Learn something new every day. I guess thats what I get for expecting every feature to be mentioned on the tags. Like I said, the red pack in the link I posted in the other thread mentioned that being what the velcro straps were, and had little pictures of an ice axe on the velcro straps. I didnt realize the loops at the bottom had anything to do with them. I was thinking the handle probably just slid down into them more along the lines of a hammer holder on a belt (been involved in our family cabinet shop and construction basically since I could walk). I never put the velcro straps on the red pack and the elastic straps on the elate together, since the elate didnt mention that feature. Seeing how that works it makes alot more sense and also know what those elastic loops that I didnt see a point for are :P.

I know that having loose motion and things flopping around isn't a good thing with a pack. The axes going in the way I thought those velcro loops work and the pad attaching to those bottom loops both would have lead to stuff flopping around, which I didnt think would be right, but first impressions are hard to forget.

Thanks to everyone that has posted here for clearing that up for me. The pictures really were worth a thousand words in this case Phat. The straps for the top of this bag are so long that I dont think you could fill the bag full enough to not still have room between the top of the bag and the bottom of the top part for it. It floats so much I thought it was total over kill, but that may be exactly what the pack designers had in mind. That will probably where the pad goes as long as I'm using a close cell pad. The more I think about it I guess the times I've saw them on the bottom like that, they were probably on external framed packs.