Aussie made ultralight climbing pack
On the height finish of Katoomba Boulevard, there’s a serious-looking post-war construction anchored to the Blue Mountains retail panorama. It’s house to native out of doors store, Summit Tools, staffed through path runners, climbers, and canyoners, it shares the standard suspects of Icebreaker, Patagonia, Los angeles Sportiva, Mont, Outside Analysis, Salomon, and many others.
To start with look, you’ll want to be forgiven for considering Summit Tools is like each and every different tools store. However go searching and you could begin to realize one thing other. Concentrate more difficult and all will transform transparent…
Native Design and manufacture
What you received’t to find on this store are partitions encumbered with backpacks from Osprey or others. THIS is what makes this little-Mountains-business-that-could, other. Oh and after I say concentrate, I imply it. In a quiet second on this former financial institution construction, you could pay attention sounds leaking from above of stitching machines, room-filling chopping machines and the scratching of chins of passionate out of doors folks seeking to design higher, smarter tools. Or because the tagline in their new sub-brand, Whippa, reads:
Lighter, More potent, Higher.
Whippa, 2024
Pack Design + Bespoke to reserve
Summit Tools has been making its bomber cordura packs for yonks. Well liked by hard-core-ish, off-track, crusty bushwalkers and canyoners, they’ve a name for near-indestructible development in a paired-back, no-frills design.
Glance carefully on the packs worn through NSW Ambulance, CareFlight, NPWS and different emergency services and products and also you’re prone to see the Summit Tools emblem in the back of their designed-for-task smarts. Summit Tools have labored direct with businesses and different industries designing fit-for-task packs, satchels, pouches and more than a few equipment for the place of work.
Their operation is agile sufficient to comic strip up concepts, run in combination mock-ups and check n’ tweak for a various vary of shoppers with very explicit wishes.
Recognising a converting marketplace, the wish to produce lighter weight and ultralight packs and the felony demanding situations they may come across in the event that they attempted to sign in the Summit Tools model the world over, they introduced a brand new sub-brand, Whippa, in Might 2024. I’ve been trying out their Overland 60L Ultralight climbing pack for 2 months.
Overland 60L Ultralight
First Impressions
Visually, the Whippa vary attracts at the easy, streamlined design of Summit Tools’s conventional packs: one huge height load compartment and an uber-generous entrance pocket. The bells and whistles of this child aren’t evident at the outdoor, however humble, effectively concept out design and use of recent, light-weight but powerful fabrics and a body sheet imply the track and dance is within the 940 grams and a at ease raise below load.
Fabrics
Design & Building
I like a roll-top pack and that is no exception. The approx 26 cm of throat is simply one of the crucial choose-your-own-adventure* parts within the 60 litre ultralight taste I examined. Upload or subtract for your load, shrink down as you devour meals or make bigger to hold sudden extras (like taking over further water for dry stretches), I examined the pack in a number of tactics, together with as an afternoon pack when guiding (40L would been sufficient for considerable workforce first assist package, thermos, poo package, radio, non-public tools, and many others) and overnighters.
Are compatible and Adjustment
The 10mm closed mobile foam padding (with sneaky weight-saving and respiring holes) supplies simply the correct quantity of convenience for the 6cm shoulder straps and 9.5 cm hip straps. I just like the selection of a forward-tightening belt buckle and snazzy minimalistic buckles that paintings nice when dressed in gloves. Load Lifters, teamed with the complete frame-sheet are key to getting a comfortable and well-distributed raise with the Whippa Overland. Take a look at the BTS video with Rob Inshaw as he describes how this works.
Convenience
In weight and cargo exams, I discovered (oddly) that it used to be extra at ease when packed as a complete, streamlined load, as an alternative of a half-empty day pack. When 1/2 empty, it felt as although it pulled clear of the frame, irrespective of adjusting load lifters, shoulder straps and hip belt. It used to be as a complete load, round 12-14 kg, that it truly felt lightly allotted and used to be at its maximum comfortable.
Hip Belt Wallet
Beneficiant hip-belt wallet have been designed to carry even the largest smartphone (circa 2024), giving simple entry for pictures or navigation apps. The usage of the cruel UltraStretch cloth makes sense with its 4-way stretch and tear/abrasion resistance. That and the additional pleats approach there’s nonetheless house for all the ones snacks, lip balm and hanky (sure, hanky folks).
