Backcountry Ski and Snowboard
Tips and Tricks
How
to carry a lightweight pack
by Lou Dawson
Seventy
years ago New England ski pioneer Arthur Comey experimented with
"going light." He even went so far as to be the first naked skier
-- or at least the first to write about it. Once he hitched up
his pants and cinched his pack, Comey still took the minimalist
tack; his standard was a 10 pound load.
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The 21 ounce Granite Gear Virga pack
is a good bet for superlight travel. It's designed to use
a rolled up foam
pad as a frame.
For
backcountry day skiing, cut a back pad out of foam and insert
it in the pack.
Shop for this pack
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Inspired by Comey and other pioneers who traveled
light, a few years ago I began experimenting with a feather-weight
load. (I'd already tried skiing naked -- but loosing weight that
way hurts too much.) For want of a better standard I used Comey's,
and attempted to get my pack weight down to little more than that
of a gallon of milk (not counting clothing layers). With some
thought to each item of equipment it wasn't hard to do, and the
results were an incredibly gratifying twelve pound pack. Here's
what I decided to carry for my average day-trip. Combine this
with a lightweight shell and your fleece, and you will fly:
Pack: about 25 ounces (Granite Gear or Lafuma)
Athletic drink in hydration bladder: 5 pounds (80 ounces)
Repair/first-aid kit & headlamp: 20 ounces (put some thought
into this)
Shovel: 21 ounces (carry a small one if you're a cautious skier)
Goggles: 4 ounces (essential item in most cases)
Spare gloves: 5 ounces (watch the weight of these, as some heft
like lead)
Face mask: 1 ounce (you don't always use it, but carry one)
Avy beacon: 8 ounces (use a small one such as the Barryvox)
Food: 14 ounces (leave the apples at home)
Ski Crampons: 8 ounces (optional)
Total: 187 ounces; 11.7 pounds
Admittedly, my cloud-weight load lacks things
other alpinists may consider essential. For emergencies, you might
want a bivouac sack. Ortovox makes a good one that only weighs
13 ounces. A camera is often part of a load; use a small point&shoot
digital or a light SLR such as the Cannon Rebel X with a small
zoom lens. Another sometimes necessity is a thermos; Nissan makes
several small and light models, the best is their plastic armored
HSO-500, but it's hard to find. Other thermos bottles are slightly
lighter; but they're easily ruined from dents. If you need crampons
and ice ax, use the lighter weight aluminum or steel models (depending
on your locale and goals). I've found that some of the fiberfill
insulated jackets are warmer per pound than fleece, so think about
that option, especially if you'll be traveling in colder climates.
Perhaps the hardest item to deal with, regarding
weight and packing, is a helmet. Anyone skiing avalanche terrain
should wear a helmet, both while climbing and descending, but
there is plenty of safe terrain on most trips where you might
as well carry your helmet in your pack rather than boiling your
head (all helmets are too hot when you work hard.) A pack with
plenty of expansion capability and good compression straps allows
you to carry a helmet, then trim the pack down once you're wearing
the helmet. Such packs weigh a bit more, but may be necessary.
One of the most important items you need for
a light pack, but don't carry with you, is an accurate scale.
Use a digital postal scale and weigh everything you consider loading
in your pack, then compare weights with various flavors of the
same item. For example, the difference between a lightweight and
heavy headlamp can be almost ½ pound!
When I got started with my experiment, it was
easy to strip my load down to about 20 pounds. But getting closer
than that to Comey's standard seemed impossible. Then I weighed
my pack while empty. The thing weighed about 4 pounds -- 20% of
my load! I immediately got on the phone, dug out the catalogs,
and started shopping. The ideal pack for my project would weigh
about 2 pounds, have ski attachment straps, and enough volume
for my clothing layers when I'm not wearing them. It turned out
there wasn't much out there. Some packs looked light, but had
the heft of steel plate. Others were feathers without enough volume.
The packs I found owed their light weight to simplicity and use
of lightweight fabrics. Even so, some had amazing amounts of excess
junk hanging off, mostly in the form of extra webbing. I wasn't
shy about cutting gewgaws off the packs--it's amazing how much
all that stuff amounts to. For example, one sack had a handle
stitched to the side. A nice feature I'd probably use once or
twice a year, and be carrying on my poor back the rest of the
time. Out came the razor blade.
There are obvious arguments against super-lightweight
packs. One manufacturer was adamant when he told me that "how
a pack carries is so much more important than how much it weighs."
True for a 90 pound load on a Yukon glacier; but he didn't understand
that at 13 pounds, you can put strings on a shopping bag and it
will feel fine on your shoulders. Others argued durability--a
valid point--but how much wear does skiing place on a pack? If
you're guiding 100 days a year you probably want something ironclad.
But most of us can get by with less.
One of my favorite lite packs is the Lafuma
Activ Light 37. I also like packs that are slightly more technical
and include a hydration bladder, of which the Backcountry Access
Stash packs are my favorite. The Lafuma lightweight packs are
hard to find. Instead, consider any of the Granite Gear packs
in their Ultralight Packer series: Virga, Vapor Trail and Nimbus
Ozone.
Lafuma Activ Light 37
Weight: 25 ounces
(This Lafuma model is discontinued, but may
be available on the used or close-out market. Lafuma has bought
into the heavier more complicated type of pack design, but some
of their models may still be worth a look. Only their complicated
and heavier packs are imported to the U.S., the better ones can
be viewed on their French website at http://www.lafuma.fr
, and perhaps ordered via various web equipment shops. A few
other companies make packs that are simple and light. Check
out Granite
Gear for some interesting options. (Just look at the weight
while you're shopping, and shoot for under or around 32 ounces.)
The problem with the pack industry is that average shoppers like
packs that look "technical" and have a beefy feel
when they handle them in a store. Very few shoppers look for
a pack
that is simpler and lighter... (Sad, but with a razor blade and
sewing machine you can sometimes make things right once you get
home.) You can view the North American
Lafuma website here.
Of all the packs of tried in the last few years,
the Lafuma 37 does Comey the proudest. It's not much--and that's
good. A basic top loader, the Lafuma is built with lightweight
nylon, reinforced with medium weight fabric on the sides and bottom.
The top flap closes with a single buckle, and has the basic zipper
compartment common to most toploaders. Inside you'll find one
large compartment with a foam back-pad easily accessed via a Velcro
flap; this doubles as a place for a water bag. You attach skis
to the Lafuma via compression straps on the upper bag and fixed
length straps lower down. This system worked with the pack fully
loaded, but with a deflated sack my skis flopped without a way
to cinch the tails. To solve that problem I sewed better ski/compression
straps on the sides. Another mod I did was replace the weird belt
buckle with a more standard version.
One Lafuma feature I could do without is the
porous fabric on the back panel and waist belt. All this stuff
does for me is get wet then freeze. A snowboard can be easily
attached to this pack using a few extra straps, and a traditional
ice-ax loop does the usual job. The Lafuma waist belt is wide
and comfortable, and includes a zipper compartment that's perfect
for sunscreen and the like. The mesh on the outside back is a
carry-all that works quite well, but does tend to catch on branches
and junk in your car while you're unloading. It can be easily
removed if you don't like it. In all, this is a fine piece and
has served me well for several years. I even use it for elk hunting,
as it's the right color! |