Favorite Haulbag for long approaches and minimal hauling
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Outside of El Cap sometimes you have to hike far but will want a haul bag. Wondering if anyone has found any haul bags nicer than others for multi-hour approaches and scrambling in? Edelrid Kurt Bag, cassin torre? The haul covers some companies make just seem annoying to deploy when you are accessing your bag at most belays and I feel like you can easily destroy a normal pack in 1-5 pitches of nasty hauling. https://highmtngear.com/products/65l-wallpinist-haul-bag - Any alternatives to something like this besides the mythical G7 pack? |
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After a dozen years or more it was time to replace my Metolius Haul Bag (Half Dome? Quarter Dome? I forget which), which I bought long ago because I was looking for exactly what you describe, basically a super-burly backpack/comfortable-to-carry haulbag. I ended buying another Metolius. It's actually lightweight by modern haulbag standards, compared to Cassin, Yates, etc. After a year or two it's doing great ... except there's a finger-size hole in the bottom. Comparing it to the old one I see they made the bottom of the new one out of thinner material. Bummer. I may have to sew a patch or replace the bottom or look for something else. The one you linked to sounds interesting, intrigued to check out the material, it has to be pretty durable if they make a haulbag version. |
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If you're willing to go for a heavy, burly haul bag than Runout Customs makes the comfiest to carry pig by a rather significant margin. I portered for Pete Zabrok which meant I got to preview just about every brand on the market due to the nature of his infamous Junk Show. Carrying a 100 pound load for him in a Metolius El Cap that left my hips bleeding inspired me to get the ultra comfy Runout Customs. I might not be much of a wall climber, but I am much of a wuss, and if you want to be as comfortable as possible on the approach than Runout is where it's at. |
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Thanks Ricky Harline. The High Mtn Gear option's great on paper but jeez that's lot of money.... The Runout Custom DIAD is looking better, now my budget-oriented Metolius is wearing badly. On paper the DIAD is heavy and small but there's that roll top closure? I wonder how much usable extra volume there is? Runout TITAN Weight- 6 lbs 10 oz / Size- 28" x 16" x 13.5" / VOLUME ~ 77L / $375.00 Runout DIAD Weight - 4lbs 9 oz / Size - 24.5" x 11.5" x 13" / Volume - ~2700 cu in/44 L (not including roll top) / $325.00 Metolius Quarter Dome Size: 27" x 16" x 10" / Weight: 5 lbs. 1 oz. (2.3 kg) / Volume: 4200 cu. in. (69 L) / $220 High Mountain Gear Wallpinist Weight: 2.2 lb / Size ? / Volume: 65 L / $599.00 |
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The fish atom smasher is similar to the run out customs DIAD bag. I have no idea if Russ still makes stuff or not. Anyway I had an old back pack I I cut the waist belt off to use instead of the meager waist belt it comes with. |
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Blue ice alpine hauler, it's new. |
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Looks interesting! 45L does seem pretty small though. Hopefully they can offer something larger soon. |
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Don't knock the haul covers until you try them! A buddy and I used the Mammut one in the Bugs and it worked great. He hauled one time without the cover and shredded his bag within 60'. Access isn't that hard. The big plus is that you can use your normal pack with brains, ice axe attachments, comfortable suspension, all without dismantling your pack at the base and putting it back together at the top. We also used the cover to protect our gear against critters when we had to stash it. |
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https://highmtngear.com/products/65l-wallpinist-haul-bag I have debated manufacturing merely a cover out of Ultra 200TX, much like the mammut one.
