rucksacking

Power pack

Not exactly light, but oh-so-geeky-cool:

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a backpack that can actually generate electricity as its wearer walks. The suspended-load backpack can generate about seven watts of power solely via the motion of the person carrying it, which is achieved by detaching the pack’s frame from the load it carries and harnessing the energy generated as the load moves up and down on vertical springs. The actual energy generated depends on the weight of the load and how fast the person walks, but is usually enough to charge several handheld devices at the same time.

Perfect for that iPod, digital camera and coffee bean grinder you always take along.

A backpack that generates power [Engadget]

World's Lightest Pack

We don't really recommend either of these for the average backpacker, as it's the sort of thing that can just feed ultralightweight fanatacism (not that that's a bad thing). But there's something charmingly simple about the Silcoat Backpack from Intergral Designs. Weighing just 4.5 ounces, this stuffsack/backpack has the least frills of any production pack we've seen. Obvious questions arise -- where to stick the water bottle -- but for short trips in warm weather, this could be a fun pack to try out.

For those of you who like the bells and whistles, there's the "Uberlight" G6 Whisper, weighing in at 3.7 ounces, including on external pocket. No padding in the shoulder straps, though -- you have to provide that yourself, with an extra pair of socks. The G6 isn't going to win any beauty contests, either, though the shiny blue has a bit more panache than plain old black.

With both packs, of course, major caveats: They're made of pretty fragile fabrics for packs, so treat with care.

Silcoat Backpack [Integral Designs]
G6 Whisper [Gossamer Gear]

World's Lightest Pack, Part II

We know, we know: There are other, lighter packs out there. But the Thompson Peak seems to hit the middle point between light weight, usability, and durability, giving you a total of 3600 cubic inches of space. It's basically the shell of a Go Lite Breeze, but with a few improvements: lighter fabric, a reinforced bottom section (where most of the wear goes), compression straps on the sides, and a smaller extension collar (the one on the Breeze was like 3 feet long). Like the G6 (above), not the sexiest-looking piece of gear out there, but rucksacking isn't only about fashion.

Thompson Peak [AntiGravity Gear]

REI Getting Into the Game

We take a few months off, and the whole landscape of lightweight backpacking rucksacking changes. REI has introduced a new line of "UL" products, which, though still a tad on the heavy side by most standards (or at least by ours), are still a huge improvement over traditional gear and will probably start a much larger segement of the public down the path towards rucksacking. We're not exactly sure when they began offering in-house items like the poetically-named REI UL 30L Pack, but we'll leave finding out stuff like that to real journalists who do stuff like, you know, research.

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2005 Madness!

The good folks over at BackpackingLight.com have basically blogged this year's winter Outdoor Retailers convention in Brighton, UT, and posted an index here. There are even short, free descriptions for non-members. If we had to choose, we'd say we're most excited about this, but that's because A) we love Smartwool, and B) we're not so into winter backpacking, so a lot of these products fail to get our juices going.

Rucksack Round-up

Another article on lightweight gear by Backpacker writer Andy Dappen--this time it's a field test of 6 different rucksacks.