I recall being worried when my Arc Haul was in the back of someone’s pickup truck during heavy rain and I found everything inside stayed completely dry. I looked up Zpacks and indeed they do seam seal their packs. So that undoubtedly helps.
So I will be purchasing the $75 seam seal add on shortly.
Generally, the thing I most want to stay dry – a goose down sleeping bag – is already protected by a waterproof cordura compression sack. But even if everything in your bag is protected with waterproof stuff sacks – or you use a liner bag – if water makes it through your bag it will take on more weight.
The Ultra 200 fabric on my Arc Haul and the ultra 400 used on the Wolverine are highly waterproof. So seam sealing should be enough to not need to worry about using a pack cover or a liner bag – unless you do white water rafting and expect total submersion at some point. But then you can stuff your bag into the raft itself on some models.
Hopefully I’ll get the Wolverine in time for some snowy expeditions this winter.
