Product Description and more reveiws
CiloGear's 60 Liter WorkSack allows you to carry to basecamp in comfort, strip down your pack, and go blast through a route with the same pack. Or use it as a lightweight hiking bag. This pack was not designed for easy production. Instead, this pack is made to take to the mountains time and time again, made to carry climber's loads. It is the alpine dream pack.
90 liters fully extended with a bloated extension.
60 liters normal capacity.
43 liters with one side closed.
28 liters with both sides closed.
Or compress part: you determine the volume.
Features
CiloGear provides:
-10 removable straps
-removable framesheet and Al framestay
-removable super insulative bivy pad
-removable hipbelt and a
-removable lid
Where to purchase
Cilogear.com Customer and editorial reviews
Alpinist's Magazine Mountain Standard pack
Click here for Cilogear's customer reviews:
Customer Reviews
Click here for editorial reviews:
Editorial Reviews
Images
crispy - Feb 24, 2007 3:54 pm - Voted 5/5
NEW CiloGear 60L WorkSackThis is a phenomenal, well-designed pack that fits beautifully and carries varying loads with ease. A fantastic technical bag once you learn how to dial the strap system.
Full Version:
I just received the new model of the CiloGear 60L WorkSack. I looked at the old model last spring, but decided to keep my Granite Gear Alpine Vapor (basically a beefier version of GG's popular Vapor Trail with tool loops and crampon straps). I broke down and ordered the 60L WorkSack because I was sick of not-really fitting my winter kit into the GG bag, which was a solid ice/rock crag pack and 3 season backpacking bag. I wanted something that could hold a ton of stuff but also compress for the day, which is just how CiloGear bills their WorkSacks. I'm glad I made the switch (though my non-climbing wife was confused about yet another seemingly-redundant purchase).
This pack is genuinely impressive in an age of impressive-looking gear. I was pleased with it while playing around at home and, after three winter days in the Catskills, can't believe the major manufacturers haven't yet copied the design or bought out CiloGear.
I don't want to repeat what you can read for yourselves at the CiloGear site, but let me give a rundown of what stood out during the first use.
1. Fit:
Excellent. I'm still young, but my first pack was an external frame Peak 1, so I know how packs shouldn't feel. The suspension doesn't look big enough for the loads you can carry, but it works. I bent the framesheet and stay as directed, but otherwise nothing else. Best anecdote: at a food stop (after breaking 5 miles of trail through sometimes waist deep snow with 40 pound bags), my buddy asks, "So how's the new pack?" I then realized that I hadn't even noticed/thought of it since putting it on after strapping on the snowshoes. So I said, "It seems to be a magic hole where gravity no longer functions." And that's not hyperbole.
2. Versatility:
You really can blow this up or shrink it down. On day two, we headed out just for the day, so I threw a bit of gear into the bag, strapped it down, didn't bother to take out the hipbelt, and we spent the day breaking more trail. Again, didn't even notice I was wearing it.
One caveat: you really do need to play around with the bag in order to get the strap system figured out. However, CiloGear has the manual online, in easy to understand language/directions. If you are the type of user who just wants to throw a bunch of stuff in your bag and expend zero thought, you probably shouldn't get this bag. But after about 15 minutes of fiddling with the bag and reading the manual online, I felt set.
3. Durability:
There are a bunch of different fabrics used here and they all seem perfectly suited to their respective jobs. I'm pretty sure the base of the pack is some kind of bullet-proof fabric. The crampon pouch/tool holsters both have very beefy (though pliable) fabric. I'm used to seeing Cordura and not-Cordura.
4. Nit Picks:
-The zippers on the lid should come with pulls. Plus, the lid zippers themselves didn't zip smoothly all the time and seem too low-grade for such a tough pack.
-External pockets (for wands, poles, etc) on the sides would be nice. My GG had some stretch pockets--that would be ideal here. But I did read that CiloGear is releasing a Wand Pocket for just this thing, but I think it should come with the pack--it's a pretty standard feature at this point.
-There's no logo on the outside of the pack, but I'd be proud to have one in this age of over-branding. There is a logo on the inside flap for the pad/frame/stay. On the other hand, there is the appeal of the mystery pack.
5. Overall:
I'm super satisfied with this pack and think the price ($200) is pretty cheap for what you get. Other than my daypack for work, I don't foresee using another pack for anything else. Lots of stuff planned for the year so I'll update this as needed. If you're on the fence and think this bag might be too good to be true, it's not. Get it and you'll be happy, too.
UPDATE: Just returned from 9 days in the Cirque of the Towers and am pleased to say the CiloGear was excellent in all applications. No one is particularly happy with ~65 lbs on their back, but I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I anticipated and, even better, my buddy's load (carried on a super-cush, twice as heavy pack), drove him nuts before mine did me. We got lost in the boulder fields through Jackass Pass and, when strapped down, the pack moved with me very well and didn't pull me off balance once--no swaying or swinging at all. Again, not the case with my buddy's pack. Once in the Cirque, we stripped out the hipbelt, framesheet, and backpad to use it as a rucksack for the second: performed great and handled the abuse well. And on the hike out, sans all the food, it carried wonderfully and we zoomed to the trailhead.
Issues: The stitching atop the velcro flap (that holds the framesheet/backpad) started coming undone. I brought the pack to Graham, and he fixed it directly.
Caveat: Don't use the tool clips to secure your Nalgene. Seemed like the perfect idea but, when yarding on the strap to tighten it, I ripped a bartack out of the fabric. I realize this is my bad, as it's obviously not designed for such a load, but since the temptation was there, don't do it.
I'm still extremely pleased with the pack and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone.