Elemental Horizons Kalais

My dog chewed my Hornet. My daughter claimed her Ohm. So…I have a Kalais on order.
Matt has been great at answering questions and communicating in general. Can't wait to get the pack…:)

I agree with both of you! Elemental Horizons makes great Packs and my Kalais is fantastic, Matthew is great to work with and prompt to answer any questions you might have I would definitely order from him in the future and probably will.

As everyone has mentioned, Matthew is awesome to work with, truly, and his care and craftsmanship are evident immediately when you see his packs. After being disillusioned with cuben hybrid packs, I bought a Kalais and I couldn't be happier. A great lightweight pack, perfect balance. I encourage anyone looking for a new pack to check out Elemental Horizons.

Reggie, Katharina, Link and Whalen, which material combinations and colors did you order? I like the idea of all dyneema packs for durability, but sticking with a dyneema bottom and nylon packbag would be lighter and probably just fine for our uses as we rarely bushwack.

Also do any of you also use the Aquilo or have you had a chance to see one/try it on?

The Ms. and I are planning on ordering either Kalais or Aquilo packs as well – have read and heard nothing but great things about them and we both prefer packs with more back support to transfer most of the weight to the hips. We'd like both packs, but can only order one right now – Aquilo will cover all trips Kalais would at penalty of a bit of extra weight but the Kalais will work for most of our uses.

I own both the Aquilo and Kalais – and even have some mods on my Aquilo I like quite a bit. A few extras on the Aquilo I like as well. They're both going to fit/feel the same, pretty much the same pack really, from my point of view. Both of mine are all Dyneema, black.

If I were to get only one, I'd probably opt for the Aquilo – though you should take that with a grain of salt since I'm not one of the SUL, or really even UL, folks on here. (I still don't weigh anything until I want to sell it, I don't have a spreadsheet, and I have no idea what my base weight/skin out weight/whatever weight is).

Edit to add: Probably not very cost conscious, but I'd send my Kalais to you (it's a med) so you can load it up and try it on, you'd have to pay postage both ways. I would have sent both, but my Aquilo is already boxed up.).

I ordered mine in all Dynema. I went with all black to save a few dollars, which makes very little sense, really.

EJ, as you know I ordered an all Dyneema Kalais as I do a lot of off trail, desert walking. I would say that the 70D ripstop nylon is much heavier than I imagined and it is probably plenty durable enough for 90% of most uses. I would though get the Dyneema side pocket option no matter what. In that configuration it would only add about an ounce.

As to the Aquilo, my main hiking partner has one and as Doug said they will essentially carry the same. I have never thought his bag was as easy to use or that the pocket set up seemed to make much sense but I do like a simple set up.

As to color I got the green dyneema for the pack bag (black as is standard for the high wear areas) mostly for heat sink reasons and I didn't want an all black pack.

Do any of you know where I can find pics of the Kalais in the Blue and Hunter Green 70D?

EH only shows the Red..

Here are a couple off Outdoortrailgear.com

Kat,

Thanks for posting those. I had not seen the Blue before. The all Dyneema in Evergreen is Alex H's pack, no?

Nice looking packs…

I ordered the black dyneema with mesh pockets. If I did it again, I'd order the dyneema pockets as well. The mesh on my pockets has not ripped at all but I'd have felt better going all dyneema. I don't do much off-trail hiking but granite does a number on packs. The dyneema options do add weight but this pack is so damned comfortable, it's a penalty I gladly pay.

Dyneema options definitely raise the price, but Matthew offers sales on dyneema options around xmas. If interested, you might want to contact him and see if he offers other annual sales.

With or without the dyneema option, the Kalais is a great lightweight pack.

My Kalais is the Hunter Green color with Dyneema water bottle pockets with a pull cord on them. These bottle pockets are really deep. I love them.

I'm an ultralighter and the 70D is stout enough for me, but I wish the green was slightly darker. For my use, I didn't see the need to go with a full Dyneema pack.

I opted for large pockets on the hipbelt. The positioning is perfect and size is right. The double zipper pulls are a nice feature.

I like having Dyneema instead of mesh on the back of the pack. That is a great feature that Elemental Horizons has. Sure beats the mesh that others use on that back pocket.

Another great feature is the roll top closure. Having the roll top secure towards the back of the pack is much better than securing it towards the front. There is plenty of room in the extension sleeve when a guy needs to "overload" the pack.

I'm just as pleased as punch with my pack.

If you look at their FACEBOOK PHOTO page it gives his packs in many different colors and fabrics. I have the 70d fabric in hunter green and I like the fabric and color,and have had no problems with it.

Since Matthew re-did the website the photo gallery page only has a few shots. The old ones are all on the facebook page now. Today's Kalais picture on the website is in Hunter Green. Yes jimmer mine is the all Dyneema in Evergreen and Black.

