[Product announcement] Mountain Drifter Micro Haulers

Hey folks! Purchase link is live now, for those who are interested. The inventory on this first drop is intentionally pretty small, if things go well I hope to do a larger drop soon!

https://mountaindrifter.com/

Looks like everything is already sold out.  Dang.

Yep - small batch for this first drop, seems like there's enough demand for me to bump up the production numbers by ~2-3x for next time! Have some rolls of fabric on the way from Challenge, hopefully will have another drop ready to go before the end of the year.

If anybody missed out on this drop, for the next week if you email me at quinn@mountaindrifter.com I'll make sure you're first in line for the next one!

Minor update, I won't be doing a late December drop after all. I got set up with a Challenge wholesale account recently, so I've been able to get my hands on some new fabrics that aren't available through resellers and am testing out the new materials and a few design changes based on feedback. Stay tuned, I'll send out an update via the mailing list when I have concrete dates for the next drop – I am aiming for sometime in early February.

Just wanted to pop in and say the quality is great! I'm psyched to get them outside soon.

Hi Quinn,

  I got one of your medium stuff sacs from your first run. I think they are really well built.  My one concern is that the tie in is too high on the bag.  I’m 6’2” and even with a mini Avant biner the sack hangs down to the middle of my thigh. That’s fine if it’s just got a shell in it but not great if you have any weight in it. I think that if you could do a bar tack down to the level of the Mountain Drifter logo so you could clip in low on the bag it would be much more usable. Clipping it in short will bring the bag back to harness height and also prevent some of the swinging as it flops around on its clip in.
My only other critique is that the barrel knot on the accessory cord is a bit hard to grab and snug down. That might be due to the stiffness of the fabric, the pull you have is really nice and makes opening a breeze. Maybe a cord cap at the end instead of the barrel knot might make closing it easier? Or maybe thicker cord?

Finally, the material the standard bag is made from is completely bomber.  I think you could use it to haul up bolts or such.  I can’t imagine putting a hole in it.  I appreciate craftsmanship and it shows in your bags.  This bag will outlast me.

Hey Kevin, really appreciate the feedback! 

I've actually got hardware samples in the mail from Nifco and Woojin to try to make the bag easier to close.  The main reason for the high clipping point is that the tension on the haul loop that wraps around and goes inside the bag is what's enabling the one-handed opening feature. Like you said, it's not really an issue for low-density contents like a shell or puffy but I agree that it's less than ideal if you're using it for other stuff like snacks or tools. I'm experimenting with ways to move that attachment point down without sacrificing the one-handed opening – the challenge here is that most of the designs I've come up with for this have more layers of webbing stacked up and so they require a more powerful machine to sew them than I currently own. I'm in the process of getting access to a Juki DNU-1541 industrial machine that should give me more design options here. Funny how complicated something as basic as a stuff sack with some extra loops on it can be once you really start to sweat the details.

I am also hoping to replace the knotted cord end with these rad little metal zipper pulls in the next batch. Should make the cinch much easier to pull closed, especially with gloves on.

I will caution you slightly that the TX50 your bag is made from has great abrasion resistance but the puncture resistance from pointy metal stuff that's *inside* the bag isn't as good as the other two fabrics, based on some very rigorous testing (poking things with a fork during a rain day in EPC). 

Sleeve/wedge bolts should be fine, but I'd suggest avoiding putting things like drill bits or glue-in bolts that have pointy ends in that one. At some point I may mess around with trying to fab up my dream bolting bag, since I do rebolting work with the BCC and am constantly annoyed at how the current crop of bolting bags kind of become a black hole as soon as you're on the wall and your organization starts to get even a little bit messy. Will keep you on the short list if I'm looking for product testers for that.

Gearing up for a big drop of the new version of the Micro Haulers near the end of Feb. I haven't figured out the exact date yet, but I'll send out an email when I do (see here to get on the list)

For now, here's a sneak peek and some specs:

Weight: 32g (1.1oz) 

Materials: Challenge Ultra 200 for the main body (~70% dyneema/UHMWPE fiber advanced composite/laminate fabric), and Challenge UltraTX95 (UHMWPE reinforced polyester laminate) for the cinch collar

Closure: Custom cinch closure using the same hardware that Arc'teryx uses for their jackets. When the bag is clipped to something, can be opened and closed with one hand.

