New for next year from MHW a radical new range of packs that's taken five years to develop. Here's a sneak peek at what's coming our way in a month or two.
Chances are you know all about Mountain Hardwear clothing, Mountain
Hardwear tents and Mountain Hardwear sleeping bags, well, from early
next year, you'll also be able to buy Mountain Hardwear packs.
As you'd expect from a company which prides itself on innovation,
the new packs are going to be a little bit different. They say that
it's taken an astonishing five years from the idea to the reality,
but that it's going to be worth the wait.
The
new packs are called Exodus and come in six variations, three for men
and three for women. The system's designer, Charles Mosley, says that
he set out to create a pack that was built so that activities like
skiing, hiking and mountaineering were compromised as little as
possible.
We'll bring you full details once one of the new packs is in our
sticky little mitts, but here's an outline based on the information
we have.
Frame Design
First, the harness and waist-belt don't hang from
the frame, but stand out in what MHW calls 'a unified shape', it's a
sort of monocoque construction if you like. The waist-belt pivots,
the unusual harness - clock the pics - is called Fit Lock and made
from layers of rigid and soft materials 'customised to fit the shape
of the user' it says here.
The pack Mini Frame™ is connected to the shoulder harness by
a unique U-Bar™ and at the hips by Yunan Scandium™ tubes so
the pack load is uniformly distributed. Finally, a pulley system on
the Mini Frame™ allows on-the-fly torso length adjustment so the
wearer can be ready for quick terrain changes - we just copied that
bit by the way. We suspect you really need to see the pack to fully
understand it.
There are two frame options, one designed for activities where
maximum movement is an advantage and called the 'Motive' - see pic -
and a more traditional frame, the Cruiser, designed for
backpacking. The Motive sounds as if it works a little like
the Berghaus Bioflex system with the hip-belt connected only at the
sides, so the length of the back can extend or contract in use.
Finally the rest of the pack is state of the art with Cordura
materials, water-resistant zips, a 3D compression system and all the
other mod cons you'd expect from a top pack. Capacities from 54 to 79
litres and weights from 1.64 kilos to 2.78 kilos. We don't have
prices yet, but don't expect them to be cheap. And here's the
ultra-light Harrier for your entertainment. Looking
interesting.
Also new is a range of more conventional sacs for alpine,
multi-sport and casual use, which we'll tell you about in the future.
Apparently Kenton Cool's been giving the alpine one a good
thrashing...
More information at
www.mountainhardwear.com
