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Initial Report: Equinox Katahdin Pack
May 7, 2004 |
Tester Information
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Name: |
Ken Bennett |
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Age: |
42 |
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Gender: |
Male |
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Height: |
6' 2" (190 cm) |
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Weight: |
215 lbs (98 kg) |
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Email: |
bennettk at wfu dot edu |
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Location: |
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA |
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Backpacking Background:
I have been backpacking for twelve years, all of it in the Southern Appalachians. I am fortunate to live within a two-hour drive of the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area, and I try to hike in that area at least once a month year-round. I have completed several hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail in two-day to two-week sections, and along with my family have set a goal of completing the entire trail over the next decade or so. Like many backpackers, I started out carrying far too much gear, but over the years I have pared down my pack weight to a more reasonable level.
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Product Information
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Manufacturer: |
Equinox Ltd |
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Model: |
Katahdin Pack |
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Web Site: |
Equinox Web Site |
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Size: |
One Size (no capacity information) |
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Listed Weight: |
22 ounces (624 g) |
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Weight As Delivered: |
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MSRP: |
$120 U.S. |
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Arrival:
The pack was waiting on my porch when I got home from work on May 6. It was by itself in a small box that originally held a case of peppermint chewing gum, with a piece of corrugated paper on top, presumably to keep me from slicing the pack when I cut open the box. There were two small hang tags on the pack, and a packing slip.
The Equinox Web Site:
A picture of the Katahdin pack was featured prominently on the Equinox home page. Clicking on the link opened a new page with the same photo, but which was otherwise blank. It took some hunting around to find the real information page for the Katahdin, which was listed under the 'Ultralight Backpacking' link, rather than the 'Packs and Bags' link (which for some reason opened a page of water bottle accessories).
The product page for the Katadin did provide some information, but much of it was confusing and unhelpful. The list price on the home page was $120, while on the product page it was $110. There was no information about the capacity of the pack, either in liters or cubic inches, or even what sort of gear it might hold. The web site did mention several improvements over the first generation pack, and claimed better carrying comfort, improved water resistance, and 'exceptional performance.' It did provide some hints about how to use the three compression straps to create a solid, stable load, and it gave the empty weight of the pack at 22 ounces (624 g). There were several typos and grammatical errors. The single photo of the pack showed a side view, which was fine, but a picture of the front and rear of the pack would have given me more information.
From the photo of the Katahdin, I expected the entire pack bag to be made of sil-nylon. The web site did say that the pack has a 'full mesh back,' but this did not clearly indicate to me that the rear of the pack was only mesh and thus open to the elements. From the picture, I was expecting a pack that could be seam-sealed and made water-tight.
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| The Pack:
General Description:
The Equinox Katahdin is a lightweight, frameless rucksack made of silicone nylon and mesh, with fully-padded shoulder straps and hipbelt, and all the little suspension niceties: load lifters, sternum strap, and hip-belt stabilizer straps. The initial impression is of a giant sil-nylon stuff sack with a suspension system grafted on the side. The pack has no stays, no padded back panel, and no framesheet, and as a result weighs in at 23 ounces (652 g) on my kitchen scale.
Suspension System:
 The Katahdin has a harness system that might have come from any conventional backpack: two well-padded shoulder straps, and a fully-padded and stiffened hip belt. The shoulder straps are fixed in position 3 inches (7.6 cm) from the top edge of the pack, with 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) between them. There is a large reinforcement patch where the shoulder straps attach to the pack body. The padded area of each strap is 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, 16 inches (40 cm) long, and cut in an S-shape to wrap around the neck. The straps are sewn from what appears to be ripstop nylon on top and a synthetic knit on the bottom, with a thin, stiff padding in between. The sides are finished with seam binding tape. Load lifter straps made of 1-inch (2.5 cm) webbing run from each shoulder strap to the top of the pack. There is a sternum strap made of 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) webbing, which is attached with plastic sliders to a piece of 1-inch (2.5 cm) webbing that runs down the front of each shoulder strap. The sternum strap can be adjusted up and down about 6 inches (15.25 cm). Each shoulder strap is attached to the bottom of the pack bag with a piece of 1-inch (2.5 cm) webbing that runs through a plastic locking slider, in the usual fashion.
