Field Information

Location where tests were conducted:
I tested the Keeler on several day hikes and a long weekend backpacking trip over the winter of 2004-2005 in the mountains of Southwest Virginia and Northeastern Tennessee. Elevations ranged from 3500 ft (1067 m) to 5500 ft (1676 m), with low temperatures around 20 F (-7 C) at night, and highs around freezing during the day. There was snow on the ground, and I walked through an ice storm in pursuit of this test.

This photo was made on Thanksgiving weekend in the Mt. Rogers high country in Virginia. The angle makes the pack look much smaller than it really is.

This series includes the popular Reality pack, the Forester, and the Acadia. The four Escape Series packs aren't too much different in size, ranging from 3800 to 4800 in^3 (62 to 79 l, size medium), and have slightly different feature sets. Though Gregory describes these as 'overnight' packs, they have sufficient capacity and load support for everything from gear-intensive day trips to serious long-distance hikes. The Escape Series packs have an internal frame and are available in four sizes, covering a torso length range from 14 to 21.5 in (35 to 55 cm). Hip belts and shoulder straps are interchangeable, and available in three sizes.

The interested reader will find a comprehensive description of the pack in my Initial Report.

So what's a Keeler, anyway? A Google search returned 766,000 hits, most of them genealogical. Then my spouse noticed that many of Gregory's packs are named after mountains in California (Whitney, Palisade, Shasta). That's when I found Keeler Needle, 14,240 ft (4340 m), a prominent spire south of the peak of Mt. Whitney.

Comfort
This is going to be a short section: the Keeler is one sweet ride. At first glance, the suspension system appears simple and unsophisticated -- a hip belt and two shoulder straps. But that simplicity hides a lot of serious engineering and design work. Let's look at some of the features that might not otherwise jump out:

The hip belt and the shoulder harnesses are pre-curved to fit the user's body without wrinkling or bunching. This means that the smooth wicking fabric on the inside of the suspension system lies flat against the body, so it won't rub or chafe. In addition, the molded foam in the suspension is stiff enough to provide support, especially in the hip belt, while still feeling soft and pliable against the user's hips.

The shoulder straps are attached to the top of the pack with a swivel, which allows the harness to automatically adapt to the shape and width of the user's shoulders and torso. Gregory calls this their AutoCant harness, and it works well in practice. In addition, the two load lifter straps work to change the angle of the pack and move weight from the shoulders to the hips while hiking.

The Keeler has a stiff foam framesheet and a single aluminum stay to provide shape and support to the pack. The combination easily provides the support necessary for my usual winter backpacking load of 35-40 lb (16-18 kg). For the last few years I have been using and testing ultralight frameless packs and very light framed packs, and all of them required very fussy and careful loading in order to carry comfortably. Not so the Keeler -- I can just toss all my gear in the top, throw it on my back, and start hiking. The padded back panel is covered with the same smooth wicking fabric, and the shape of the stay and framesheet perfectly matches my back.

While on the trail, finding my 'comfort zone' was easy. There are very few adjustments that can be made while hiking: put on the pack, tighten the shoulder straps, tighten the hipbelt, adjust the load lifters, and start hiking. If things don't feel quite right, a tiny adjustment on the shoulder straps and lifters almost always does the trick. Like the other Gregory packs that I have owned and used, the Keeler just feels terrific when I strap it on, and still feels terrific at the end of the day.

I did notice a couple of annoyances. The bottom half of the shoulder strap is a single long piece of flat nylon webbing. It runs through a locking buckle on the top half of the strap, but the end isn't sewn over to keep it from sliding back out. As a result, I would occasionally put on the pack and find the shoulder strap had come apart. Also, the load lifter straps are far too long -- walking on a windy ridgeline in Tennessee, one strap was constantly hitting me in the face until I tucked it under the shoulder harness (where I couldn't adjust it easily). Finally, this pack squeaks when I walk -- a constant 'eee eee eee eee' with every step. It's not that loud, so I can usually tune it out, but it's loud enough that my hiking partners mentioned it. My spouse ended up walking rather far in front when I wore the Keeler.

Convenience
In my Initial Report, I noted that the Keeler has a lot of pockets and panel doors and other interesting features. Let's look at how I was able to use these features when on the trail.

Pockets: The top lid pocket on the Keeler is great. It not only holds a lot of gear, the U-shaped zipper opens the entire top of the pocket so I can see all my gear at once. No more digging out everything in the lid pocket to find the one thing buried at the bottom. On the weekend backpacking trip, I had my snacks and lunch, spare gloves and a warm hat, maps and trail guide, first aid kit, YakTrax (traction device for boots), Aqua Mira bottles, empty 6-liter water bag, and my camera in the lid pocket, and still had room left over. Excellent.

