Modded PackTowl for use as lightweight handkerchief to wipe sweat from my face

[Zack Freije]

Don’t ask me why, but I don’t love sweat running down my face and getting in my eyes. I mostly wear a hat when hiking to help manage this and prevent ticks and shade my eyes.

I used to have an MSR PackTowl UL or nano or something in size small with a little mesh stuff sack and a snap to attach it to your pack. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out what happened to it.

I learned that no such product is still being made (small and light). So, I bought a PackTowl Nano from Cascade Designs. It’s big and heavy. So I cut it down, melted the edge, and added some lightweight cord and a titanium carabiner to hang it off my pack so I can reach it while hiking and to allow it to dry out.

Finished product is 14g

[Zack Freije]

[John S.]

Very cool Zack.

[jimmy b]

I just bought one of these thinking it could replace a bandana but I soon realized it wasn’t nearly absorbent. Cotton will absorb more times its weight. I wanted it for single tent wall moisture control among the other gazillion things a standard bandana is good for.

It will dry sooner but that defeats my main purpose for my bandana, wetting and tying around my head/neck for cooling.

It wasn’t a good fit for me, hope you have better luck.

[Jorge Villalobos]

Nice.

I used to use a PackTowl as well but have since switched to Lightload towels. I find them more absorbent, cheaper (~$0.50/towel if you buy the 50 pack from Amazon), lighter (~8g for the 12″ x 12″ ones), and dry faster. They are more delicate, but so are most other UL items, and as long as you’re careful they’ll last a long time. I have about 5 in rotation and they’re all still in perfect condition after multiple uses/washes (I hand wash them, or put them inside a mesh “delicates” sack in the washer, always air dry them). Since they’re so light, I sometimes carry multiple ones for different uses, and if one is ruined I have plenty more backups (from the 50 pack).

When I run out I’m going to give these a try, though, which according to reviews seem to be about the same, but 5x cheaper.

[Zack Freije]

Jorge, thank you! I’ll check it out. The key for this sweat rag is to dry quickly!

 

It hangs from my pack like this, out of my way until I need to wipe my face, then I just lift it up and it’s long enough to reach.

[Colin Parkinson]

You mean you don’t sweat so much that you have time to allow it to dry?  You must be mr. Dry.     I carry two bananas one for am hiking and one for pm hiking .  I try to rinse and dry at the lunchstop..

[Bob Moulder]

Just my UL ‘anal-ytical’ side kicking in here, but a single length of cord (perhaps 1.2mm zline) with simple slip knots at both ends would reduce the amount of cordage and also permit you to forgo the carabiner.

And since it dries so quickly, perhaps cut down the size of the towel even more, maybe.

[Kevin Babione]

One of the things I’m best at when backpacking is sweating and I came up with a similar solution.  Instead of the carabiner and cord I cut a small slit in the corner of my microfiber towel (Wal-Mart – $1.00) and then used a badge retractor from work to attach it.  The badge loop snapped through the little slit in the towel and the other end just clipped to the pack strap instead of a beltloop.  Here’s a photo of my daughter with an orange microfiber towel:

And, as we were hiking in July, is a photo of me wringing out my towel (not for the squeamish):

You can see the retractor line in the photo above.  For me this was the best of both worlds because it kept my towel (which I clearly need) nearby and the retractor cord was long enough that I never had issues reaching the back of my neck or any other place I needed to dry.

As someone else mentioned I carry two sweat towels with me if it’s going to be warm so I can swap at lunch.  I love the microfiber towels – they’re soft, really absorbent, and dry pretty quickly.  The biggest downside is that they pick up every bit of nature they touch like velcro!  That’s another reason I like the retractor up high on my shoulder strap.

[Ken Thompson]

My ULA pack has a d ring on the shoulder strap. I just pull a bandanna through it. Could do the same with a zip tie.

[Jorge Villalobos]

Yeah, I just hang it from the loop on my strap as well.

[Kevin Babione]

I used to do that but then lost one on a trail one time.  I was heading down-mountain from Mt. Washington in the Whites and, since I had no idea how far back it had fallen, was not about (or able) to head back uphill to look for it.  This way it’s always attached to my pack.

[Bob Moulder]

There’s some merit to that because every single bandanna I own was found on a trail. ;^)

I’ve never lost a bandanna but I lost a Ground Hog stake last weekend. I know the area where I lost it, however, and hope to recover it in the next few weeks. But I’ll have to camp in the same spot in order to see the reflective cord at night.

[jimmy b]

I know the area where I lost it, however

Its not lost if you know where it is…… just left behind :)

[Bob Moulder]

lol, well unlike Kevin I don’t have to hike back up Mt. Washington to retrieve it!

[Matt Dirksen]

“I was heading down-mountain from Mt. Washington in the Whites and, since I had no idea how far back it had fallen”

Whoa. I remember the wife & I were hiking up to Mt. Washington and came across this GREAT bandanna!

(However, that was in July of ’97, now that I think if it.)

[Author]

Posts