I mean, sure. It is $500 for the 65L right now, but its made in the US out of as much dyneema as you can get. |
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High Mountain Gear wrote: As someone who doesn't know what ultra 200 or 800TX is, would you mind explaining the differences briefly? Cheers |
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Ricky Harline wrote: Sure! Love talking fabric. 200 and 800 are the “denier” of the woven strands of the fabric. So 200 is like your dress shirt, and 800 is like a Carhartt jacket. Ultra fiber is about a 50/50 blend of recycled polyester and UHMWPE(dyneema), but its woven, unlike actual Dyneema fabric which is a sandwich. Both 200 and 800 have a laminate layer which keeps the weave together, 800’s is thicker. If you had no laminate, the weave would fall apart. ESPECIALLY when you are going to intentionally abrade(haul) a pack, if you wear through the laminate the weave falls apart and you get a hole. That means the things in your pack are more likely to put holes in stuff just as much as the rocks do. For 200, thats it. It’s the Ultra weave, and laminate. 800TX has a layer of scrim that keeps the fabric more stable, reducing laminate degradation. It also has a 70d nylon layer bonded to the back. This protects the back of the laminate, Ultra protects the front. AFAIK 800TX vs 200 is probably 5-8x abrasion resistance. 800 without TX the ASTM testing data just says 16,000+ meaning “alot”. 200 is awesome stuff, its amazing. But the fact that they couldnt at least get 200X is a little weird, I suspect it just didn’t “look” like their product line with it. 200TX is so expensive I suspect they couldn’t afford to sell it with enough margin. Challenge designed the TX series specifically for haul bags. Ultra 200 is for hiking/alpine climbing. Unless you’re only hauling sleeping bags and puffy jackets in there, the BI is not a “haul bag”. Can you haul packs up pitches without wrecking them? Yes, if the follower manages them. They are weight conscious for their customers. I make things that don’t exist because its the best thing in that segment. My sales suffer because I do not care about making more things that already exist on the market. Sure, Blue Ice pack is nice. It is a better product for maybe 95% of people that don’t actually haul their bags on rocks. The point of the Wallpinist 65L is you walk in with two to your objective, then put one in the other so the second can put the straps on it and climb low angle terrain belayed with the pack on. Alpine style wall objectives can be done like this on 7 day treks. I also include ski straps for a frames, and the ice axe loop come off the pack. |
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Adam Fleming wrote: Doesn’t the Mammut cover weigh as much as a pack? |
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I have an "old but barely used" Yates haul bag. It's in like new condition (Cordura) . It's the best "carrying" bag I ever owned - much better than my Metolius was or my buddies Fish bag. It's not as big as some others but it's perfect for a long approach to a smaller wall. I'd sell it for $50 plus shipping. Sadly my days of big wall climbs are behind me - I went and got old. |
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Rob Dillon wrote: Rob I sent a couple pics - let me know if they came through - I'm a klutz on my phone. |
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Chris, Uh if my buddy Rob decides he doesn't want it, next in line, please. |
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Does north face still make the cinder? Wickedly comfy suspension that can hold a lot of weight and rugged enough to be dragged. The casin haul bag is fine. |
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High Mountain Gear wrote: 2lbs 5oz claimed weight. So yeah, it weighs a couple ozs more than my alpine pack, but it covers your pack and your partner's. I think the big advantages are that you only need to bring it when you intend to haul and you get to wear a comfy and functional pack instead of a vinyl tube with some straps on it. I wouldn't have wanted to climb with a stubby haul bag all the time and we probably only hauled on half the climbs we did that trip. |
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Adam Fleming wrote: Sounds good to me, I'll make an Ultra one. The Mammut one has been discontinued. Looking at a video it appears pretty big. I imagine with Ultra 200TX it would weigh 10-12 oz with dyneema webbing, but you are probably not gonna like the cost... |
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FWIW, We did haul a slightly older arcteryx backpack up the corners on all along the watchtower in the bugs and you could barely tell we hauled it. That load was probably 20 lbs or less though and only or a few hundred feet. I talked to the blue ice guys and they said it would be a few years before they offer something bigger. Their design also doesn't really allow you to "over stuff" it like a Hyperlite or arcteryx pack. The high mountain gear pack looks awesome but I just couldn't justify paying $600 for a soft good with a limited life span but totally understand why it costs that much. One design question: if this pack is designed to be worn on the approach and hauled up the route, it should never really need to be folded up so why not offer any back padding/support? Seems like a little bit of removable support, wire or stiff pad or something could go a long way on the approach for comfort and to get weight on your hips even if you are super intentional while packing it. I saw in the description you designed them to be used in "pairs" but I am skeptical that many people are really paying for two of these bad boys. (and the leader could just lead with a mostly empty alpine pack) |
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I own an older model of the Metolius Sentinel, their smallest bag. To be fair, despite my aspirations I have not yet hauled it on a real wall. I'd like to some day, in a minimalist style. Otherwise, it's been an excellent burly crag bag for me, and I have worn it enough to say that multi-hour approaches with some scrambling would be very doable. It's not cushy by any means but also not terribly uncomfortable. |
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Bug Boy wrote: If you had a chance across the world to send or not send a route that would benefit from the reduced weight/packing size, I imagine that $1000-1200 is not that big of a deal. No, the only person that “owns” two is me and I didn’t even own one for a long time. IME, companies fall short in some ways to make the absolute best a product can be for one purpose. They make a thing that can be utilized by lots of people so they can be manufactured overseas and sold. Margins of success are sometimes only defined on the plane ride home. We’d rather give our customers the opportunity to achieve than load a pack down with widgets, potentially unnecessary suspension, and things that they would carry unneeded to their objective.
The back pad is removable. Mugs Stump carried a giant pole in case of a fall in a crevasse, I imagine any “thing” will do if you’re determined enough. |