The large front pocket gave me mixed results. On the positive side, it too holds a lot of gear. I had my tarp, bivy sack, stakes, and guy lines in this pocket, and still had room when I needed a place to stash my rain shell. On the down side, it can be difficult to gain access to this pocket. First, the top compression strap covers the outside of this pocket, and when it's tightened down for hiking, it compresses the pocket enough that I can't get anything in or out easily. Loosening this compression strap requires that I open the lid pocket, loosen the top compression strap, open the front pocket, get whatever it is I need, close the front pocket, retighten the compression strap, and reclose the lid pocket. That significantly reduces the utility of the front pocket while hiking.

The two mesh lower side pockets were fine. They each hold a full 1-l Nalgene bottle, and there doesn't seem to be any danger of the bottle falling out. I was able to reach the bottle and return it without too many contortions, except when wearing gloves.

I used the water bladder pocket on the day hikes, but left it at home for the long weekend hike. This pocket is fine, and I like being able to remove it when I want to use bottles instead of a bladder. I used bladder with a particularly large bite valve, and I could easily thread it through the drinking tube outlet port on the right side of the pack.

Panel Access Doors: The large sleeping bag compartment can be reached in two ways, the most common being through the large panel door at the bottom front of the pack. The compartment and the panel door are each large enough to fit my winter sleeping bag, with enough room left over for my down jacket. This door is easily opened when the pack is full, and I found it a good place to stash stuff that I might want during the day, like my warm jacket. This door is covered by two long straps, which can hold equipment attached to the outside of the pack: a tent or a sleeping pad, perhaps. I used them to carry my Waldies camp clogs.

The two side panel doors are the most unusual feature on the Keeler. They look like side pockets, but they open a large door in each side of the pack. In adidtion, each panel has a small, zippered mesh pocket on the inside. I was able to stash my toilet items in one, and a water filter in the other. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use these side doors into the pack. I have traditionally lined my pack with a large trash bag, in order to keep the contents dry in the rainy Southern Appalachians. So when I open these doors, I am looking at the outside of the trash bag, and none of my gear is accessible. (And on the weekend backpacking trip, walking all day in the freezing rain, I was very happy to have the plastic bag inside my pack.) I can see the utility of these doors for hiking in drier conditions, though.

Overall Size: The Keeler is 5300 in~3 (87 l) in size large, twenty percent larger than my usual pack. I have used my regular pack for winter hiking, and it can be a tight fit with a larger sleeping bag, more clothing, bigger stove and pot, and all the other additional equipment that goes on a winter trip. I found the Keeler to be a more usable size for my winter gear -- everything fit, and there was enough room left over for a couple extra days of food if I needed it.

Attachment Points: There's an ice axe strap, which I don't use, but it looks to be in the right place. The Keeler doesn't have a good way of attaching large items vertically to the back of the pack. I like to carry an extra-large Ridgerest pad, which at 25 in (64 cm) wide is too wide to carry horizontally on the base of the Keeler. But there's no bungee cord, and no good place to attach one, so I found it difficult to carry the pad. I also tried attaching my snowshoes vertically, and this was even more difficult. The snowshoes weigh a lot more than the sleeping pad, and need a solid support. I can cross over the lid pocket straps and the bottom pad straps, but this doesn't seem to be an elegant solution.

Durability: The Keeler has held up well to use and abuse so far. No frayed edges, no blown stitching, everything still looks brand new.

Overall Performance: There are, of course, two kinds of backpackers: those who like the One Big Sack, and those who like the Lots of Little Pockets. I've always been a One Big Sack guy: my packing system is designed for a top-loading pack with few or no pockets. I organize my equipment into sil-nylon stuff sacks, and I pack so that everything I need for the day is near the top.

The Keeler is an excellent example of the LLP style of backpack, and I am still learning how to adapt to this style while on the trail. This is mostly a matter of trying to remember in which pocket I put a particular piece of gear, but I am confident that extended use will allow me to develop an efficient workflow with this pack.

Conclusion:

The Keeler is a large, well-made, durable pack with a lot of features and an easy, comfortable carry.

Things I like:
1. The suspension system is excellent, and the pack carries like a dream.
2. There's plenty of room for all my winter gear.
3. The top (lid) pocket is well designed and useful.

Things I don't like:
1. No easy way to attach snowshoes or a large pad vertically.
2. Difficult access to the front pocket.
3. It squeaks.
4. All those features add weight.