Grivel Alpine Lite Pack Review
- Wild Things Icesac
- Deuter 32
- Wild Things Andinista
- Some old model North Face and REI packs which are now discontinued.
- The rubber strands to hold ice axe shafts to the body of the pack are a complete joke.
- The chord used for cinching the main pack compartment closed is of poor quality and broke after routine and short term usage.
- Strap attached to the top compartment and main body near the neck area isn't necessary. I never used it. Does anyone else? and what for?
- Internal climbing gear rack is a useless gimmick.
- External Gear loops are unnecessary.
- Small zipper pockets on the waist belt are difficult to access.
- Overall design is more complex than necessary. Too many straps and gadgets.
- Pocket to house water bladder systems.
- The pack is generally comfortable and has well padded shoulder straps.
- Has keyring attachment which gets a lot of use for weekend warrior climbers.
- Skis easily attach to the side with the unbuckleable compression straps and slots for skis.
- Strap exists on the top of the main compartment for loading a rope in between main and top compartments.
- $100
My old Deuter backpack was literally falling apart from tons of use and abuse. It was time to make a replacement. I didn't have much time so I had to make a quick decision. I went down to Pro Mountain Sports in Seattle to check out the stock. What I was looking for is:
- Something about 32-42 liters in capacity.
- Ability to carry skis on my pack.
- Must carry 2 ice axes.
One of the first trips I took with this new shiny pack was into the North Cascades National Park to climb the East Ridge of Eldorado Peak. While packing my bag for a day climb the internal gear rack kept getting in the way. I tried to think about any possible use for this thing inside of a pack. After about 20 minutes of pondering a use I decided to literally cut this feature out. Ok to the trail now.. On the hike in you must immediately cross the river and beat some minor bush up the Roush Creek drainage and then into the high country. This was where I immediately confirmed my suspicion about the ruggedness and design of the rubber straps which were to hold the ice axe shafts to the body of the pack. The axes constantly become detached from those straps and fall loose. Maybe the folks who designed this in Europe don't have a testing ground for bush bashing. It's a good thing a few times that I had a partner walking behind me. Otherwise I would have lost an expensive ice axe in the forest. What I did was cut those off later on and replace them with some nylon climbing tape which I would tie together around the shafts instead.
I continually used the pack for a number of other short alpine day climbs and general rock and ice cragging. I discovered that the keyring which was conveniently placed inside the top compartment was very useful to me. I'd always know exactly where my keys were when arriving back at the car and didn't ever worry about losing them inadvertently. Also for long hikes over 3 hours or so the pack was fairly comfortable on my shoulders with a heavy load due to good padding on those straps and padding on the back. The back of the pack is foamy and honeycombed. This honeycomb-like feature seems to actually permit quick drying time on the pack after getting wet with sweat or whatever else. I don't user water bladders much in the winter because the tubes have a tendency to freeze. However I did use this a few times in the summer. It was convenient not having to open my pack for a drink when making day climbs. Another feature which I came to like is the strap between the outside of the main compartment and the lid which I always used to keep my climbing ropes on the outside for rock and ice cragging. This allowed me to load more gear inside the pack when needed.
After owning the pack for over 6 months I noticed that the chord which cinches the main body closed was beginning to wear. Wow that was quick. The chord finally broke from routine usage 5 days later. This is simply poor chord choice from the design crew. Grivel, spend an extra few dollars in this region of the pack instead of on silly gimmicks and increase the overall quality. The real problem is that I immediately noticed the chord is not easily fixed in the field, unless you have a complete sewing kit and plenty of time to waste. Reason is that the chord was actually sewn to the body of the pack on two sides. Grivel, take a look at the Wild Things Icesac and how the main compartment closes and notice it is field maintainable without need for tools and sewing kits. Just replace the chord on their pack and voila. Now go back to your design rooms and make it so. When this fails it requires a professional sewing job to fix if you ask me. I took the pack back to Pro Mountain Sports and Jim had that portion resewn (at no cost to me) with a new design which would permit me to fix it in the field later on. Moving on... The gear loops attached to the waist belt were so far to the rear I could never use them. Instead I just clipped my climbing gear to the lower part of the shoulder straps. I have really tried to think of a good way to utilize the small zipper pockets on the waist belt. But those suffer the same problem of being in an uncomfortable and hard to access spot.
I've since been using the pack for a couple of years without any further major malfunctions. I don't recommend this pack and suggest that other models on the market are probably better designed.
The backpack:
