We buy all the products we test — no freebies from companies. If you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission, which helps support our testing.
Functional top loading design allows you to maximize space
Carries a load among the best in our review
Great backcountry friendly features
Hassle free travel and optional multiple deployments
REASONS TO AVOID
Heaviest airbag pack in our review
Snow safety gear pocket isn't very big
One of the most expensive airbag packs
The Black Diamond Saga 40 JetForce has loads of sweet features, packs easily, is super comfortable, and is one of the better larger volume airbag packs on the market. As a result, it is the winner of our OutdoorGearLab Top Pick for best airbag pack for multi-day trips and hut-to-hut adventures. The Saga 40 is nearly the best, if not the best, at handling heavier loads on both the up and the down, and is surprisingly comfortable for long periods of time.
Its top-loading design means it's easy to make the most of its 40L capacity (AKA cramming stuff inside) and the back panel access means it's not a nightmare to find specific items. Overall the Saga is a very feature-rich and backcountry friendly pack, with an array of useable zippered pockets, a quick ski carrying system, and a stealthy helmet holster. There are the obvious advantages of the electric fan over compressed air, allowing the user multiple deployments, hassle-free refills, and easy travel. The Saga's only downside, at $1150, it's the second most expensive airbag pack in our review, after the Editors' Choice Arc'teryx Voltair 30, $1300. It's also around half a pound heavier than similarly volume packs, and its snow safety gear pocket is a little tight; in fact, we couldn't fit our skins in it, and it wasn't easy to pack away a saw and shovel back into the safety gear compartment after completing a midday stability test.
The Saga 40 was our favorite airbag pack for mutli-day trips or adventures that required a lot of gear. It was our top pick because of its design which enabled us to easily cram gear inside maximizing its volume as well as its load carrying ability and fantastic airbag system.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Airbag System
The Black Diamond Saga 40 along with the rest of Black Diamond's JetForce series is the first airbag to use a battery powered fan to inflate a 200L airbag rather than some form of compressed gas. 200L is currently the biggest airbag “bag” currently available. Of course, the question becomes is bigger better? Currently, there aren't any studies showing that 200L is vastly superior to the much more common sizes of between 150L to 170L.
You know how cereal crumbs filter to the bottom through all the big crunchy flakes? An airbag makes you a bigger flake so you've got a better chance at staying on top of an avalanche. Industry folk call this inverse segregation. It follows that a bigger bag makes you a bigger flake and is better at its job. Bag size is limited by canister capacity in compressed air and nitrogen systems. Black Diamond's battery-powered fan has a higher limit.
The Saga 40 inflates in about three seconds, which is similar to gas canister systems. It then stays inflated for three minutes before deflating to, potentially, create an air pocket. According to Black Diamond, one battery charge enables at least four deployments. That's great news if you have a close call or misfire early in the day with miles of backcountry to go.
The downside of a computerized fan system is its complexity. You can't do a quick visual check like you can with compressed air. To compensate, the JetForce self-diagnoses, running the fan in reverse to make sure everything's good to go before giving you an actual green light. It'll keep blinking throughout the day.
The trigger on the Black Diamond JetForce packs. There is an on/off button with red and green indicator lights as well as four blue LEDs to let the user know how many deployments the battery has left.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
After you yank the trigger, the fan goes through a four-step process. It runs continuously for the first nine seconds, allowing it to fight off the pressure of an avalanche. After that, it alternates between 50% and 100% power for a minute. Black Diamond asserts that this exerts enough pressure to keep it inflated even if it sustains a six-inch tear. Then the fan cycles on and off for the second and third minutes to make sure the airbag stays full, meeting CE standards and protecting from a second slide. JetForce systems allow you to stop the fan or restart the cycle at any time. Finally, after three minutes, the bag deflates, forming an air pocket.
Refilling Options and Travel considerations
The JetForces battery-powered system can be charged at home or in a hotel so there is no need to refill a canister or get one replaced if you fire it in the field or for travel. This makes traveling with Black Diamond's JetForce system hands down the easiest. There is no hazmat to deal with and no canister to refill; simply check your pack and recharge it on the other side of your flight.
The Saga 40 has is a super user-friendly pack that is well-thought-out, offers nice features and was one of our favorite “pack-designs” among all the models we tested.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Backcountry Utility
The Saga 40 is a very well-designed pack, especially for the user group it's aimed for. Its only small downfall is its snow safety gear pocket, as it is harder to put your gear back into when your pack is full, say during a midday stability test. The pocket will also fit some larger (300 cm) probes, but not all, and many more average sized shovels, but few larger ones. This pocket is tight enough that we wouldn't plan on shoving your skins in there.
Black Diamond Saga 40 JetForce's snow safety gear pocket shown here with some of the shortest probes and shovels available. The small snow safety gear pocket is one of the few downsides of the Saga 40. It won't fit larger probes (300 cm) and can be difficult to pack and unpack when the pack is full.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
The main compartment is bigger and has been created with more gear in mind. Its top loading design makes it easy to cram equipment tightly into the main compartment, but its back panel access means you don't have to take everything out to find an item you're looking for.
The Saga 40 may feature a zippered closure but its top-loading designs was by far the easiest to pack among any model we tested. We found this design was super easy to pack and allowed the user to maximize the amount of volume this pack had for big days or overnight trips.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Carrying Skis or a Snowboard
The Saga 40 is set up to easily carry skis, a split-board, snowshoes, or a traditional snowboard. Its sleekly deploying diagonal ski carry system was solid and quick to load up during our tests. In fact along with the BCA Float packs was among the straight-up easiest and quickest to use in our review. It is still possible to carry skis and a helmet at the same time but takes a little re-clipping but we didn't find this to be a super big deal. Our only concern was the upper plastic buckle used to secure the skis on the upper strap. While we never had a problem we took care to make sure this buckle wasn't being tensioned while pressed against the skis, instead we offset it so it wasn't being loaded an awkward angles.
The Saga 40 features a very easy-to-use diagonal ski carry-system that was extremely fast and secure. While we never had any problems, we made sure to not tighten the upper plastic buckle while it was folded over the ski because we felt it wouldn't be to hard to break while tensioned off-angle.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Features
One of our favorite features of this pack is its slick, easy to use, and easily stowed helmet holster. The helmet holster hides under a Velcro compartment and easily deploys over anything from a climbing helmet to an XXL ski helmet. Top scorers in this metric include the Arc'teryx Voltair 30, Black Diamond Halo 28, and Black Diamond Pilot 11 Jetforce. All contenders mentioned, including the Saga 40, scored 10 out of 10s.
The Saga 40 features an easily stow-able nylon helmet sling. We thought this design worked super well for securely attaching a ski or climbing helmet. However, a tiny amount of extra care must be taken not to break the sling's plastic buckles when carrying skis as well.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
The Saga 40 features a few nice extra zippered pockets in both the top and bottom of the lid. The top zippered pocket is quite tall and fits most items you want easily accessible in your lid, while the underside pocket is great for keys, wallets or other smaller items. The zippered waist belt pocket is big enough for a GPS, a compass, or your phone and a small snack - this was an additional feature most of our testers really liked.
Comfort
The Saga 40 is likely the most comfortable airbag pack with an overnight load of any airbag we tested. The only airbag pack that can come close for heavier loads is the Black Diamond Halo 28. The Saga is available in two sizes; S/M and L/XL, which fit a solid range of people. For folks shorter than around 5'3" or 5'4", especially if they have narrow shoulders, we would recommend the Mammut Ride Removable 3.0. The Arc'teryx Voltair 30, Black Diamond Halo 28, and Mammut Light Removable 3.0, along with the Sage 40, all scored 9 out of 10s in terms of comfort.
John Race enjoying the comfort of his Saga 40 while walking into Champex Switzerland on day 3 of 7 of the Haute route.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Downhill Performance
The Saga 40 compared very closely to many of the other 35+ liter bags and was similar in performance to the Mammut Pro Protection Airbag 3.0 and Backcountry Access Float 32. Similar to larger packs, we've found that the downhill performance isn't an awesome as say, the Black Diamond Pilot 11 Jetforce, as bigger packs don't ride with the user quite as well as smaller packs. However, the Saga holds its own, and anyone comparing it to similarly sized (volume) packs will likely be satisfied. The Saga is awesome as far as its comfort and ability to handle a heavier load and it's able to transfer the weight wonderfully while skiing and skinning.
Weight
The Saga 40 tips the scales at 7 pounds 11 ounces, making it one of the heaviest airbags in our review. In the Saga's defense, it isn't much heavier than the similar-sized packs, like the Backcountry Access Float 42 (7 pounds 3 ounces). If you compare the Saga to our OutdoorGearLab Best Buy the Backcountry Access Float 32, it checks in a little over a pound lighter at 6 pounds 8 ounces.
The Saga 40 tips the scales at 7 pounds 11 ounces, making it one of the heaviest airbags in our review, however it isn't WAY heavier than other similar volume airbag packs.
Credit: Ian Nicholson
Best Applications
Due to the Saga 40's overall volume and design, we've found that it's at home with backcountry professionals, like ski guides, patrollers, and avalanche technicians. It is also a great choice for multi-day tours and hut-to-hut trips. Its top loading design lets the user pack it tightly with gear and it offers one of the most comfortable suspensions in our review and will let you go as far as your legs will carry you.
Value
The Saga 40 checks in at a review high of $1150 for the whole system. Unlike many compressed air canister systems, this amount of money covers everything and there are no additional items to buy, but still, the fact remains at $1150 the Saga, similar to the rest of the Black Diamond JetForce pack is one of the most expensive packs in our fleet. You wouldn't buy the Saga because it's the best deal on an airbag, you would buy it because you like the JetForce airbag system and the Saga's features. One small flip side, with the Saga you never need to pay $5-$10 to get your cartridge refilled or $40 to swap your nitrogen canister, but it will take a long time to make up the $400 price difference.
The Bottom Line
Without considering price, the Saga would be our Top Pick for a larger airbag pack for lightweight overnights or hut-to-hut trips. We like how easily we can stuff items into its top loading design and we found its suspension handled heavier loads wonderfully. We also found it to have one of the better pack designs as far as features go. With that said, we don't think it's leaps and bounds better than the Backcountry Access Float 42, which is a half pound lighter and over $400 less expensive. If you could get away with a smaller volume pack for your hut-to-hut trips, we really like the Mammut Light Removable 3.0 (30L) which checks in a full pound and a half lighter at six lbs - it also features an easy-to-cram top loading design. With that in mind, the Mammut Light Removable 3.0 doesn't offer as many of the extra features that we found in the Saga 40.
