Alpine Photography Pack

After stopping and starting again for the last three months, I've finally finished off the pack. I fit a bit of a niche as an outdoor sport photographer, primarily shooting Ultra/trail events, but also enjoying trips up to the mountains to shoot on my own. This means I'm often carrying a full day's worth of mountain gear, (ropes, harness, wet and cold gear, emergency supplies) plus a full-frame camera setup, including telephoto lenses, a tripod etc.

I can pack very densely, but this does mean I can be lugging about 13kg+ up a mountain, all with only about 30L volume. So I made this.

32 litres capacity, and weighing in at 496g base, with another 101g for the rigid frame sheet. It's loaded with features specific to my requirements, including:

• Extreme abrasion resistance

• Suitable for loads in excess of 15kg+

• Extra long back, and low sitting hip belt

• External sleeve for one handed stowing of ice axe / poles

• Single handed opening, and free draining avalanche pocket

• Aquaguard zippered pocket for phones, keys etc

• Front loading bottle pocket

• Plus some extra features like mounting tabs for ski / snowboard carry, removable compression straps and fully taped seams on the primary compartment.

Made almost entirely from UHMWPE in the form of Challenge Sailcloth's Ultra 400, Ultrastretch and Ultragrid fabrics, as well as the cord being coated UHMWPE too.

The pattern was made fully from scratch as I needed something with a slightly unusual shape. I'm 6'3, but having spent 6 years in the army using hip-based webbing systems that load weight particularly low on the hips to reduce movement, I prefer much of my load to sit low on my hips. This bag needed a very long back, and low hip pads.

I made a load of miniature prototypes from paper to judge the shape I wanted to go for, and to get a feel for the way I'd need to assemble panels together. Then onto two iterations of Tyvek prototypes, the latter of which was a 1:1 full recreation that I then used as a daily carry for 6 weeks to better understand the geometry, usage and potential failure points. I then made a few tweaks to the design and cracked on with the final bag shown, which took almost 40 hours to sew (although much of that was fighting with my machine, rather than sewing).

Photo Overview:

Key Features - Detail:

Ice Axe / Pole Sleeve - This was designed to allow single handed holstering of walking / climbing tools, such as al ice axe, or walking poles, without having to drop the pack. Most axe attachments are placed on the front panel, and in order to securely stow tools, the pack needs to be dropped and tools attached, and the pack put back on. I find this makes me hesitant to swap tools, get them out when I probably should use them, and reluctant to put them away when I would otherwise like my hands free. Making this a simple, one handed motion solves this reluctance. The gear tab directly below the sleeve is used to mount any required hardware to secure tools, either a clip for walking poles, or a toggle for my axe, which can also be done one handed (even with gloves), and while on my back.

Avalanche Pocket - This is an alternative to the typical mesh front pocket, designed to quickly stash wet gear, maps, or emergency equipment in an easy access pocket. I wanted to keep as much of the outer faces as Ultra400 to maintain abrasion resistance, and eliminate snagging opportunities. To maintain drainage, the bottom corners have a 45 degree cut-out, which allows total egress from wet / snow covered gear, and prevents it soaking into the bag main compartment. The bottom 10cm of this is double layer reinforced, both to prevent tools such as a snow shovel from wearing through over hundreds of miles, and to prevent any external rocks snagging and tearing through from the outside.

Daisy Chain & Mounting Tabs - The primary aim was to minimise snagging points, while maintaining modularity. These two objectives are pretty much directly at odds to each other. More attachment points means more protrusions to get caught when scrambling. Here I went back to the drawing board and came up with a design that leaves all my mounting points flush with the surface of the main fabric, while also sufficiently strong enough to support ski carry, or to leash my ice axe on as an emergency backup during axe arrests.

Essentially the tabs and the end of the daisy chain are woven into and under the main outer facing fabric. These are backed by a second layer of Ultra400 underneath, and bar tacked through both layers. Running a nail vertically over where the end of the tab meets the body of the bag picks up no snapping points, as these fabrics are perfectly in line with each other, rather than overlaid.

This also should reduce the risk of tear-out, should these become caught or overloaded, as rather than relying only on the strength of the stitching, it is instead pulling into the warp of both layers of Ultra.

Closure - This was another critical feature of my design, and making this a specific photography pack. Consideration was made about compression (and therefore keeping items secure with varying loads), waterproofness, and ease of access - specifically for reactive shooting after moving. My style of photography most often relies on getting ahead of runners, and getting ready to shoot before they can catch me up. As a result, quick access was my primary concern, provided a base level of water resistance and security could be achieved. I experimented with a few ways of creating a one-handed, one motion opening system, and eventually settled on a form of retained, inline cord lock, that essentially hold the draw cord secure except when pulled directly inline to the lock itself. Ideally this would have been achieved through something like a cyberian cord lock, but where the cord travels through the lock inline to the pulling motion. I have one of these cord locks on my Deuter Aircontact Ultra - but nobody, not even the manufacturer, or numerous MYOG reddit threads have been able to help me find one of these components to buy, or even who makes them or what they're called. I've simply had to explain that I'm NOT looking for a cyberian. Either way, the end result used a slightly compromised version of this, similar to what is found on the Mountain Hardware Scrambler pack, with a tab on the upper mouth of the funnel that can be secured to a top flap if fitted, or pulled directly to open the entire tunnel with my left hand only, allowing my right hand to reach in and grab my camera at the same time.

This closure method also has the benefit of rolling over on itself, due to the asymmetric funnel shape, which provides some solid rain protection, and keeps the closure system securely covered under the Ultra exterior flap until needed.

Design Drawings:

Below are my full (or nearly full, aside from the ones since scrapped, binned, or that only ever existed in my head) set of drawings and sketches for this project. If anyone wishes to try and make something similar themselves, please feel free to use these as your reference. Be warned, the back length will almost certainly need shortening for most people reading this.

(PDF version below images)

FWP_AlpinePackDesign.pdf

Download PDF • 9.21MB