How To Choose A Mountaineering Backpack?

What factors must be taken into account when it comes to choosing the backpack that you will use for your different alpine expeditions?

What are the ideal size and weight?

Eye the best mens backpacks for mountaineering use are not backpacks to carry your entire camp. The alpine backpack is the one you use for the approach to the wall or for the summit attack. Where you just have to carry the equipment and what it takes to survive. What size do we recommend to choose an alpine backpack? close to 40 liters. Even 50 liters. But larger ones are already uncomfortable to climb, especially in chimneys, dihedrals, or collapses. Or very heavy. Ideally, a 40-liter Alpine backpack weighs no more than 1.5 kilos, although, for some promoters of the alpine style, this can be a lot. In mountaineering, less is more. Although on big wall routes, these backpacks can be used to approach the foot of the track, carrying a smaller backpack inside.

Design and Resistance

Good mens backpacks of big walls or large walls of alpine routes must be in first order, in addition to light, resistant. Of a modular design, tubular, that does not protrude much from the back of the climber to not unbalance its center of gravity.

The back must be short, which also helps to clear the area of equipment holder. In some cases, the belt of the fanny pack has a pair of loops to hang equipment, which can be useful for the climber of big wall accustomed to carrying a lot of material.

Another characteristic to consider is that the internal insulation foam is removable and removable because this allows adding comfort to an improvised bivouac on the route, without having to carry the weight or volume of a mat.

All cheap backpacks for mountaineering should include ice ax holders. It should be noted that these are designed so that the head of the ice ax is well secured (that does not move) and hopefully the handle goes into a bellows or sleeve. The fixing systems must be simple and quick to operate. In the upper part of the KAKA Backpack, the ideal thing is to have handles to lift the backpack as a backpack.

A detail that can be very practical, is when the ridge cap can be detached, acting as a separate compartment. This is useful when saving weight is essential. And when it comes to increasing the capacity of space, the solution is to take the rope out. So it is ideal that the backpack has a strap or tie to fix it, keeping orderly and firm.

Today all hiking backpacks include hydration system. Some have sleeves on the straps so the camelback tube does not freeze. But the truth is that this does not make a difference in really low temperatures. What is important is that the strap includes elastics to fix the tube.

Now you know how to choose and why! We invite you to follow our blog so that you learn to Equip yourself as a Specialist week to week.