climbing pack reviews

Deuter Freescape 40+ ski touring and freeriding pack.

Review: Deuter Freescape 40+ and Freescape Pro 38+ SL Ski Packs

Ski Touring-Alpine Pack
Deuter Freescape 40+
$220, 40L/2,441 c.i., 3 lb. 5 oz. (men’s)
One size
backcountry.com

Deuter Freescape Pro 38+ SL
$220, 38L/2,319 c.i., 3 lb. 5 oz. (women’s)
One size
backcountry.com

There are days skiing or riding backcountry snow or on multi-day yurt trips where you need a pack with extra space for gear, layers, food, etc., and a feature set that lets you push your adventures to another level. That’s exactly what you get with the men’s Freescape 40+ and women’s Freescape Pro 38+ SL. On numerous days of backcountry ski touring, including four days at a yurt in Idaho’s Boise Mountains, I found the Freescape offers a degree of versatility for objectives in the mountains that smaller, skiing- and riding-specific packs do not.

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Gear Review: Patagonia Linked Pack 16L Climbing Pack

Patagonia Linked Pack 16L climbing pack.
Patagonia Linked Pack 16L climbing pack.

Climbing Pack
Patagonia Linked Pack 16L
$79, 16L/976 c.i., 1 lb. 4 oz.
One size
moosejaw.com

On multi-pitch rock climbs, trad or sport, we unfortunately have to carry stuff on our backs—water, a bit of food, some extra layers. If we had the power to shape-shift objects, we’d make a pack large enough to hold our gear while hiking, then shrink it down for climbing. Short of that, though, the best option is a compact, lightweight, tough pack. Using Patagonia’s Linked Pack 16L on a trad route up Slickrock, a 1,200-foot cliff outside McCall, Idaho, including approach and descent hikes, convinced me this just may be the ideal little pack for such missions. Here’s why.

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Gear Review: Mountain Hardwear South Col 70 OutDry Climbing Pack

Mountain Hardwear South Col 70 OutDry
Mountain Hardwear South Col 70 OutDry

Climbing Pack
Mountain Hardwear South Col 70 OutDry
$300, 70L/4,270 c.i., 3 lbs. 13 oz. (S/M)
Sizes: S/M & M/L (75L/4,575 c.i.)
backcountry.com

On a four-day, April ascent of the Mountaineers Route on California’s 14,505-foot Mount Whitney with my 15-year-old son, I carried this pack with over 40 pounds inside for the two-day hike to our 12,000-foot high camp, and then stripped it down to carry much less weight on our nine-hour summit day. I call it the Transformer of climbing packs. Its minimalist weight, modularity, and feature set make it, in many ways, ideal for multi-day, technical climbs. There are also compromises with a pack this light, which some climbers will find acceptable, others maybe not.

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Gear Review: Millet Prolighter 30 pack

Millet Prolighter 30

Ski Pack
Millet Prolighter 30
$135, 2 lbs. 12 oz.
30L/1,830 c.i.
One size
millet.fr/en

I carried this top-loading rucksack with a rock-climbing rack, clothing, and food for a roughly 14-mile, nearly 4,000-foot climb of Mt. Heyburn in Idaho’s Sawtooths, which is mostly a long, substantially off-trail hike with a couple short pitches of easy rock climbing to the summit. (My partner carried the rope, though it would have easily fit under this pack’s rope strap.) The Prolighter 30 nails it as a pack for an all-day, technical rock, snow, or ice climb in the backcountry, or a cragging pack: It sports all the needed features while weighing in under three pounds, is comfortable carrying 25 to 30 pounds, and built to sustain serious abuse.

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