Here is a crampon bag hack I’ve been utilizing for the previous few years to guard the entrance mesh pocket of my winter pack from the sharp crampon and microspike tooth. It requires using a easy poly bubble mailer (these white padded envelopes used for Amazon prime packages) that’s giant sufficient to carry your crampons, path crampons, or microspikes. I discover that the graceful exterior of the poly bubble mailer slides simply into the cosy mesh pocket on the entrance of my pack and the bag’s ease of use is without doubt one of the chief advantages of this strategy. These mailing envelopes are amazingly sturdy and I normally get a whole winter mountaineering season out of a single one. If you want it’s also possible to punch a gap within the backside to assist it drain if snow adheres to your crampons or spikes and melts.
Besides saving cash, utilizing a poly bubble mailer also can prevent some gear weight which is an even bigger deal in winter as a result of your mountaineering gear, traction and flotation aids, scorching water bottles, meals, and layers are normally fairly heavy. For instance, a repurposed poly bubble mailer prices nothing and weighs 1 oz. Compare that to a Hyperlite Mountain Gear’s Prism Crampon Bag ($59) which weighs 4 oz (113g) or a Black Diamond Crampon Bag ($25) which weighs 5.5 oz (156g). On high of that, a poly bubble mailer doesn’t have a zipper, in order that’s one much less level of failure.
I don’t contemplate using a poly bubble mailer as a crampon bag to be that extraordinary, however I used to be just lately winter mountaineering with some buddies and so they had been fairly stunned that I carry my crampons and microspikes in poly bubble mailers as an alternative of utilizing crampon bag. It simply goes to indicate, that a few of the greatest mountaineering gear is just not mountaineering gear in any respect.
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