Category: Tech
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Seek Outside Flight One trouble shooting
The Seek Outside Flight One is a ~50 liter, reasonably featured ~2.5 pound backpack designed to carry loads over 30 pounds well. Better load carriage and more coherent features than a Windrider 3400, and a burlier build than a Gossamer Gear Gorilla. In short, a modern lightweight backpack; an increasingly busy class, with the relevant…
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How the Dana Longbed Works
Amongst the few dozen folks worldwide who care about such things, the Dana Designs external frame packs are regarded as the pinnacle of the genre. I spent a couple hundred field days carrying an Arcflex, and for a number of reasons gladly passed it along a decade ago. Finding both the load carriage and feature…
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Evolution of the Tamarisk: Shoulder Straps
First: what the hell is happening with those packs, maan? A lot. Unfortunately, almost none of that is helping to get you a pack faster. While the pandemic hasn’t impacted our family as directly or egregiously as it could, or still might, it has made the world more complicated. I’ve been and remain on a…
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Shorty
For a number of years I’ve wanted a short handy shotgun like my modified Tuffy, but with more ummph. .410 is an excellent squirrel chambering, and mostly adequate for grouse and rabbit. With these larger critters range is a practical limiter, not so much outright than with respect to pattern. With a .410 20 yard…
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Islands of moisture revisited
“…under duress the most important characteristic of your clothing system is not the ability to keep external moisture off you, but the ability to allow internal moisture to escape efficiently without chilling you excessively.” –Me In the ~five years since I wrote the above post, and since Sitka popularized the concept of the rewarming drill. …
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The Bob bag
Lets get this out of the way: I won’t make you one of these. Working with these fabrics and with stretchy Climashield is not something I find fun. This design is straightforward and quick to make, so create your own ugly. Ever since my first Wilderness Classic nearly a decade ago I’ve been turning this…
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Pack prototype sale
[3/20 update: all packs are sold.] Over the past three years of developing the Tamarisk I’ve built a lot of packs. There’s no other way to see how ideas work in the field. Prototyping is a profoundly fun process, and at the same time necessarily protracted and tedious. The pile of 40-60 liter packs in…
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Evolution of the Tamarisk; side pockets
Side pockets which are easily accessible on the go and large enough to carry a significant percentage of the days gear (water, food, rain gear, maps, etc) are the defining element of a modern backpacking pack. Belt and shoulder strap pockets can play supporting roles here, but my last three years of testing has heavily…
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Evolution of the Tamarisk; load carriage
I am delighted to report that the Tamarisk is finished. If by finished I mean that the prototype I completed a month ago and have been testing exhaustively since requires almost no changes. The patterns can now be set in stone, and the road towards production begin. This may not be a short road: I’m…
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OR Ascendant Hoody; at last
Since the original Rab Strata I’ve been looking for an active insulation mid/outer layer that can do both with minimal compromises. That is: provide substantive static weight/warmth, as well as balance breathability and weather protection coherently. The Strata was more on the outer layer side of things, while somehow not providing as much static warmth…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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