pulks

[larry savage]

First snow hit yesterday amd my thoughts are turning to winter camp,for years I’ve used a cheap children’s sled with a homemade harness to haul but this year we have a little tyke to contend with so I’m looking at pulks. Does anyone have any experience with them? The wilderness engineering kindershuttle looks like it will convert from child hauler to gear hauler.I’ll only be pulling the child on groomed trails.Thanks again for everyone’s input.

[J R]

I havent used sleds/pulks in any meaningful way since I was a kid, but Im curious to know what sort of energy expendature savings result in their use.

Sort of along the axiom that a 1 pound on the foot is like 5 pounds on the back… X pounds in a sled is like y pounds on the back?

[larry savage]

There are 2 factors that effect carrying a load versus using a pulk or sled. Overcoming friction,i.e. depth of snow,moisture content[powder versus cement],ambient temp.,and balance.
The worst packs I’ve carried in recent history are kid’s packs,I couldn’t believe how bad Kelty’s child carrier handled… then it dawned on me that the load is dynamic,more akin to a hydralic powered bag of jello. I noticed if my daughter fell asleep it got a whole lot better,if the huckleberris were ripe it got a whole lot worse. And balance is the key to skiing,keeping the center of gravity lower,being able to bend the knees,and drive with the legs makes for efficient skiing,I pity anyone who tries to carry a child larger then an infant on their back skiing[occasionally you fall and small objects go into snow banks,they really don’t like this much]So balance and safety are the key factors towards pulks.
If you are slogging through deep stuff or skinned up a sled floats over it all keeping the posthole effect to a minium.In our area we have miles of forest service roads and snowmobile tracks to ski in for approaches. I ski back,build an igloo and leave my equipment,so all I bring on return trips is food and light clothing,which allows me to push deeper into the backcountry. I’ll stick my neck out and say a sled is twice as easy to pull, versus carrying a load in winter,in almost every snow condition,the only check mark for a pack is in tight forest where you might snowshoe.

[Bill Fornshell]

Larry said:

“If you are slogging through deep stuff or skinned up a sled floats over it all keeping the posthole effect to a minium.In our area we have miles of forest service roads and snowmobile tracks to ski in for approaches. I ski back,build an igloo and leave my equipment,so all I bring on return trips is food and light clothing,which allows me to push deeper into the backcountry. I’ll stick my neck out and say a sled is twice as easy to pull, versus carrying a load in winter,in almost every snow condition,the only check mark for a pack is in tight forest where you might snowshoe.”

How do you think something like this would work where you go? The Sled part weighs about 3 pounds and is 26-1/2″ long by 12-7/8″ wide without the extra 2″ runner attachments. The 2 pack bags add about 10oz. The pack bags are made of a little heavier material and could be made much lighter. The pictures don’t show the 2 inch wide runner attachments for added floatation. They are made out of something called UHMWPE. I use carbon fiber tubes to attach the sled to my waist belt. The carbon fiber tubes can be used as tent/tarp poles.

[larry savage]

I really like the runners versus the molded bottom of the kiddie sled[and the wilderness engineering pulk I’ve been looking at].The runner idea must track quite a bit better and there is a lot less surface area to wax or silicone if your hitting that kinda of snow that balls up….it looks to be formed out of 1″aluminum t-a combination of welding and mechanical fasteners. Just the kind of project worth heating up the shop for,it’s 35 degrees and raining today…so I’m pretty motivated.My ol’ rig was attached with pvc to a hip belt,I like the convertable pole idea,how about a source for the carbon fiber tubes,I might use some emt to try it first…

[Bill Fornshell]

Hi Larry, No welding just a lot of pop rivets. All the Aluminum is “off the shelf” stuff from Home Depot.

The Carbon Fiber tubes come from Fibraplex and are their “Fibrapole 292 Long NF”, cost about $5 each. They are 32″ long and can be joined together several ways. Fibraplex sells a Ferrule that can be used to join the sections.
Link to Fibraplex

The idea came from a Boy Scout projects web site. They were showing how to make it out of wood but I thought that would be to heavy.

Link to Boy Scout Project Plan-Sled/Pulk

[Alan Garber]

I think the other challenge for pulks is a sustained double fall line.

The only time I had to consider an unplanned bivouac was when my friends and I pulled sleds in Baxter on the “not-recommended” AT trail along the West Branch of the Penobscot.
What should have been a three to four hour trip turned into a 10 hour epic journey trying to control the sleds on a continuous double fall line along the river edge….we made it but that is why I like bill’s idea: one can use the sled or not depending on conditions.

[larry savage]

As much as I believe in this concept there was the “ski deep into the wilderness and cut a Christmas tree” expedition.The return trip was plague with the same kinds of issues,including the tree taking an unscheduled side trip to a creek becoming a really heavy wet frozen ice sculpture that kept trying to pass me, which was essentially impossible because of the sled poles.At the last fall line I cut the whole mess loose and raced it to my truck,spending the next hour huddled in front of the heater trying to warm myself for the drive home,almost all of it was related to the formed sled bottom not tracking behind me.

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