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There are two problems with the SuperUltraLight ethic.

The first is that it motivates SUL aficionados to develop throwaway gear that may last a season, if you're lucky. I once used a tarp made of an extremely light Cubic Tech fabric (CT0.3.K08, at 11.4 gsm) that blew up in one unfortunate midsummer wind gust in the shadows of the Tetons, while camping at the uppermost campsite near the treeline in the North Fork of Cascade Canyon. And my every attempt to manufacture, take care of, and otherwise use so-called "SUL" packs (including spinnaker versions of the Mountain Laurel Designs Prophet and Gossamer Gear Uberlite G6) made with lightweight spinnaker nylons, polyesters, and Cuben Fibers, has resulted in failure of the fabrics at the seams caused by repetitive stress.

I think SUL gear such as this can serve specialized purposes for the casual hiker, the hiker who might not care about disposing (and replacing) gear on a regular basis, or the hiker interested in saving every gram of weight possible for a single expedition (e.g., Andrew Skurka used an ultralight Cubic Tech tarp on his Great Western Loop trek, and I used a Cuben Tech pyramid shelter for the Arctic 1000).

The second problem with the SUL ethic is that it motivates people to apparent insanity, by which every possible bit of function and durability is sacrified for the sake of meeting a weight spec. I'm speaking a bit tongue in cheek about this insanity of course, since I seem to be a regular participant and proponent of it, but I do increasingly value that elusive and ill-defined metric we call the "performance-to-weight ratio".

That's why I was pretty excited when I took my new ZPacks Blast 18 backpack - a heavy duty Cubic Tech weekend pack that weighs a scant 3.3 oz - out of its mailing envelope...

ARTICLE OUTLINE

  • Introduction
  • Durable SUL
  • About the Fabric
  • Specifications: Volume:, Weight:, Price:, Fabric:, Shoulder Strap Padding:
  • Features
  • Load Carrying Capacity
  • Volume Capacity
  • Final Analysis
  • What's Hot
  • What's Not
  • Market Comparison
  • Recommendations

# WORDS: 3140
# PHOTOS: 10
# TABLES: 1

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