Another thing not on the new website and really wasn't well done on the old one is a good explanation of the V-stay suspension. It really is different than any of the other inserted stay systems I have seen both in the configuration and length. Will Rietveld mentions it connects directly to the lumbar region in his original BPL Aquillo review (2011?) but Matthew should really highlight it more. The longer stay actually makes the load lifters work the way they should. The 4 pull hipbelt is also really one of the great features that is not mentioned either.

I do wish the spacer mesh also covered the lumbar section of the hipbelt, it would help with slippage with heavier loads. Matthew did it on the Aduro. It is really my only design complaint.

I've been using a Kalais for three years now. For loads up to 30+ pounds, I've never used a better pack and I've tried a lot of packs. I used it on a half-hike of the JMT in 2013 and for the full JMT IN 2014. It has been on a lot of trips in the local mountains and on several 3-5 day trips in the Grand Canyon. Mine is the standard nylon – dynema combination with mesh pockets in forest green. It has been durable in the face of desert rocks and thorns and is far and away the most comfortable pack I have ever used. I can recommend it without reservation.

I figured both packs would carry the same. Was vacillating between the two sizes because while the Kalais will work 80-90% of the time for the trips we most often do, I sometimes find myself serving as a pack mule for a newbie friend or family member or friend who has fallen out of shape, and it would be nice to be able to use the same pack for higher volume colder trips. Love to order both sizes, but can only get one now.

Anyone have or know of a photo of both packs packed next to each other?

I would be a Large frame and the Ms. a Medium. Investing this much in a semi-custom pack I want it to last. For either bag I would definitely only order Dyneema pockets.

For the Kalais, I would go with all 210 dyneema pockets and packbag, as the weight penalty is if memory services only about 3 oz. The weight penalty for an all-Dyneema Aquilo, pockets and packbag, I’m guessing is around 6 oz. for a Large, which is why I thought about possibly giving up Dyneema on the Aquilo pack bag. However I’ve saved so much weight elsewhere that another 2-3 oz for a dyneema packbag is not going to hurt.

@Alex and Doug, your write-ups and PMs/emails really helped me zero in the EH packs, so thank you again for all your help. Saved my notes and trying to figure out which mods to get.

@Alex, what about the Aquilo pocket set up would you change?

@Doug, which mods did you get for your Aquilo and Kalais?

@Reggie, aren’t the hip belt pockets removable? Do the large pockets get in the way at all?

@Kat, that all-black pack is going to be a beautiful pack, especially since it will be more like a charcoal gray with the lighter grid threads. It should even be sharp enough for a nice travel bag.

Doug, while I wouldn’t call myself UL either, I’ve lightened up a lot thanks in large measure to advice here and experimenting, and I’m very comfortable at “L”.

"@Doug, which mods did you get for your Aquilo and Kalais?"

None for the Kalais. The Aquilo is my winter pack, so I wanted 70L capability. The different sizes have different carrying capacity, the medium only has 60 total, so Matthew extended the top of the bag (including the over-the-top-strap) to make it a 70L bag. You wouldn't have to worry about this as you'd be getting the large anyway.

The other mod I had him do is to put a snap buckle on each of the three (per side) compression straps to make it easier to put things on them (in the winter I use 40 Below bottle booties, which I put on the bottom compression strap.)

And yes, the hip belt pockets are removable.

E J,

Yes, the belt pockets are removable.
No, they don't get in the way.

I keep a food bar and nut mix in one for snacks during the day. The other holds my Aquamira, personal kit, SticPic, and spare camera battery. I can't live without my belt pockets.

After the JMT last year, I had Matt make custom larger hip pockets for my Kalais, they were 6"x 6" x 2"deep. I found the standard large pockets just a bit too small for my snacks and other items that I wanted quick access too. I ordered them on a Friday, and by Tuesday they were at my office. Great service from Matt, he was great to work with. I really like the larger custom size as I can fit more items into the pockets.

EJ, again this is from someone who has not "lived" out of an Aquilo but you know how your hiking partners will say "can you pull X out for me" I have done that alot. I don't like the tall side pockets with the compression straps over them, seem not very useful. The Big back pocket is huge but I think could use some mesh. The water bottle pockets could be a little deeper and his 70D ones have holes worn in them and he has never left the East coast and almost entirely on trail walking. In general it always looks a bit floppy but that could be the way he packs too.

On the other hand the Kalais pocket set up seems streamlined, well proportioned and easy to use.

Doug, nice call on the snap clips on the compression straps, wish I had thought of that.

He made custom hip belt pockets for mine also.

After a lot of debate I think I'm going to go with the Kalais for my new pack to replace my bulky Osprey 85. I would regularly carry around 25lb I will be carrying 30lb every now and again with all my DSLR gear and 5 days food and it sounds like this pack will handle that with comfort all the while keeping a really low weight at just over 30oz. Sounds just about perfect. Thanks for this thread, has been very helpful.

You'll love the Kalais!

I really dig mine! Big supporter of Matthew and his packs.