket on the part of the pack that takes the most abuse. The Neon has no hauling-specific features, which makes sense given the small size — if you only have 12L of stuff with you, it's probably not that heavy.

Durability

The Neon Light 12 is not a very durable pack. This won't be a problem for multi-pitch climbers who can avoid wide cracks and hauling — two things many climbers are already trying to avoid. The light fabric can't handle much abrasion, and the main compartment zipper isn't protected by a flap. Our testers did some minor but noticeable damage hauling it about 40 feet.

Versatility

While nobody wants to be carrying a giant backpack around a city, we found the Neon Light to be a bit smaller than we would like for urban applications. Only smaller laptops will fit inside, and visits to the farmers' market might be fruitless. It does, however, come in a number of colors to better suit your personal palette.

This bag has the attachment point style we prefer: enough to secure a couple of things to the outside using slings and draws for rigging. However, it lacks dedicated attachment points for snow and ice gear, and its small size cramps utility in that type of mountain situation. While it's small enough and light enough to not be burdensome inside a larger pack, other models weigh the same but provide more benefits.

Weight

The Neon Light 12 weighs in at 0.9 pounds (about 400 grams). It's among the lightest packs in our review. We think eliminating one of the external pockets would be a way to make it the lightest pack in the test without cutting functionality.

Value

Overall, we don't find the Neon to be a great value. For a similar price (or less), climbers can buy a pack that's lighter or more durable or has better features, or some combination of those three. However, if you only carry a few things when multi-pitch climbing and you don't want to carry them on your harness and you avoid chimneys and you're a smaller person (so the pack fits better than others) it could be a reasonable value.

Conclusion

Mammut's Neon Light 12 is a very small climbing pack. It does well at long face climbs or cracks smaller than offwidths. It's quite comfortable, and for climbers with shorter torsos, the fit could be great. It has a lot of pockets for such a small pack, so it's a good choice if you just want to keep a few things well organized.