The padded part of the hip belt is 30 inches (76 cm) long, and 5 inches (12.7 cm) wide. It appears to be padded with two different types of foam: a stiffer foam on the outside, similar to that in the shoulder straps, and a thicker, softer foam on the inside. The hip belt is lined with a wicking knit fabric, and finished with grosgrain ribbon. Two-inch (5 cm) nylon webbing with a standard quick-release buckle finishes each side of the hip belt. The belt seems to have a practical fit range of about 32 inches (81 cm) to 56 inches (142 cm). The belt connects to the pack bag with a large hook-and-loop patch inside a small sleeve on the back of the pack, creating a nice lumbar pad. A piece of 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) webbing acts as a hip belt stabilizer, running from each side of the hip belt to the side of the pack bag. The hip belt can be moved up and down on the hook-and-look patch, to give about 2 inches (5 cm) of torso adjustment. The hip belt can be completely removed if desired (I will list the weight savings in the field report.) The distance between the top edge of the hipbelt and the bottom of the shoulder straps ranges from 14-16 inches (35.5-40.5 cm), depending on where the hip belt is placed on the hook-and-loop patch. (NOTE: This is not the same as a torso length measurement. I measured the same distance on a size Large internal-frame Gregory pack, and it was 14.5 inches (36.75 cm), while the torso length of that pack was set to 21 inches.)
Pack Bag and Pockets
 The pack body is made of sil-nylon in the front (the part farthest from the user), and a stiff mesh on the back (the part where the suspension system is attached). When I first saw the photos of the pack on the Equinox web site, I assumed that the pack bag was entirely sil-nylon, and I was hoping that it could be seam-sealed and made waterproof. The mesh back makes that idea moot. The pack body is a cylinder approximately 21 inches (53 cm) tall and 14 inches (35.5 cm) in diameter, which gives a very rough estimate of about 3300 cubic inches (54 liters) capacity. The top closes with a drawstring and a plastic cord-lock, just like a standard stuff sack. The stitching is particularly well-done, and all seams are finished with binding tape. 
There are two fabric panels or wings that wrap part-way around the front of the pack bag, with three compression straps made of 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) webbing. Each compression strap has a plastic quick-release buckle in the middle. Each wing panel has a very small, flat pocket in the upper half, measuring 12 inches (30.5 cm) long, and from 3 inches (7.6 cm) to 6 inches (15.25 cm) in width, in a triangular shape. Access is through a 7-inch (17.75 cm), one-way zipper that closes up toward the top of the pack (smart.) The Equinox web site and the hang tag state that these are 'large side pockets'; I was able to fit an orange plastic trowel in one, and a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of alcohol gel in the other. There is a mesh pocket on the bottom half of each wing panel, which is large enough to hold a 1-quart (1-liter) Nalgene bottle, and which closes with an elastic cord and cord lock. I can easily reach a water bottle while wearing the pack (with one hand!), and almost as easily replace the water bottle in the pocket and cinch it tight.
Fitting the Pack:
The Katahdin is available in only one size, and has limited torso-length adjustability by moving the hip belt up and down a couple of inches (5 cm). If I had to describe the fit in one word, it would be: Big. The shoulder straps are big and wide, and so is the hip belt (though the padded area of the hip belt isn't very long). The torso length fits me perfectly, and I have a 22-inch (56 cm) torso. That said, we tried the pack on my wife, who has a 15-inch (38 cm) torso, and by moving the hip belt to the topmost position, we were able to make the pack fit her comfortably in the torso. But there were several other problems that she discovered quickly, including the too-wide shoulder straps digging into her shoulders and arms, and the hip belt being too long. But on a larger person, with wide shoulders and hips, the pack fits well. (This fit issue is not confined to the Katahdin. I spent many months looking for a lightweight pack for my 13-year-old daughter, who is very slender, and the vast majority of ultralight and light-weight packs seem to be built for large men.)
Loading the Pack:
I had my basic lightweight summer backpacking load waiting in the basement when the Katahdin arrived: a 40-degree down sleeping bag, a lightweight hammock, my homemade alcohol stove and grease-pot kitchen, a very light clothing bag and personal items ditty bag, plus a water filter and two 1-liter water bottles. I also had an Ursack TKO loaded with 6 pounds (2.7 kg) to represent food for a 4-day hike. All told, the full load of gear weighed 11 pounds (5 kg) with empty water bottles and no food. Filling the water bottles added 4.4 pounds (2 kg), plus a six pound food bag gave me a total weight with food and water of 21.4 pounds (9.7 kg). (I was missing several small-but-crucial personal items in this first test, but their total weight is less than a pound (450 g)).
