Category: Climbing & Hiking

For sale: 2 lightweight backpacks

Been on a few climbs this summer and convinced you need to carry less weight? I’m cleaning out my gear closet and am offering these for sale:

Mountainsmith Chimera - $75

The Chimera is a fully-featured, women’s-specific backpack made by Mountainsmith. It has seen very little use since I bought it a few years ago, but not because it isn’t a great pack. I just happened to have a different pack I liked better. Now I’d like to see this one go to a good home.

Capacity: ~3,800 cu. in.
Weight: 3 lbs 12 oz.

• Padded shoulder straps, which can be adjusted independently.
• Twin mesh covered foam tubes on the back of the pack for padding and air flow between the pack and your back.
• The waist belt is padded with .5 inches of EVA foam and can be adjusted with using two straps, which increase stability. The waist belt also has sewn webbing straps for accessory pockets if you’d like to add them.
• 8 in. deep mesh pocket on each side to hold tent poles, water bottles or just about anything.
• Two ice axe loops and attachment points and a couple additional attachment points at the base of the pack (not underneath) for attaching sleeping pad if desired. Straps are not included.
• A few other attachment points here and there on the pack plus a quick storing bungee cord to handle wet items.
• An interior nylon pocket holds a 2.5 liter hydration reservoir with the exit hole positioned between the stays on the back of the pack. The reservoir is not included.
• Each side has two compression straps uniformly spaced.
• The lid can be completely removed from pack and has a permanently attached inner zippered pocket that is approx. 5.5 x 7.75 inches. Great for keys or other small accessories.
• Made from a material (VX-21) that Mountainsmith purports to be 3 times more tear resistant and 2.5 times more abrasion resistant than 500d Cordura with 20 times more resistance to UV degradation and water penetration.
• Additionally, Mountainsmith offers a lifetime warranty on their products.

GoLite Gust - $50

The GoLite Gust pack is the minimalist’s dream without sacrificing quality. This top loading, ultralight pack is capable of hauling up to 35 lbs. for all climbing, mountaineering, backpacking and winter pursuits. It is generously sized so that you can fit all of your gear in the pack, even for winter trips.

Capacity: 3,600 cu. in.
Weight: 20 oz.

Features include:

• Adjustable shoulder straps
• Webbing hip belt
• Top loading, large extension collar
• Top retention strap
• Front and rear equalized haul loops
• 2 tool holders
• 1 rear pocket
• Made of: Dyneema® Gridstop/Arrowhead Cordura

A lot of people are put off by the idea of a frameless pack, but it is way more comfortable than you think. The trick is to use your sleeping pad inside the pack for extra support.

Shakedown disaster!

I left the tarp up in the rain last night to double check how it would perform. As you can see it was a minor disaster. I remembered needing to stake out the middle of the long sides, but failed to do it yesterday. The result was big puddles of water and a saggy tarp after a night of heavy rain.

I fixed the problem this morning, but I wanted see what else could be done to hold the bottom up a bit better. Using an anchor equalization technique from rock climbing I constructed a big loop through three guy out points and used my trekking pole to pull it taught.

I suspect it would be even better if I tied the points on the side outwards instead of towards the back, but that would require two more stakes and the use of some ice axes. Anyone have any other wise thoughts on tarp setup out there? 

Shakedown: Sil Tarp + Bug Liner

In the interest of reducing our pack weight as much as possible for the Bailey Range, John and I have decided to use my Integral Designs Sil Tarp instead of a tent. I’ve used this by myself before and it works fantastically. It even stood up to a snow storm near Peggy’s Pond several years ago.

John is pretty anti-bug though, so he encouraged me to buy the mesh liner for it - adding a pound and change to the setup. That might seem like a lot, but the combined weight of the tarp and liner is still about two pounds lighter than the lightest two-person tent in my quiver.

Not wanting to go out for nine days with an untested piece of gear, I tried setting it up in my front yard this afternoon, much to the delight of the neighbor boys. Click on the images below to see what it looks like.

Who’s in charge here?

L to R: Peter H, me, John B, Paula S, Samir D, Justin H
Photo courtesy of Samir Diwan, all rights reserved

Despite sprinkles in North Bend Sunday morning, our group of six optimistically drove to Snoqualmie Pass for a day of rock climbing on The Tooth. The second summit of the group of peaks ascending from Denny Mountain to Chair Peak, The Tooth is a small, rocky peak that neatly resembling a canine tooth from nearly every vantage point. It’s a fantastic climb for many reasons: its close proximity to Seattle, the fast and easy approach, and the solid rock. I rarely make it a point to climb things more than once (there’s still so much to climb), but this is one I go back to every year.

This was my first climb as an official climb leader for The Mountaineers. (Can you believe they let someone like me be in charge?) I was lucky to have two fantastic rope leaders and a confident group of Basic students to make the climb go smoothly. We made short work of the approach, which was almost snow-free at this time of the year, and found ourselves alone at the base of the climb. Yahoo!

Two pitches, a short scramble and a third pitch later we were on the summit enjoying the views.

Me with rope partner Samir on the summit
Photo courtesy of Samir Diwan, all rights reserved

A discussion ensued in which there was some disagreement about which peaks were which. I’m never very good at that game, so I stayed out of the discussion, preferring to defer to the John who has been climbing in Washington since almost before I was born.

Photo courtesy of Samir Diwan, all rights reserved

At 11:30, we’d all done the math and decided it was time to go home. If we were efficient, we’d be home by mid-afternoon. Most of our spouses and significant others weren’t expecting us home until dinner time or later, so we started plotting what we might do with our “free hall pass.”

John starting down the first rappel
Photo courtesy of Samir Diwan, all rights reserved

Me on the final rappel to the base of the climb
Photo courtesy of Samir Diwan, all rights reserved

Little Tahoma

Little Tahoma on left, Mt. Rainier on right.
Click here to see picture of the route

Seven years after first climbing Mt. Rainier, I decided it was finally time to climb its sibling Little Tahoma. Most people I mentioned this peak to gave me a wary look accompanied by warnings of deathly rock fall and a promise to never go back.

Fortunately, I managed to find and join a threesome (John B, Dave S & Stephanie K) who’d never climbed it and were willing to give the third highest mountain in Washington a try.

Continued...