"Fastpacking" was coined as a term by Jim Knight during a 1988 traverse of the Wind River Range with Bryce Thatcher. In a 1988 article in UltraRunning Magazine, Jim wrote, "We were wilderness running. Power hiking. Kind of backpacking, but much faster. More fluid. Neat. Almost surgical. Get in. Get out. I call it fastpacking." They completed the 100-mile traverse in just 38 hours. Bryce, an accomplished endurance athlete and climber, was also the founder and design guru at Ultimate Direction, a hydration product company.
My own fastpacking experiences began a few years earlier with a collection of the lightest gear I could assemble and with much less impressive trips than Bryce and Jim undertook. My own wilderness travel evolved from hiking and backpacking to trail running, ultra marathons, and peak bagging, and finally to lightweight multi-day trips that combined hiking and running. That original gear was, looking back some 25 years, surprisingly good and light.
I started with a Lowe Alpine pack that I made a number of modifications to, and for shelter, I either used a state-of-the-art Bibler Solo Dome (a 2.5-pound Gore-Tex single-wall tent) or an Early Winters bivy. My first sleeping bags also compare fairly well with those of today. An Early Winters Qualofill and a Feathered Friends down filled Hummingbird served me well. Food was mostly of the no-cook variety, and rain gear was Sierra Designs Micro-Lite pullover and pants. Although my gear was rather light, compact, and carried well when hiking, there was too much bounce when the pace quickened to a run.
In 1987 Ultimate Direction introduced the Voyager, the first overnight pack really suited to running. I bought one of the first Voyagers and then upgraded in 1988 to the newest Voyager, now with the Torso-Link suspension. The Voyager had many versions through the years and ranged in size from 1800 to 2400 cubic inches.
After the Wind River Range epic, Ultimate Direction devoted significant effort into their new Fastpack line of packs. I owned several versions of the Voyager, upgrading as models changed until the Voyager disappeared from the Ultimate line (as well as from my pack collection). I was, however, fortunate enough to advertise recently on the BPL Gear Swap and purchase a 1996 model Voyager. Ultimate's Fastpacks took a big jump in technology in the late 1990s. The introduction of the Rampage, the WarpSpeed, and the original SpeedDemon day pack set the bar higher in pack design. This new series of Fast & Light packs utilized new materials, suspension, and features. How do the Voyager, Rampage, and WarpSpeed stack up against the packs of today?
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- The Ultimate Direction Voyager
- The WarpSpeed & Rampage
- Compared To A 2010 Pack?
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# PHOTOS: 6
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