Again Pocket
The again pocket of the Whippa Overland is among the evident puts the design strays clear of the vintage stretchy mesh outdoor pocket, as observed in ultralight competition Z-Packs, Hyperlite or Durston. I’ve walked in the back of many pals sporting those (and what’s left of the mesh the ones manufacturers use) testomony that they weren’t designed with hauling packs thru thick banksia, hakea and different wonders of the Aussie Bush.
Casting off that factor, Rob’s group have used the similar major cloth (both Dyneema or Extremely 200x), with a cosy becoming typhoon flap, offering a beneficiant (about 27 cm x 15 cm x 37 cm) stow all, fast-access pocket.
This provides considerably to the full capability and is highest for rainy pieces like rain jackets or tent fly. Oh, and it suits a 14″ pc (now not that I take a kind of with me into the bush!).
Facet Wallet
UltraStretch cloth (which used to be so difficult their machines struggled to chop it they usually wanted to make use of graphite shears to complete the process correctly) and in part hidden compression straps (with G-hook attachments) be certain your 1L bottle remains cosy. Placement and sewing intended I didn’t need to dislocate a shoulder to take a swig.
Webbing (Straps)
It’s necessary to notice that the webbing (straps) they’ve used during are in particular difficult and don’t slide in the course of the clips like conventional webbing can. This may take slightly of having used to as you want to position some oomph into tensioning them.
In the back of the Scenes with Whippa
I headed above the store in Katoomba for a BTS chat with Rob Inshaw to be informed extra about Whippa and the Overland 60.
I didn’t check them, however Whippa be offering a couple of fries with that when you’re after further capability with an 8 litre Ultralight Expedition Hood (removable mind) with weatherproof zipper. There’s additionally a helmet web that works with the 35L and 55L variations of the pack and unsurprisingly, Whippa’s Canyon pack sequence. Made imaginable in the course of the small attachment loops, you’ll additionally use those in your personal DIY attachments.
Beneath Trying out – My revel in
How I examined it – I used the Whippa Overland 60L for two months sooner than scripting this evaluation. I used it for no less than 2-3 brief hikes (1-3 hrs) every week with <7 kg, 4 full-day walks (8 hrs, 8 kg) and an overnighter (12 kg). To check convenience below weight, I additionally over-loaded it with 20 kg for one of the crucial brief walks.
What I preferred
- Difficult light-weight materials that seem to be as powerful as they declare
- Again pocket – the characteristic I assumed I wouldn’t like… however beloved. It held the entirety that I’d generally put right into a pack mind/hood and extra. I love that I didn’t lose issues in it like I every now and then do within the awkward form of a zipped mind pocket because of the way it wraps/bends across the height of a pack.
- Weight – <1kg for 60 litres in a powerful package deal
- Construction – the inner body sheet offers the pack construction that regularly isn’t present in ultralight or light-weight packs. No person likes a floppy pack ;).
- Simplistic Large Bucket height loader roll-top with G-clip
- It’s a tidy pack with streamlined just right seems
- Outstanding customer support from native Australian small enterprise
Issues to imagine
- Despite the fact that the material is water resistant (Whippa describe the pack as ‘weatherproof’) and the seams had been taped sealed (what does that imply?), when the usage of it in Tassie drizzle I discovered that whilst the pieces inside of stayed most commonly dry, moisture were given in across the base after I put the pack at the floor throughout breaks. In long term I’d merely use a water resistant pack liner or dry baggage (as I do with my different packs).
- The stiff webbing straps took slightly of having used to
- Price – As at June 2024, the pack prices $619 AUD
Conclusion
In case you’re shopping to lighten your multiday pack and challenge into the land of ultralight tools (and feature the price range), the relaxation delivered through the framesheet and cargo lifters, will make a very easy transition.
Providing the selection of Ultra200x (as an alternative of Dynmeema) for the primary cloth is a brilliant possibility for people who do a large number of off-track/scrub or rock scrambling.
It’s necessary to understand that it’s nonetheless an funding and like every tools, you want to care for your package, now not actively trash it.