Question about CiloGear packs

Only pack you need.

the best pack I have ever owned! I have owned tons… this is definitely the best pack on the market… so flexible and so light.

Could you guys elaborate a little bit? My Serratus Icefall is about done (maybe one more season) and I am looking at Cilogear for a new cragging pack. The packbags look good- although I prefer less seams, but both the shoulder straps and hipbelt look bulky and rudimentary. The website does a poor job showing the suspension, and it appears that the belt may impede high stepping. I know it detaches, but how easily?
ALso, the review on this site appears to show the loadlifters at an almost horizontal plane. In my experience, this equates to terrible load transfer to the hips.
How do these packs carry weight? Do those bulky shoulder straps chafe? How is the helmet room? Any hot spots from the hipbelt? They look very interesting, but I wish someone carried them to try on (hopefully Rock and Snow in New Paltz will get on that).

I have been talking lately with the owner of cilogear. My emails are all responded to within hours, if not minutes. He suggests one interested in the packs to consult: "blog.cilogear.biz and click for the category "new packs". You should be able see details of the new crampon pouch bottom, the radical redesign of the ice axe holding system. You won't see as clearly the new hipbelt or shoulder straps or the new lid.
compare the images of cilogear.com/packs/60liter.shtml and cilogear.com/packs/60liter2.shtml"

I too find the packs to be a bit rudimentary but think that he is definitely on the right track.

Thanks Jon, was not aware of the blog- will spend time going through it.

Hey Jon, what pictures would help? I'll throw some more up, just let me know what you're looking for.

Hey Josh,

I've never used the other packs you mention, but I've had a Cilogear 60 for the past year or so, and I can't say enough about it. I've used it both for ski mountaineering and summer backpacking, and it does both quite well at both. It's quite comfortable, durable, and can carry heavy loads extremely well. I've loaded it with up with 45 pounds of ski and glacier gear and it felt quite comfortable.

I usually strip it down for summer backpacking, taking off the belt, top and taking out the plastic framesheet. Very versatile pack, and it's true that Graham has incredible service. He's easy to reach and quite willing to do whatever it takes to make customers happy.

Aaron

Graham,

It would be helpful to have pictures of the suspension. There is another thread on the Mountaineering and Alpinism board I started. One responder is considering this a CiloGear pack and would also like to see pictures of the suspension design.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/7545/index.html

I just met Graham today at the Gunks, and he was kind enough to let me play with two of his packs and went over every feature and design consideration (well, not every one- but he was very informative). A nice, patient guy who was ready to answer questions despite the fact that he was obviously trying to get a away from the shop.

On the 45 (I think), the suspension is fixed, and there was a framesheet with a single (wide) stay, coupled with a doubled over faom pad. The inside of the shoulder straps and hipbelt were covered in stretch fabric. The hipbelt is not overly wide, and is dual density foam. Everything was very easily removable.
For me- a thin guy who hates weight on his shoulders, the pack felt very good with maybe 20-25 pounds. I'd think that another 10 pounds would be fine. The use of his movable compression straps stablized the load, and brought it close to the back and lumbar. I'd say it carried as well or better than my old Serratus Icefall, and better than my old model Osprey Aether 60. The framesheet/stay was high enough to let the load lifters do their job, but low enough to give me helmet room.

Note that these packs are really light for the carrying capacity and appeared very durable for the weight (efficient use of fabrics). They are also larger than most other packs I've seen- evidently, Graham uses a non-standard way to measure pack volume, and it results in volumes that are slightly more than what I was used to.

I was skeptical, but they really are nice packs- light, (apparantly) durable, carry well, modular, and pretty cool looking. I'm sure Graham will correct all of my misconceptions- but I just wanted to say that these are a very real option for anyone who wants more than a sack, but less than a loadmonster.

Thanks for the kind words, Michael. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I'm glad to hear you'll retire that tricam due to the micro fractures! ;) And thanks for understanding my eagerness not to be in the office!

Michael did indeed see one of the new 45L packs (as well as a 40L and a 20L). I would caution readers that the framestay was shaped to my back, not his, and that I'm considerably taller than he is. We threw another climbers pack with rack into my bag for him to try it on. I would have guessed that the weight in the pack was closer to 30 than to 20 pounds.

The hipbelt and shoulder straps use Schoeller Dynamic as the body side material and have dual density foams.

Kelly Cordes gave a presentation about his climbs of Cerre Torre and others, and at the end he talked about CiloGear being the best packs he'd ever used.

Graham, please allow me to extend my personal best wishes on your condition.

Brian

I got the 60L spring '06 and have used it for 2 summers of wilderness guiding plus rock climbing and backpacking on my own. It is the ultimate do everything pack. stripped down it is almost as light as my Golite Gust but it has all the necessary options, which the Gust does not – its great, but not when the pack gets too heavy… I just got back from an 8 day trip to the Wind Rivers for some climbing – we loaded 8 days of food rock gear and glacier gear in, for "only" 60 lbs… thanks to ultralight backpacking gear and being smart on the food packing. turns out it was just stormy enough to keep us from committing to the big routes.
Graham's new 20L daypack performed marvelously, especially on a II 5.7 in the Tetons as a leader's pack

anyway… the 60L is really good – if you don't have one yet, you need to get it.

I got my second Cilogear last week, what Graham calls the “Schoolbag”. Here in BPL land it makes for a very nice day-hiking pack and I bet many BPL members could fit a weekend kit into its 30 liters. It has many technical features of the larger bags such as dual tool-holders and a crampon pouch (on a schoolbag!), and of course the straps from the larger packs fit on this smaller model for external storage or compression.
A few features I like are the removable frame/sitpad, a small zipper to access the inner pouch from the outside, thick wide shoulder straps for comfort, and its LOW weight (I’ll have to post the weight when I get home..)

I was just packing it last night for a summit attempt on Fuji this weekend, and I figured out yet another strap configuration that allows me to lace up the pack like you would lace a shoe, compressing it down tight and compact; possible due to Graham’s unique strapping/D-ring system.

I don’t want to sound like a cheerleader for his packs, but packs are my favorite category to play with; I’ve had dozens. Cilogear ranks up with Granite Gear as my favorites. These are not perfect, and coming from the assembly area in Turkey there are a few finishing touches you will need to take care of. Burn off some loose threads with a lighter, and maybe sew over the sternum strap-end if you dont want it to slide off the male end of the buckle.. No big deal.

If you don’t want to make the financial commitment for a bigger Cilogear; drop 50 bucks on the Schoolbag it’s really a 30 liter Weekend pack.