Gear advice/suggestions on Light Ski-mountain pack

Key features top help with weight and small size are floating top lid and durable material so metal edges don't shred your pack.

Wildthings Icesac
Grivel alpine 40 L
Cilo 40
BD Anarchist


Vaude and Millet have some but hard to find around here.

Good luck, ignore dogma.

The NoZone's still on the heavier side, though there are a bunch of bells/whistles you can remove to save ounces. It's also bulletproof. Not that I'm trying to oversell it.

Why would you have to ditch the Reactor? It's a little bigger than you need for solo trips, but it's such an excellent stove. I've packed a Dragonfly with big pot and a monster synthetic sleeping bag, plus Bibler, food, clothes etc... into the NoZone, along with glacier crap and ski crap... you'll make it work with a pack that size. A smaller sleeping bag is definitely a bigger improvement.

Osprey Exposure 50. Now discontinued but available cheap online - seen $60-70.

An 85L pack? I'm crying just thinking about it. You're taking too much stuff if you're even touching the sides of that thing.

I had a far smaller osprey aether pack (50L?) but found the mesh back panel a.) filled with snow b.) carried too high off my back for good balance when skiing. The fabric was too flimsy for ski edges, axes, whacking and rock scrapes.

Edit: Always amazed how much stuff people continue to haul around Lou Dawson's site has some good cures as does Andrew McLean on his straightchuters blog, also a disciple of Volken's Euro packing approach. This is going to get up some noses it's seemed to me it's a local phenom - REI and... I'm going to say it......maybe it's The Mountaineers affect? Regardless saving a few grams on a pack only to carry around too much seems short sighted. A relatively burly but smaller pack that carries well is worth it's weight when as skiers we're obliged at times to strap skis and even boots onto it. Just a thought or two.

Anonymous skier: 6 ft. 1 in., 190 lbs. (1999 data)
Backpack: Gregory Denali, ±115 liters, approx 75 lbs.
Leg strength: substantial, but inadequate
Location: Garibaldi Nevé



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3313/3486961041_fae0f77661.jpg?v=0

i've been using a Wild Things Icesac for about ten years...its been a great pack for 2-3 day trips. Not having any frame takes a bit of getting used to, but as long as you pack it correctly, it'll carry 40lbs reasonably well.

Marcus, For space, especially if I were to continue to use my sleeping bag which is huge (-20 down, that is 10 yrs old), I'd have to make enough room by removing the reactor. But like you said, it is to nice to move it: friends who have Jet boils have to refil and heat more often making it seemingly much slower to acquire water.

So I generally use everything I bring. That is the first step to packing light. The next step is to bring less to use! I think thats where i'm at. In talked SS I realized that with my behemoth sleeping bag, I might not need a bivy unless there is the distinct possibly of inclement weather. Using my 1/2 thermarest that i consider my 'summer pad' instead of my full length one could save weight/room.

PNWbrit, the 85L aether has decently served its purpose for massive hauling of shit around (like the whole tent and cooking stuff when friends were 'new' to hiking). But it is definitely too big. Weighing it 6 months ago with avygear+skigear+campinggear+food+2Lwater put it at ~60lb. And my skigear is lightweight Mega-G fits and dynafit skis. So my pack is a bit much indeed. It has probably gotten 5-7lb lighter since then, but I can do better! And my aether has definitely succumbed to the same flaws that you mentioned. And that Lou Dawson site looks like a wealth of (possibly overboard?) tricks for light weight stuff. But definitely something I want to surf around on. Thanks for sharing!

I should also get a slightly smaller shovel: I have a large Voile which is pretty big and beefy (a present from the parents). Maybe a BD deploy? Do people like this shovel?

Markharf, Ouch. That's about what I felt before I started trying to reduce my weights.

Pete A and Mattski, thanks for the info, I'll have to look more into those.