By Sam Lightner, Jr.
Jul 20, 2009
| The All-round Pack You are Looking For
One of the perks, ok the only perk, to being an older-climber is that you have friends in the industry who let you use cool stuff. I have been blessed with climbing partners, both current and past, who work for various backpack manufacturers and I have thus had the opportunity to try out a number of their products. A couple of those friends are gonna be bummed when I post this, but the fact is the CiloGear 45 WorkSack has been the standout of the group.
The Cilo 45 is a soft frame pack and for this reason I was initially not excited about using it. I have a bone spur in my neck, and heavy weight on my shoulders tends to seize up my traps. That being so, I always want a pack that puts very little pressure on the shoulders and caries well on the waist. I had an Andinista years ago and did not feel the soft frame allowed the pack to do this well. For whatever reason, the Cilo 45 carries almost all of the load on the waist belt. I used it to carry rebolting gear, like the drill, rope (strapped on the outside), rack, and half a dozen feet of chain, and it handled the weight comfortably. Being used to solid-frame packs, I still find the tendency for the pack to “slump over” when I’m unloading it to be annoying. However, this is a minor complaint and has more to do with my whiny-ness than the packs failing.
The Cilo 45 has numerous ways to adjust the fit, including the ability to easily raise the hip belt so that it will ride above your harness. The hip belt can also be quickly removed if you want to haul the pack and don’t want the strap catching on that one overhang that invariably snags everything. Four light-weight straps on each side of the pack allow you to synch it tight against itself after you have unloaded it. The synch-down straps are easily removable if you don’t have the need to compress the pack.
The Cilo 45 is clearly designed for alpine climbing. It weighs less than four pounds, about the same a single rack of cams, and can be quickly compressed to fit close to the body when climbing. The axe/tool carrying system is simple, using bungees for the shaft of the tools and a fold/pocket on the lower part of the pack to hold the picks in place. The folds not only hold modern tools that lack adze’s (unlike the open-loop system which often drops the tool), but they also tuck in the tips of the picks and thus keep them from snagging on things like branches, car seats, and your partners Gore-tex jacket.
The pack has a number of well-thought little extras that deserve mention. There is reflective tape on both the lid, where the zipper is, and on the back of the pack, to help you find it in the dark. It seems small, but when your partner is just out of headlamp range while bushwacking (as mine generally are), the tape stands out in the dark. It also allows you to find the zipper on the top flap with ambient starlight when you are looking for that headlamp (thank you very much). The Cilo 45 comes with loops of webbing on the top of the front and back of the pack (at your neck and facing away from you). This seems like nothing until you are slipping it off at a hanging belay and your partner is trying to get a firm grip on the thing. The loop at the back makes exchanging it that much easier and safer. I have used this pack for four months with racks of cams in the desert, sport climbing gear at The Red, and alpine gear in the Tetons, and I have not punched a hole in it. I don’t know what the material is, but it is certainly sturdy stuff. Finally, this pack is of just the right size so that it will fit in the overhead bin of your favorite aircraft. I found that even when well loaded I could convince flight attendants that its dimensions added up to the same as those rectangular rolling bags that all the Muggles use. This seems inconsequential until you check your pack and what you get back is a pile of frayed nylon that the automated pitbull-baggage machines of DIA have shredded.
No review is complete without a mention of the failings, and there are a few things I would add or change. First, any pack specifically designed for being worn while climbing should have sewn on gear loops on the hip belt. I think one can purchase these for the Cilo 45, but one shouldn’t have to. Also, I like the idea that my pack could work as an emergency bivy sack, but the Cilo 45 does not have a large enough extension on the main sack to allow you to get inside. Most of the time, like while cragging, I would find that extra material annoying, but that one time I need it I would be thankful it was there.
These are fairly minor complaints. The fact is this is my favorite pack and I use it for all kinds of climbing. If you are looking for an all-round back pack, you can’t go wrong with the Cilo 45 WorkSack.
Sam Lightner Jr.
At large in the Southeast | 
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By Shawn Mitchell
From Broomfield
Jul 20, 2009
| Thanks for the thoughtful review, Sam. SouthEAST? An extended road trip?
Please give an idea of its capacity and packing structure. A standard main pocket and lower pocket?
In my cragging pack, I put harness and shoes and a couple odds and ends in the lower, leaving the rack (timid-style-sew-it-up-20-cams-plus-hexes-&-tricams) water, extra clothing, and sometimes jammed rope in the top. Would that all fit? More/less? |
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By Sam Lightner, Jr.
Jul 20, 2009
| ONe big compartment and the lid... saves weight not having the lower pocket. It has few bells and whistles, but I guess you can buy extra pockets and such that strap onto the outside.
Its a 45 liter pack, so it fits the gear and rope but you start getting bit tight when you add clothes. For my biggest loads I have ended up strapping the rope over the top |
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By Kevin Craig
Jul 20, 2009
| Huh????? Over July 4, I carried tent, sleeping bag, stove, food, water filter, clothes (OK, extra underwear and socks but did have full shell gear and softshell) AND harness and rack in a 45L with no problem. The rope was strapped over the top though. Without the camping gear, it would have easily fit inside (even with my usual doubled-cams chicken-rack). Of course, mine is the large/long torso size. A S or M might not fit it all. |
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