Granite Gear Crown-2 60. Brain lid covers roll top. Note the side pouches. It was an excellent rig for a summer walk in Wyoming.
Backpacking is one of the best ways to train for ski touring in the off-season. Why? Because it’s cardio, it’s legs, and it is fun. You’ve still got time. The western deserts will soon be prime, and good for at least three months yet. North American mountain ranges close up for foot travel earlier, but you still have weeks to enjoy our sublime alpine wilderness areas. To that end, we just returned from a week in our beloved Wind River range. We fished, we star gazed, we fished, we hiked. Thanks to Granite Gear, we had the right harness.
Granite gear was conceived in 1986, and always been our go-to for lightweight yet comfortable multi-day rucks. Louie and I sported their since discontinued Nimbus Ozone during a go-lite style trek in 2005. We still had one Nimbus stored away, but we needed a second pack for Lisa. Enter the latest brilliance from Granite: Crown-2 60.
Continuing Granite’s tradition of making relatively lightweight full-function backpacks, The Crown-2 is essentially a large, basic 60 liter volume sack with a roll-top and removable back-board. Trimmed down for lightweight trekking, without brain lid or backboard, it comes in at a svelte 2 pounds (.9 liters). That’s replete with a fully padded, adjustable waist belt and a lot of features intact.
Check it out in photos:
Not much missing here. In a word, brilliant for a one kilo rig. With the addition of a ski carry system the Crown could double as a winter backpack, but the backboard is a highly breathable — and hot weather comfortable — mesh configuration that would accumulate ice and snow. That’s okay for spring endeavors, but I’d not recommend for the deep of winter. Thus we’ll call this a “three season” item. Note the waist-belt zip pouches — we love those. The photo also shows the full-on harness system, with upper stabilizers ectcettera.
All rucksacks should have two tool loops. Crown does.
Roll top without brain can look messy in real life. In our experience it’s the best way to terminate the opening of a backpack. Optional brain-lid is included, at 2.7 ounces.
The Crown comes in three torso sizes, as well as a female and male version. The waist belt is easy to adjust.
Plentiful compression straps easily bring the volume from 60 liters down to around 20. The pack can thus be rigged for day trips.
We love side pouches. Stretch mesh can be a good material for this, but catches on branches and such while hiking off-trail. Solid fabric, as these are, is probably better. A drawstring and clamp cinches the opening.
Our only gripe. The side pouches have large holes in the sides to allow buckling and unbuckling the compression strap that runs inside the pocket. There might be a better way to build this detail. Knowing Granite, they’ll figure it out.
Removing the backboard from some packs is a struggle worthy of the weight gym. Not here. The Crown2 backboard slips out in seconds through a zippered slot. For those of you curious about not using a backboard: we sometimes prefer rolling up our foam pad and inserting it into the main body of the pack, where it takes the place of the backboard, thus saving weight. (The object above the backboard is the easily removed brain-lid.)
Conclusion: We love it. If you’re prepping for go-lite style, you could razor blade another 6 ounces or so from the Crown. But at one kilo with backboard and lid removed, why? We particularly like the adjustable waist belt and the waist belt pockets. Only thing missing is an optional bear-spray holster. (Note that the Crown2 38 is similar, and sleeker for those of you traveling superlight. We recommend either.)
Shop for it here.
A few bonus shots from the wilderness family bliss zone:
My bride Lisa acquires dinner while I sunbathe. Isn’t there a country song about that?
Dinner overlooking Nylon and Pronghorn peaks, among others.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain. For more about Lou, please see his personal website at https://www.loudawson.com/ (Blogger stats: 5 foot 10 inches (178 cm) tall, 160 lbs (72574.8 grams).
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lou.dawson.writer
3 comments
Highly recommended! The Granite Gear Crown-2 is perhaps the most comfortable pack I’ve ever used. For the first time, I was able to backpack without constant neck/shoulder pain.
Sounds like a good trip with good gear and the family. I would like to hear about your first trip to the Wind Rivers with Outward Bound in 1968 or was it ‘69. I’ll bet your gear was quite different.
Is there decent load transfer to the hip belt, and does removing the backboard kill this if so? (I’m way more interested in getting weight off the shoulder straps than saving a few grams.) BTW, “… a svelte 2 pounds” does not equal 0.9 litres, but I’m sure you know that. 😉
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