The Skintrack Podcast
Backcountry Gear Pt2
- So now that we're done with boots, let's move on to apparel, or should we do packs? - Let's do, let's do packs. - All right, packs. Packs, quiver, no quiver, what size? Let's go. - That's tricky. A quiver is obviously the most ideal, but if I'm being honest out there, like any good pack, it's gonna run you, I get actually skiing like touring. That's also, can we go technical enough or big objective is gonna be over $200 range. Like, well, over $200 you do two packs like that, you're over at a $400 range, it's expensive, or you find what some may consider the ultimate pack. And there's not many out there that hit that sort of mark, but I will say this, I think the RAID research, LF40, so light and fast 40, that's probably the best pack on the market right now for its use. - And what was your consideration with the RAID research? Is it like what features does it have that sells, that is a selling point for you? - Honestly, everything it has, it has A-frame carry, which is a must for long approaches in the lost action in the spring where you're walking on dry for, I've done over, I've done 15 miles dry walkers in the day, socks, but you get some good skiing. - Yeah, that's true. - You can find some insane good skiing in the spring. The diagonal carry is on there, which is also nice for short boot packs, like that also you look kind of cool with a diagonal carry, let's be honest, we've done it, you look pretty awesome. - Yeah, yeah. - But founder of RAID research, Kyle Segal, he actually says that you can, but if you figure out the system well enough, you can actually put your skis on diagonal carry without having to take a pack off. - Really, so like a schema style leg stow, that's actually sick. - There's not many packs that offer that? - I can actually do that, I'm not the most flexible guy out there if I can maybe figure it out, be awesome. If not, that's not a game breaker, I can't do that most packs anyway. - Right. - Especially a schema pack and-- - And schema packs suck. Like let's just be honest, they're horrible. - No, they're pretty good, if you have light skis, if you're heavy skis, you know what I'm talking like, my light skis 1450 grams per ski with the 350 gram binding, that's 800 grams of weight. That's like double a full schema set up, like per ski. I mean, you know, it's a lot-- - Yeah, you got your 78 mil skis. - No, you're 65s. - 65s, yeah, perfect. - They're basically cross country skis I want to see. - Exactly, except you have skins on them. - Yeah. - That's better than cross country. - Yeah, that's true, you can admit that. - You can't rip on this though if you're good though. - That's true. So would you consider adding one? Like for me, I'll have a 26 liter is my daily tour. It's a pretty traditional pack, nothing special. And then I have like my ski mount nearing slash big day pack and that's like 35, all the features. - That's why I really like the 40s. So I've had a 25 liter pack of last season, the black diamond dom patrol 25. Pretty solid pack. Durability is not on the market for me. Like I believe that after a year of years that was really a big bummer to me. I was super annoyed by that. Like just carrying an A frame. Like it shouldn't, I like carry it different three times where like I start ripping it. Like you're as you should be tearing it. Yeah, too far I was carrying a resort ski on it was, I don't know. But also it's also more expensive for your ride pack. Like you should be able to use it in a resort. Look at that like that. It shouldn't get torn up like that. - Yeah. - So really when I put a duck hole in the skid for a last season like that. - Yeah, it was health. - Yeah, it did work, but it didn't look good. - Yeah, it didn't really look the best. It felt like it better. - And I also found I did it one big day. It was like 8,000 meter birds. And low common candy. We started at three in the morning with a little pine claw boot packing. And mine, this is like February. So it's cold. - Yeah. - I brought out all the layers. I brought all the big guns. I was wearing insulation on my center. I never did that for ski time. I always just go like running shorts underneath it. That's it. - Yeah. - I was wearing my beefy resort mitts with liners underneath it. So like as one where I can go with that, I was wearing a, I was wearing a vest underneath, like a piring of vest, a down like jacket, and then my shell over that, which is a pretty warm shell. It's a resort shell. - Right. - Like warm. And I had a, I'm pretty sure I had a beef that day as well. I know I had a neck gator over. - Wow. - A lot of my layering over everything. Okay, it's starting to take back. No, I've run my black diamond windbreaker. So, let me see. I can remember. It was either, I would remember either my paggling a down vest or my, or if I'm down jacket overall, I'd remember my paggling a windbreaker over my paggling like base later. I'm like paggling a guy. I'll admit that. I like their gear for certain purposes at least. So I did that. And I was worried everything was still cold. I was then thinking, "Oh, we're going up a 3000 foot cooler booting up it." Like I don't have any like, what they call like birds or a cramp or anything like that. So I'm, I'm walling up in the snow, working hard for a dozen feet of climbing, fairly high ultimate eats and 11,000s where we topped out. And I'm still cold. I actually got thrashed by my toe that day. - So the rule be bold to start cold, still applied all the layers on. - Yeah, all the layers were on from this get go. It was like, all right, we're in it now. Like it, yeah, we're in the helmet. I have my two hoods. I don't need the helmet as well. Like my shell hood over the helmet. It always, I was like Everest, do you do is insane. - If you're still cold while boot packing, which let's be honest, boot packing in general, but especially in like deep wasatch powder, might just be the least pleasant, the most labor intensive for little return. - No, no, he's going to return on me. - Okay, yeah. Besides the skiing. - We got first tracks in it, so. - That's a big bragging point, little pine first tracks. - Yeah, yeah, first tracks. We just got lots of first rocks. - Oh, well, yeah. - You get a lot of rocks. - Yeah, welcome to early or even mid-season, sometimes wasatch skiing. It tends to be. - It's only when you get the first big storm, it comes through. So, everything looks amazing. Everything's perfect. And you hit rocks. You're like, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Like, ah, your solos like go to the window. You're like, my 40 skis. Not so bad. The damage wasn't that bad, which is good. But we've been up the next thing. It's still cold. We started in the valley and we're at the other side. So, the North Face style low-caught wood. The ghost ski tri-shoots off of the red, red top, I think it is, or red stack. And I had to put my layers back in. We got up the top. We got in the side. We got warm. I went down to like, I'm a shirtless later. In my 500 pack, I had it stuffed to the brim. Mind you, my skin's wrong. My helmet's in the carry. I have like two layers inside my helmet. Like, it was like max, like, overload. Like, I couldn't fit anymore in there. - I'm surprised it took a 25 because I'm personally not as good as packing at you. And I'm all like, my daily tour. I'm like, the 26 is completely full. - Oh, and I didn't have my regular leader water. I had like a gatorade in there. I actually drank that after the first one. - So you had bulky water. - And I had just a soft flask in my front. Actually, I always wanted to carry, I wanted to carry a leader bottle in there. I always carried like 20 ounces of liquid at max inside like the bag and that are like half liter up front. So, I was going like, very, very minimalistic on it. It was, yeah, harder than any water. I was still like over packed. So, I just realized I had a big pack for big days 'cause I like doing big days. Or, also springing pressures. I had to bring running shoes for it. I would bring my chakos. They're heavier. They're probably like, they're probably like three pairs of shoes in terms of weight. Oh, not three pairs of shoes. They just have two shoes. But they're like half the size of a pair of shoes. I can't fit my shoes in. So, we're doing point the points. I have to like walk barefoot up in my chakos in the snow until I put skins on. Oof. I had to walk out two and a half thousand feet like a canyon, like rocky. Caron skis, boots, everything. We're in chakos. That's really nice. I mean, if it works, it works, I guess. I like pretty cool, though. I'm coming out here with my skis on the back wearing sandals, you know? So, let's move to apparel. Are you going top to bottom full backcountry? Or are you going to free ride inspired thing? Kinda rough. I feel like we've still gone through more in the pack considerations. Honestly, you might not be wrong. Pack sure big thing. Yeah, okay. So, specifically for the Wasatch. Sorry, guys. We're kind of changing gears again. But specifically for the Wasatch. Are we doing have you bag or no have you bag? For what I'm at right now in terms of just like cost and everything and like just overall like train. I say no to have you bag. So, how do you say no to have bag in most situations? Yeah, I feel like for me, it'd be kind of something I'd like to buy if I didn't. But it's not a priority simply because we're not in Europe. We're not like you have this big massive Alpine face with nice runouts where it's like, like it could still help you obviously in Utah. But you just get scraped through trees and brush. Yeah, we have a lot more stuff. Personally, I think our bag is mostly if you are doing work for you guys. So, for like you are pushing on this what you're skiing. You're in smaller, like relatively small zones. I think that makes more sense. But yeah, overall, I'm like, I mean, I would get on some point for sure. I probably bring out a lot of days actually. I mean, I would say this, it doesn't hurt to have one. It'll probably do more good than not. Like, honestly, by the money they want it. Like, it is the right day. I'm not doing the biggest day ever. All right, I had to have one. But, like I said, it's a big pack quiver. Like, the pack is going to come out in the house for a hundred dollars. It's probably going to begin. Right. Everybody's going to have up to $1,000 on top of that. Yeah, because we're not getting no offense, but peeps sucks. So, we're not getting