Best haul bag for starting the Yosemite aid circuit

Hi! What is the best haul bag (more importantly size) for a pair of gentlemen starting the Yosemite aid circuit? SF Washington Column, RNF Half Dome, Leaning Tower, etc. (El Cap?) I guess, probably focused on 2-3 day climbs over the next year or two. Does the Metolius Half Dome suffice? Should we go bigger? Will we quickly grow out of it? Thanks!

I really like my metolius el cap pig. The offset straps are great, and the material seems to hold up to thrashing a bit better than the BD’s. (I think it’s called durathane or something.) I opted for a larger bag with the intent of pairing it with my friends half dome bag for larger walls. The half dome would suffice for the walls you want to do, although i strongly advise against hauling SF of the column, lest ye suffer dearly.

I’m sure some of the more season’d wall vets will chime in soon. (Mark and Kevin)

Fish

The El Cap is way big, almost too big, imho.
For the lower angled routes, Salathe, Lurking Fear, etc, the El Cap would give you a nice, streamlined setup.
For the longer, overhanging routes, I’ve always gone with the Half Domes. We always go with each person has their own haul bag

I just got my second half dome bag (green now), and it doesn't seem quite as burly as the tan one from like 5 years ago.  

The fish one looks sweet though..  

The big question is: knowing that's it's already eaten it's fill, can you look in the eyes of an adorable puppy when it's begging for food and NOT feed it? (you monster)

Because haul  bags are like that puppy sitting in the meadow and begging you to fill them up even when they've already been fed with what you're going to need. 

In other words: smaller haul bags constrain you to what you need, larger haul bags convince you to bring what you want. 

I've beaten the hell out of my metolius haul bag, dragging it up so many sharp granite slabs in Arizona. This bag has no business looking as good as it does; the thing is durable.  At times, I've straight up abused it out of stupidity.  When practicing hauling one day, I had put in a bunch of rather sharp big rocks, padding the sides with cardboard.  My partner bumped the bag and it tumbled down a 20 foot cliff.  The fall was so violent the inside of the bag had that cordite smell from the rocks hitting each other.  The bag only suffered a few little puncture holes and some deep scuffs, pretty impressive given how idiotic that episode was.

I emailed metolius and they sent me a square foot of durathane material to fashion some patches.  They shipped it free and even threw in a bunch of sweet metolius shwag including these awesome can koozies! Now I have the coolest polka-dot haul bag on the block. Their above-and-beyond customer service made a loyal customer out of me.

I think the BD bags got better and are as good as the Metolius now - def go with whatever you can get a deal on!

Erik

Yosemitebigwall.com