Splitboarding with a CiloGear pack

[Jason4]

I got to put some miles on my splitboard over the weekend and thought I'd share some of my positive gear experiences.

 

I went up to Heliotrope on Friday with a friend who had an older version of a Cilo 45L pack that he was happy with. I was carrying a very full and very old smaller REI pack that worked ok but wasn't going to fit enough for overnighters or even long day trips with alpine hardwear. I broke a buckle on my pack and decided that was enough of an excuse to get a new pack. I made it in to AAI before they closed and picked up a new 45L pack and shovel pocket that I was oggling on Wednesday.

 

I got it out on Saturday with the same load that I was carrying on Friday and it felt good right away. There is definately a learning curve to using this pack and I still have some fiddling to do to figure out how I want to use the straps. For the load I was carry this weekend I simply pinched all but the top side clips together on both sides and then strapped the shovel pocket to the outside. With this configuration I was able to carry all of my day trip stuff and was able to strap my board on with the most stable carrying board pack I've ever used.

 

There is plenty more room to add a sleeping bag, shelter, food, and alpine gear to the pack and still be able to carry my split board if I need to. I was a little concerned about the lack of pockets and access to the inside but it was never an issue. I'm satisfied that I can quickly get to my shovel and probe in the external pocket. I can carry my skins between the pocket and the body of the pack for the fun part of the day and I can fit everything that I want to get to quickly into the top pocket, it never flopped around and hit me in the back of the head either.

 

So far I have somewhere around 11 miles on this pack over 2 days in the snow with touring gear and am very satisfied with it.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Jason4