Here’s 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 enamel. It requires the usage of a easy poly bubble mailer (these white padded envelopes used for Amazon prime packages) that’s massive sufficient to carry your crampons, path crampons, or microspikes. I discover that the graceful exterior of the poly bubble mailer slides simply into the comfortable mesh pocket on the entrance of my pack and the bag’s ease of use is likely one of the chief advantages of this strategy. These mailing envelopes are amazingly sturdy and I often get a complete winter mountain climbing season out of a single one. When you like you can even punch a gap within the backside to assist it drain if snow adheres to your crampons or spikes and melts.
Apart from saving cash, utilizing a poly bubble mailer also can prevent some gear weight which is a much bigger deal in winter as a result of your mountain climbing gear, traction and flotation aids, sizzling water bottles, meals, and layers are often fairly heavy. For instance, a repurposed poly bubble mailer prices nothing and weighs 1 oz. Examine 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 prime of that, a poly bubble mailer doesn’t have a zipper, in order that’s one much less level of failure.
I don’t think about the usage of a poly bubble mailer as a crampon bag to be that extraordinary, however I used to be lately winter mountain climbing with some associates and so they had been fairly shocked that I carry my crampons and microspikes in poly bubble mailers as an alternative of utilizing crampon bag. It simply goes to point out, that a few of the finest mountain climbing gear isn’t mountain climbing gear in any respect.
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