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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

Pack advice 14-Aug-2008 At 6:20:10 AM Andrew_M

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Wombat, I've got one of those 105L WE mountain expedition packs. Like all WE gear it's well made and really rugged.The trouble is that it is just, like, really big. If you're anything like me, if you've got that room you will end up finding a way to fill it. If you fill this one right to the top your shinbones will pop out through your knees. When you do the sums, an 80L pack filled for a backcountry trip is likely to weigh about 30-40kg while 105L is more like 40-50+kg (particularly with climbing gear). Ask yourself, do you really want/need to carry this much?

I've still got the WE, but really only use it for lugging gear into base camp situatations. I ended up also buying a Macpac ascent XPD which at 80L is more practical in most situations eg, for multiday backcountry trips/ski tours/climbing approaches. It's about the same weight and is less rugged, but you can strip it down to a summit pack, something that you can't do with the WE. With the WE, if you're going to climb something you'd really need to fit another smaller summit/climbing pack in the monster, which means more weight.

Anyway, if base camps are mostly what you want it for, and you've got strong legs then maybe it would be a good buy, otherwise there could be better options...