OMM Trio Map Pouch

Excellent piece of kit. Mobile, torch, compass, maps, nibbles and even drone, all on your chest within easy reach, extremely convenient with loads of room.

I use the Map pouch for mountain biking throughout the year as well as backpacking. I have two permanently attached to both my cycle and mountain sack . It means I can immediately view the map or guidebook in it's water resistant case and carry sweets, compass and 'under helmet' balaclava handy and accessible without having to get off the bike and remove my rucksack. The product is a great idea and nearly works perfectly other than:1. OMM workmanship can be a bit flakey (I've had failures in a sack as well as some cut issues with one of the map pouches)2. I find I've had to fit mini aluminium clips to my rucksacks for the plastic trio map pouch clips to clip into3. Neither the pouch or map case is fully waterproof in torrential rain as the zips aren't waterproof (though they have a nylon flap for protection this isn't enough for a horizontal zip). The map case plastic is not as rubbery as ortlieb so getting a seal when you turn over the opening isn't easy. 4. Makes taking your sack on/off a bit of an art! Minor design development would make this perfect, though its never going to win any 'style' points, it is very, very useful!

I bought this to give me some extra packing space on mountain marathons, and have tested it on a couple of day runs before it gets its first 'proper' outing. It's performed really well so far: nice and stable while running, doesn't cause me to overheat, and having the map so handy is great (particularly if you have your hands full with running poles like I do). I also found that having food in the pouch made me think about eating (and consequently drinking) more often, helping me keep energy levels consistent throughout the day. If there are any downsides, I'd say that the hooks for the bottom fixings are a bit awkward to hook and unhook all the time; a dedicated pair of clips on the OMM bags would be an improvement. You do have to get used to pulling the pouch up to read the map properly, but that's certainly not a major issue. It initially looks expensive, but that fades when it arrives and you see that it's actually sturdy and fairly complex in nature. Overall, a very useful addition to my fell running gear.