Christian Folk looking smooth on a 5.10 crux...

Are you going to the Red Rocks Rendevous down by Las Vegas? While the time I’ve spent in and around Las Vegas hasn’t been my favorite time, I do appreciate that the area is home to some of my favorite companies — acopa shoes rock! — and a great store called Desert Rock Sports which does special orders on CiloGear packs for their local customers.

If you are, enjoy it. Personally, I need to go for work, but I keep coming up with excuses to avoid it. We are way too small to have a real relationship with the great folks over at Mountain Gear who run the show, but it would still be good to visit the event. We just keep having to make packs…

If you go, and you want to know more about CiloGear packs, track down any of the following gals or dudes, who may (or may not depending on mood / time / BAC levels / ability to answer) be able to shed some light on the packs. Or even why we, with a full sense of humor, say ‘the world’s most significant‘ packs…

* Blake Herrington

* Shingo Ohkawa

* Olivia Cuessen

or any of several other characters slinking about the rendevous. And have some fun!

If you’re not going, well, neither am I…I’ll be climbing down there two weeks after the rendevous!

From Left: ’07 20L in Red, ’08 in Black, ’08 in Red

The logo is inside now, and we’re using the same 30d SilNylon as in the big packs for the extension. The Dee-Clips and sliplocks are bartacked in the seams to prevent any problems when you attach a 20L onto a bigger pack.

More pictures after the break…The back, the changes, that kind of thing.

I couldn’t find a lot of changes to take pictures of for the 20L packs. We kept what made them excellent leader’s packs, and just fixed the few details we didn’t love. For instance, all the bartacks are inside the pack now, so the Sliplocks and Dee-Clips can rotate in every direction.  But honestly, that just isn’t photogenic.

Instead, here’s a shot of the back of the packs. The 20L does NOT come with a sternum strap, but it is possible to obtain one and retrofit it to the pack. I don’t like using a sternum strap with a pack this size, it just feels like a constriction.

The suspension on these packs doesn’t look like much, but the shoulder straps represent quite a bit of design and testing. We made sure that the straps don’t constrict the shoulder rotation of anyone except almost the largest of weightlifters. With the shape right, we found the right foam to provide some cushioning without going overboard. We went with an EVA that is relatively clean, green and long lasting. When they have to, the 20L Worksack can carry a two liters of water and 20 pounds of climbing gear if they have to. but they’re designed for carrying the water, a snack and with a fleece or shell for a light hike or the necessary stuff for a summit attempt.

From left, ’07 20L WorkSack in Red and new ’08 in Black. Note Internal Security Pocket.

The addition of the internal security pocket is the biggest visible addition to the 20L Worksack. It barely weighs anything, and it adds a lot of function. The pocket is a bit bigger than 6″ by 4.5″, large enough for anything from an energy bar, barometer and a topo for a summit attempt to the keys, wallets and phones of a quick hike or even your passport and boarding pass for a flight. Mrs. CiloGear lobbied for this feature after taking her 20L down to Brazil, and she can be pretty persuasive at times.

You can use a piece of accessory cord, about 40 cm or 16″ is more than enough depending on the kinda knot you use, or for this example, a simple strap. I don’t really care about the weight difference, and the simple strap is more me-proof.

Thread the simple strap through the bottom or 2nd to the bottom loop on the daisyette. I generally pass the webbing back through the buckle (doubling back) at home. It’s hard to do, almost impossible to undo, and won’t put any significant strain on the plastic.

Then thread the ice tool or axe through the loop old school style.

Detail shot:

And then use a another simple strap if that’s all you got, or a side release strap if you prefer*, and tighten it down. Please note that I used a red strap for this example because I finally realized that black on black on black doesn’t make for good snapshots. Also, the 20L pack comes with two simple straps. All of the larger packs come with side release straps, and we do have them available if you want one or two…

Photo Courtesy G. McDonald

The photographer wrote in about his experience. I’ve reprinted his letter below. I must say that I’m jealous. I’m also glad to hear that he thought that his CiloGear 60L WorkSack was “All in all, the 60l v2 is a great pack!”

I’m just back from 16 days of backpacking through Auyuittuq park on Baffin Island, which was a fabulous trip through a remote and spectacular part of Canada. The trip gave me a good opportunity to test out the 60l v2 and 20l Cilogear packs.

Given the duration of the trip and the fact that we had no caches or porters, the 60l, even extended, would have been barely big enough to handle our starting loads. As I rarely need a really large capacity pack, an obvious solution was to also take along the 20l, which could then serve as a travel bag during transit, a day pack for side trips, a pillow (when stuffed with spare clothes and wrapped in a fleece) and, when mated to the back of the 60l, became an easily accessible repository for a vest, rain gear, camera lenses and a water bottle while schlepping loads. The combo worked great (the addition of the 20l didn’t noticeably change the balance or feel of the 60l) and was the envy of the “bird” brand packers (Osprey, Arc’teryx…) as whenever we did a side trip or a scramble, they found themselves either having to haul their large packs or rig a fanny pack from their lids.

Despite a starting pack weight of close to 65lbs, the load balance and weight distribution of the system was excellent. Although there’s little in the way of elevation gain on the hike, the terrain is very rough, with numerous large moraines, boulder fields and creeks. The pack felt rock solid, even while clambering over wet talus or hopping from rock to rock across streams. Although I was always happy to get the pack off at the end of the day, I never had problems with sore shoulders, hips or back. By the time we’d eaten the loads down to around 40lbs, the pack was (almost) unnoticeable.

One key feature of the 60l Cilogear pack which I really came appreciated is its’ weight (or lack thereof). The system gives amazing performance for such a lightweight product. Compared to most other packs used on this trip, my Cilogear weighed 3lbs less out of the gate and yet was just as capable and comfortable for moving gear. The 60l v2’s construction turned out to be bomber as well, emerging unscathed from baggage holds, airport transfers, boat rides which left some of the other packs scarred and ventilated.

It’s Kelly and Josh’s story to tell, but I will give out a few details to whet the appetite of anybody who might be interested in what these two were after:

• Kelly calls it an ‘excellent failure’.
• They were on a mountain called Shingu Charpa, trying another super long ridge climb.
• They climbed 45 pitches.
• They didn’t summit the main peak, and from what they they say, they don’t care.
• Apparently, the climb went at around 5.11+ M5 with ‘too many ‘Rs’ to bother listing.
• Three Ukrainians climbed a good chunk of the same landscape four weeks prior to KC and JW.

That’s probably enough details for now. For me, it’s pretty damn scary sounding, even if they (almost) managed to avoid the disaster style that served them so well on Great Trango Tower. It sounds like the rock was the polar opposite of what they found on Great Trango: choss. Eek. I’ve pulled down on enough crappy limestone to develop a definite prediliction to avoid choss. They seem to have found 45 pitches of it and kept going…
I’m looking forward to watching a slideshow and reading the story.
Bravo guys, bravo!