Tested and verified in pouring rain on a dusk patrol at Hyak. Cirque kept all my stuff dry! Cheesing hard despite the wetness.
As we finally arrived at the top of what looked like a bottomless pow field, I grabbed my hips in a panic, thinking I had forgotten my pack with my shovel and probe. Then I realized I was wearing the Black Diamond Cirque Ski Vest to carry my avalanche gear, instead of my usual inbounds pack with a hip belt. I’ve only recently started using the Cirque ski vest inbounds, due to its smaller, lighter profile. It took about another 10 seconds to realize that I did indeed have everything with me, just the buckles on the vest were not in the spots I was used to. After a good chuckle, I dropped in to enjoy some tasty face shots.
This winter I have enjoyed time spent with the Cirque 22 Ski Vest. I have been using it for morning and evening short tours, as my resort pack, and while competing in this year’s Patrol Race. During the race, I saw at least three other people with the same pack, which only reassures me of its sheer awesomeness. As spring nears its corner, I can also see myself bringing the vest with me on single day volcano missions.
In summer, I enjoy trail running and also own a Black Diamond (BD) Distance 15 running vest. I was really thrilled to see BD come out with a ski version and excited to try it out. The pack itself is fairly small, only 22 liters, but when traveling light it held everything I needed. I was able to fit all the essentials for a 20 mile race, including extra layers, avalanche safety gear, snacks, water, etc and found that the vest carried well even though it doesn’t have a proper hip belt.
Things I loved most about the vest
Front zippered pockets
Having pockets on shoulder straps is amazing. It is the best use of space on a pack. It made smaller items like snacks, buff, gloves, hat, and headlamp really accessible. The overall size of the pack is 22 liters, but the shoulder pockets add enough extra volume to help increase the overall capacity the vest can carry.
Ski carry
I must admit, I have only attempted the ski carry in my garage, not on actual snow — but I am impressed that the carry loop fit my 110 underfoot skis no problem. Even though the pack is more intended towards skimo missions, I appreciate that it can carry larger skis. The back support panel is fairly thin, so the support is fairly minimal. With that said, I found that it works surprisingly well given how light and simple the pack is.
Left: Front zippered pockets – why don’t more backpacks do this?
Right: Ski carry that fit my 110mm waisted skis.
Easy side access compartment
I really liked this pocket for thermos access in the winter. This allowed me to stay hydrated without having to take my pack off on those colder days where I only brought a hot drink. It’s also a great place to put larger gloves that don’t fit into the front pockets. BD advertises this as an easy access crampon compartment — although I haven’t yet used the pocket for that, I can see it working well.
Optional internal divider
I won’t lie, I was originally confused about the internal divider — it wasn’t until Louie, who is much better at this since he himself designs backpacks, showed me that it can be easily zipped open. Once I truly figured out what “optional” divider meant, it improved the side access component since I was able to separate the items I wanted to have side access to from those in the main compartment, and allowed me to keep the two sections separate.
Removable helmet carry
Easy to attach, simple to use, really appreciate the fact you can take it off if you are not using a helmet.
Left: Optional internal divider.
Right: Removable helmet carry, easy access side pouch.
Bright colors in the right places
Brighter colors mark the cord that closes the top, as well as the side pocket, making those parts of the pack easier to locate.
A few things that can be improved
The separate avy pocket is a bit too small
My probe and shovel barely fit into the separate inside compartment length wise. My shovel is a bit longer since it also converts to an ice axe (68 cmm, BCA shaxe) but my probe is standard length (about ~45cm). If the vest was more packed, unless I placed the probe right in the middle of the pocket, it would prevent the top from closing completely. Just another few cm would make a difference! I also like the separation between wet skins and the rest of the stuff and having the pocket be a bit bigger would help with that as well.
No bladder carry
There is a small pocket where a bladder sleeve would normally be, inside on the back panel – I didn’t really find that pocket all that useful. However, I really did miss the bladder pocket! I have tried using the vest carrying soft water bottles in the front pockets instead, but I found I like those pockets for snacks instead.