Seam taped for water resistance and so that there's no bound edges for stuff to catch on when you're fishing things out of the bag.

Would love one of these in the UK. NeedleSports is pretty good at importing small American brands if you're ever looking!

Finished production on this batch, finally! Drop will be at Thurs 2/26 at 9am Mountain Time! I will have Micro Haulers in Ultra200 and TX95 fabric options, as well as limited stock of an ultralight clothesline setup that I’ve used a bunch this year on trips in Peru and Chile for drying out layers. It’s pretty slick and I want to test the waters to see if it’s something folks are interested in as a commercial product.

Micro haulers have been updated with a more refined cinch closure, better positioned haul loop, textured cord pull, and metal grommets on the drawstring channel. I’m really happy with how they turned out, feels like a very polished product at this point.

Website is password protected while I get everything ready, so feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about the products before the drop. This one will have about double the inventory of the first drop but I do still expect it to sell out fairly quickly.

Quinn,

  The new bags look sweet!  I like your new clip in point. Are you releasing any large sacs or just the medium?  Thanks!

I'm redoing the sizing - for now these are all the 12cm diameter size (formerly known as 'Large'). Since we're in shoulder season, I made the decision to focus on that size since it’s the best fit for most layering setups that involve some kind of fleece or puffy. As we start getting closer to summer temps in North America I'll probably bring back a smaller size option for when you just need a windbreaker and some sour patch kids.

Part of the reason also is that I've switched to laser cutting parts of the pattern like the bottom circle and collar piece for better accuracy and less manual labor in production, so it's been helpful to focus on just one variant of the laser cutter files while I dial that process in.

What's the volume, even if a ballpark estimate?

And - ever think about adding a second attachment point at/near the bottom? I can see cases where the "swinging" of a bag like this would be annoying, and that would allow for some solutions where you can attach both sides. E.g., strapped between two gear loops across the back (almost like a harness-mounted fanny pack, which is a concept I'm suddenly tempted to patent and get wildly rich from, but am too busy with house projects so will just post here instead).

Last, is there any way to get on the email reminder list? As you said, website is pw protected right now.

Volume is a little more than 2 liters. I’ve got some comparison shots with a Nalgene on the product pages, it’s only a little bit wider and about 2cm taller but because of how volume is proportional to radius squared, that ends up more than doubling the volume.

If you dm me your email I can add you to the list. I really need to figure out a better way to handle these drops, Shopify’s password feature is a super clunky solution.

“Harness mounted fanny pack” is an interesting concept, but I don’t know that it would work that well since you usually rotate a fanny pack around to the front for access and you can’t really do that with one that’s fixed to your gear loops. 

I got one of the early prototypes from Quinn, and it held up well on an alpine climbing trip a couple months ago where I really put it through the ringer (chimneys, OW, high winds, stuffing it past capacity…) and needed a puffy a lot of the time. Highly recommend!

I got to handle the new version today and the one-handed closure system is a pretty clever design, and it seems like it would hang less low which was also my one gripe with it. Posting for visibility for Quinn’s drop tomorrow morning, but also to generally support a cool product that I’ve found really useful!

Feb drop is now live, head on over to https://mountaindrifter.com/collections/all-products if you're interested!

If anyone has questions that aren't answered by the info I have on the website, feel free to post those questions here! 

I'll be online and keeping an eye on this thread for the next couple of hours.

Thanks!

Quick inventory update, this drop is about halfway sold out (!) – thanks for the support, excited to hear feedback from in the wild!

Going to be moving my workshop in March so the next drop will probably be mid/late April at the earliest.

Would love a version thats about half this size (think 16oz nalgene) for bail gear. 

That's a cool use case, would love to offer that at some point! I usually rack my bail kit onto a single biner, but having it in a little bag would be sleeker and would also let you stash some basic first aid stuff in there too. 

The one thing that's given me pause about selling really small bags is that they basically cost the same amount to make as the large bags - you save a fractional amount on fabric costs, but all the hardware and labor doesn't change. So I'd have to price them almost the same as the larger bags, and I'm not sure that folks would go for that?

Can't have a backpack in a chimney. These bags are dope. Get one!