First impressions of Lowe Alpine's brand new load-lugging, pivoting back system.
Lowe Alpine TFX Summit 65+15 - First
Look
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Price: £199.99
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Weight: 3.26 kilos
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Features: 65-litre
+ 15 litre backpacking / expedition pack using TFX 9 back
system with
Micro
Adjust,
radial side compression system, extendible and removable lid
with elasiticsed insert, three internal and external lid
pockets, new moulded Noggin Notch, harness GPS pocket,
sternum strap, two compartments with zip-out divider, rope
compressor, extendible spindrift collar, front and back haul
loops, ice-axe / pole attachments allowing access to lower
compartment, reinforced wand pockets, rain cover, tuck-away
mesh water bottle pocket, hydration system compatible,
mitt-friendly zipper pulls, SOS panel, key clip. Also
available as ND womens-specific version.
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What's It For? It's a new whopping great load-carrying
back-packing come expedition load-hauler that's designed to carry
lots of heavy things in comfort, but still offer the technical
features you need for climbing use like haul loops and wand pockets.
The new TFX 9 back system has built-in movement which should improve
comfort and mobility while keeping things stable and
predicatable.
The Techy Bits Lowe Alpine's dedicated pack design teams has
been working on TFX for ages - the company doesn't change its back
systems often, so when it does it likes to get things right.
The TFX 9 back is the top of the range version and has a couple of
significant new bits. Back length adjustment is quick and simple,
just fold down the lumbar pad and slide the buckle up and down to
move the upper attachment points to suit. Vert neat.
The clever stuff is the rest of the back. First, the hip-belt has
been designed so that it pivots slightly and moves with your
hip-swinging walking action. It's achieved with staves in pockets, no
bearings or bushes, just a very simply movement of metal struts in
over-sized pockets.
Next there's Micro Adjust. It's an air reservoir sat in the lumbar
pad that you can inflate or deflate to alter the shape of the pad to
suit your contours using a simple pump which sits on the righthand
side of the hip-belt.
There's lots more besides and some very neat detailing in areas
like the ice axe attachement points, removable bum-bag lid and a fold
out water bottle pocket, but the other thing you need to know about
Lowe Alpine's packs is that they are massively well put together.
That means triple-stitched and tape -protected seams throughout the
range and tough fabrics which have been carefully checked and
selected for abrasion resistance.
How It Works The only real way to test a full-on
expedition-type pack like this is on a full-on expedition, but for
first impressions, we stuffed it full of climbing and camping gear
and took on the North Face of the Aguille de Kinder for four
hours.
Straight off, the pack was very simple to adjust to suit us and
had a nice, stable, supportive feel even with a pretty solid load.
The hip-belt is fine with a slight notch for the hip-bone and a
proven combination of stiff outer and softer inner foam for
comfortable weight transfer onto the hips.
On the move we were quietly impressed. The movement in the
hip-belt area is very unobtrusive compared to Berghaus's Bioflex
system which has a much greater range of motion. There are pros and
cons to that. On one level we really like the floaty, mobile feel of
Bioflex, but sometimes it can feel uncontrolled with weight shifting
around too easily. The Lowe Alpine system has much more limited
movement, but gives many of the same benefits with an easy,
unsplinted walking action and straightforward high-steps - when
tackling stiles for example.
The Micro Adjust thing looks a bit Wallace and Grommit, but is
surprisingly effective when you're toting a big load. Specifically,
it adapts the contours of the lumbar pad to your shape and stops it
sliding down the top of your butt. It's easy to use though we're not
sure how durable it would be with really fierce use and the pumpette
seems a bit exposed stuck out on the hip-belt.
Detailing elsewhere on the Summit is excellent with lots of
thought having been applied. Touches like the GPS pocket on the
shoulder strap, ice axe attachment loops which clear the lower
compartment and feature holes for poles and the Noggin Notch in the
top of the back system which allows you to look up without the back
of your head fouling the pack are all good.
We also liked the quirky, mitt-friendly zip-pulls - they're shaped
like Rocks, the climbing protection ones - complete with a 'not for
climbing use' warning, as if... There's a rain cover supplied and a
neat water bottle pocket for those who don't use a hydration system,
though you have that option too.
When Lowe Alpine first showed us the TFX system they said it
was an evolution rather than a revolution and we'd go along with
that. The movement in the hip-belt is more limited and less fluid
than with Berghaus Bioflex, but with big loads, that's sometimes
reassuring and reduces the occasional sensation of things swinging about. For
lighter loads though, we still prefer the more fluid Bioflex feel,
even with added swishing noises.
Micro Adjust we found surprisingly effective, though we could
happily live without it, and we suspect that slimmer users will feel
the benefit more. The rest of the pack is of the sort of high quality
and careful design we expect from Lowe Alpine. Really solidly made
and with an excellent supportive carry with big loads helped by the
extra hip mobility. We liked the little touches which help everything
to work seamlessly.
At 3.26 kilos, the Summit's not exactly a lightweight, but the pay
off is the supportive carry. We've found most lighter packs tend to
struggle with really big loads, so we'd rather tote something like
this or Osprey's excellent Crescent and trade a little extra pack
weight for a lot more comfort. Suffering is overrated in the pack
department we reckon.
Finally, we like the simplicity of the back system. It looks tough
and field repairable, something that we know puts buyers off Bioflex,
even though we're not aware of that system failing out in the
wilds.
More feedback when we've had the chance to use the pack a bit
more, but we'd definitely add it to our shortlist if we were in the
market for an expedition pack.
Know more or want to?
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