Only single loop on shoulder straps
There really aren’t any features on the straps to contain a bladder hose or a radio cable, they sort of just end up hanging around your shoulder. Even a single extra cord that allowed me to loop the hose or cable under it would be really helpful! (similar to the ones that exist on the Distance running vest)
Fit
As far as sizing of the vest goes, I used the BD fit guide to figure out what size of vest I should get and based on my torso measurements, I selected a size small. The size fit perfectly. I found that the ski vest fit very similar to my running vest. All sizing in DB is unisex.
Closing thoughts
Overall, I am very impressed with the quality of the Cirque ski vest (and my running vest) made by Black Diamond. I feel like they are one of the few outdoor companies taking risks and bringing different designs to pieces of gear that are very familiar to us all and have not evolved all that much in the past few years. I love the fact of adapting ideas from running vests into ski packs. Keep it up!
Shop for the BD Cirque 22 Ski Vest
4 comments
Thanks for the great writeup! How’d you find the functionality of the top/lid?
This pack has intrigued me. I do a lot of fitness touring at Hyak as well and was going to get this but then the whole Pieps fiasco cooled my enthusiasm for BD products. I bought a Mammut Spindrift 14 instead and have really enjoyed it. For others on the fence here’s my quick review.
Things I like:
– It has HUGE hip belt pockets for my skins, snacks, and other touring detritus. One pocket even has a windbreaker vest in it that goes overhead and clips to the other pocket allowing for some protection when your weighting for the sweat to kick-in. Note, skins for skis above 95mm might not both fit in the same pocket.
– Easy to use and well sized safety pocket swallows all but my enormous Ortovox Kodiak shovel ( I use a BD shovel with this pack instead–bought years ago)
– It has a hide away water bottle pocket on the left strap, great for warmer PNW touring when you want water immediately at hand
– I can holster my skis without taking the pack off, this is so fun. I feel like a speed demon just throwing them in the loop and whipping the strap around the skis.
– Small, but significant to me, is the stretchy, mesh snack pockets on the hip belt. I stash my used energy gel wrappers in these pockets so they don’t leak all over the stuff in my pockets. Easy to clean them too as they are mesh.
– The triangle shape, I didn’t think this would make a difference, but have your shoulder blades on inhibited by a pack makes a lot of the motions we make touring much easier on the upper body.
Things that could be better.
– The hip pockets, while great, I wish they were bellowed to make stashing skins even faster.
– Volume is a bit small. When carrying a full compliment of safety gear this pack fills up fast. I have a bigger balloon bag for longer tours so I can get away with using this one in the spring and on the fitness laps. If you were very mission focused and blessed with all the ultralight gear you could make this work for winter day trips.
Happy to answer any questions.
I got myself a BD Cirque 22 a couple months ago. I have used a wide variety of bc ski packs, including others from Black Diamond. I had been using the BD Dawn Patrol, but hated how the access to the main compartment was under the shoulder straps. Then I tried a Dynafit “race” pack, and loved the simplicity, but it was so flimsy I gave up on it after a month and two broken zippers. Black Diamond packs inspire confidence–the zippers are beefy, the material seems tear proof, and they are well thought out.
The Cirque 22 is the perfect dawn patrol or even one day bc ski pack. At first I thought the draw string closure at the top would feel insecure, but after the first few tours, I came to appreciate its simplicity and flexibility. I had never used a running vest before, so I was a bit leary of lack of a hip belt, but I do not miss it at all, and I agree that the shoulder strap pouches are awesome. And I have used the ski carry for several rappel entries, and for a long booter, and it works great. (I wouldn’t want to use ti for beefy skis, but for my Movement Alp Track 100s it works perfectly.) 10/10, would definitely recommend to a friend.
It looks like a backpack to me. Judging from its title ski vest I thought it would be a front of body style pack.