Since the Katahdin has no suspension system to give it shape, I first tried the obvious solution of placing a 3/4-length Ridgerest pad inside, and letting it unroll. This gave the pack excellent stiffness and shape, and made loading easy. I put the sleeping bag in the bottom, the clothing bag and hammock in next, and the food bag on top, fitting the smaller items among the larger stuff sacks. I then wore the pack around the house for a while, but found that it had several unfortunate lumps in the middle of my back where the Ridgerest was collapsing under the load.
Next I tried placing my deflated Thermarest pad (a new full-length Prolite 4) against the inside back of the pack, and loading the rest of the gear in front of it. This actually seemed to work better, though I won't make any serious judgements until I have carried the pack both ways on a real hike. (The weights listed above include the Thermarest pad.)
Equinox claims that the three compression straps help stiffen the load, and allow weight to transfer to the hip belt. There is an easy way to test weight transfer in any pack: put it on, adjust it properly, and loosen the shoulder straps several inches. If the pack collapses, then there's no real weight transfer. The Katahdin easily passes this test when using the Thermarest pad, probably because I was better able to tighten down the compression straps. With the Ridgerest pad, I wasn't able to tighten the compression straps quite as much (since the pad was getting in the way), and the load was looser and thus collapsed more easily.
I also tried removing the hipbelt, and found that with this light a load, it's still very comfortable. I've never tried hiking with a pack that had no hip belt, and I am looking forward to trying the Katahdin this way.
Additional Observations:
- Because of the mesh panel on the back, I'll need to line it with a plastic trash bag to waterproof the contents. Equinox says that the mesh panel promotes ventilation, but I'm not sure how much I'll get with a trash bag against my back.
- I'll also need to use a sil-nylon rain cover. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to completely close the top of the pack -- there still will be a small hole in the middle of the drawstring closure. Having to use a pack liner and a pack cover on an ultralight pack (made of sil-nylon, yet), seems like unneeded extra weight. My initial impression is that I would prefer the pack body to be made entirely of sil-nylon or some other waterproof material, with a top closure that can be reasonably sealed against rain. I'd still want to line it with a trash bag, but then I could leave the pack cover at home.
- The top of the pack is about even with the top of my shoulders, so there is plenty of room to look up, and I can wear a wide-brimmed hat without it constantly hitting the pack. This is nice.
- The pack is extremely well-made, and appears to use high-quality fabrics and parts throughout. I can't find any sample defects on the pack that I received.
- I think I am going to seriously regret the lack of any large exterior pockets, in particular a mesh front pocket for wet gear or camp shoes. Many packs have such a pocket, and it's a big help when carrying a wet tarp or hammock, or for carrying my Waldies (camp clogs). I can see how such a pocket might interfere with the three compression straps, but I am going to see whether an add-on side pocket will help. Also, there is no place to carry a water bladder system except inside the pack bag, and after a disastrous leak on a recent winter trip, I no longer do that.
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The Test:
I will be testing this pack over the next few months on day hikes and 2- and 3-day weekend hikes in the Southern Appalachians. I have several training hikes planned for May and early June to get ready for our two-week section hike of the Appalachian Trail in mid-June. Generally speaking, I will load the Katahdin with my ultralight warm-weather hiking gear, plus a food bag loaded for 3 days, and a water bottle or two. This will give me a good idea how well the pack will carry with a long-distance hiking load.
Since this sort of ultralight pack usually works best with a sleeping pad inside for support, I will test several pads to see which ones work the best. The pad I use depends on which shelter I take and the weather forecast. In the summer, I usually take my Hennessey Hammock and a 3/4 Ridgerest pad. The Ridgerest works well inside the hammock, but it's not comfortable when I want to sleep in a shelter. For colder weather, I take a sil-nylon tarp and my new Thermarest Prolite 4. In addition to those pads, I will test full-length and 3/4 length Z-rest pads for fit and function as support inside the Katahdin.
I am hoping that I can use the Katahdin on my family's section hike in North Carolina and Georgia this June. There are three of us, and we have our personal and shared gear weights down into the 12-14 lb (5.4-6.4 kg) range. However, when we add food and water, the total weight of my pack is over 25 lb (11.3 kg), which may be too heavy to be comfortable with the Katahdin. (Because we don't do major mileage every day, there will be at least one 6-day stretch without resupply, resulting in a starting shared food load of more than 25 pounds (11.3 kg)). I will try hard to make the Katahdin work for me on this hike, but that will depend on the maximum load that I can comfortably carry in it.
Thanks to Equinox and Backpack Gear Test for the opportunity to test the Katahdin.
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Read more gear reviews by Ken Bennett
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