Black Diamond, Jet Force, peeps, stuff. We're getting Manute or Orva Talks. Yeah, we're getting in the order box. Like, one of their bags that is used to the health drive, two system, which is my opinion. Health drive seems hard to be. Yeah. The usual health drive is amazing. Health drive is even lighter, even more even smaller, even faster, even better battery, even longer charge, more uses, just better, better, better, better, better. Yeah. Exactly. You can't go wrong with it. That's what I would probably do. I'd probably do on, like, the order box, like, 25, like, lightweight one. That'd probably be actually the best use for it or, like, a third lead, like, a grad pack. So, I don't know what you're looking for, of course, but yeah. Anything else you wanted to say about packs? Yes, I actually carry these with durable and these, like, good kit carries, good organization, good acts as an avid tool. Just something that is well-huh, quite like, right, is because the guy designed it because he couldn't find a pack that worked well for anyone to do. So, he just was like, I screwed this. We're going to make my own pack to fix everything I've found in other packs. So, it's kind of like the pack to end all four of your pack. What I want to say is it skis and carries, like, the third lead or pack a little bit more, but those, like, it fits something like a four lead pack. You can pack that only small, it can over-stuff the 50 liters, so it's just, yeah, I'm kind of getting, like, up to three packs of what I'm configuring, I don't want to get too much hype. We'll say up to two packs, like, overall, like, abilities with a single pack. So, it makes sense that way else is more durable than what it packs out there. Now, because of this, the raid research, I believe it's the second most expensive pack that I've seen, at least, if it's just a base pack, no ability to carry airbags or anything like that, I believe that-- I believe that would be the Hypelike Mountain Gear Crux 40, which, you know, Cody Townsend designed that. We love Cody, but I do think the hyperlight-- I think he designed it with, well, thoughts, but Hypelike is just not-- or everything I've heard, their coins fall down. I can't say I'm the reducer stuff, but that's what everyone just says. Like, everyone's like, yeah, Hypelike is just like, they're charging more for the money. They change their production to a high level of quality facility that they save money on, but then it can raise your prime margin. So, they kind of like cut production costs and quality down for them, but also raise prices, so-- So, if we talk about-- I feel like there's three, like, super packs, if you wanted to call them. We've got the Crux 40 by Hyperlight, you've got the raid research LF40, and then you've got the Dutor FreeScape, I believe it's a 45 plus? Yeah, it could be wrong. And they vary from about 430 to about 490? Is it a super pack, though? I don't feel like it is. I might pull it up. Yeah, okay. Let's check it out. I don't-- I never heard of it. I never heard of it. I never heard of it. I never heard of it. Like, they make some great packs. I never heard of it. I never heard of it. I never heard of it. I never heard anyone say that. I feel like it has a lot of all the nice features, though, but at a better carry than like, there are other packs that are similar size, they're just not a free ride almost inspired pack, like the Dutor FreeScape Pro is. Turn off for me on Dutor personally, it's like-- it just seems like it-- I don't want to be like, that's what a guy would like-- this is kind of almost like one of a budget brand, though. Well, I was like-- Not when you're spending 180 for a 25 liter pack. This thing, I don't want to see us saying you feel like it feels like that's how a brand is. I'm not going to spend 180 on 25 liter pack because it feels like it's a cheaper pack. Okay. I can see that. I feel like a lot of-- I've heard of not cheap packs, but there's kind of a feeling of me forever is it. I don't know why. I'm trying biases. I like knives. I like having a gun. You have a manual. Arcterics. That's awesome. I am biased. I'll give it that. Okay. Let's see. This is the-- yeah, FreeScape Pro 40 Plus. It's good looking pack. I will give that. $250. You're looking carry, peel that carry. I mean, it kind of has everything you want to, but if you look at how it lines up on your back, I feel like the pack's carability looks really nice. I've never owned one personally, but it does look nice. Oh, for sure. I don't love the backpad and system. I feel like I would get stuck with snow really easily. Yeah, I could see that being a problem. It looks really. Yeah. It's like lots of foam mesh. I don't love that. If you guys want to see pictures, just go on the doodler website. They have a great website, really easy to understand. Also I hate helmet carries that aren't integrated. You have to put it away each time. I get that you wouldn't see that was kind of a turn off for me with that pack. You can't still it. Like someone with helmet carry makes sense for me is where you can put the entire thing away. And the pack is integrated. Makes it so much simpler, way faster, and just like, it's more comfortable to have your upfill. Yeah, that makes sense.