Reviews > Packs > Internal and External Framed Backpacks > Gregory Whitney > David Sowards-Emmerd > Field Report

Field Report - Gregory Whitney Pack
June 27, 2004

Personal Information:
Name: David Sowards-Emmerd
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 8'' (1.73 m)
Weight: 155 lb (70 kg)
Email Address: drunken_marmotATyahooDOTcom
Los Altos, California, USA
Date: June 27, 2004

Backpacking Background:

I began backpacking semi-frequently about three years ago, soon after moving to California. I generally take weekend (1 night) trips, and occasionally take 3-4 day trips. Most of my backpacking experience is at moderate altitude, 6,000'-12,000' (1,800-3,650 m), in conditions ranging from dry desert to hail/heavy snow in the mountains. In winter and spring I split time between Southern California (SoCal) deserts and snowshoeing/snowcamping in the mountains. Summer and fall I tend to stick to the high country. My pack weight has generally been in the 60-90 pound (27-40 kilo) range (including food/water and a bear barrel) over the past few years, but recently I've been buying lighter gear. So now before each trip I'm stuck deciding whether to go lighter, or just carry more 'toys' to make up for the lost weight. My pack was only 28 lb / 13 kg for my last warm overnighter (90 F / 32 C and sunny in March, go figure).

Pack philosophy:

The product was received in full on April 1, 2004.

Product Specifications:

Manufacturer's Specifications:
Volume: 4,950 cubic inches. / 81 l
Weight: 6 lb 9 oz / 3.0 kg

As measured by tester:
Total Pack Weight: 7 lb / 3.18 kg
Top Pocket Weight: 10 oz / 285 g

Product Description:

The Gregory Whitney is a large (4,950 cubic inch / 81 l) internal frame pack with a very supportive, but flexible frame intended for carrying load up to 65 lb / 30 kg. Numerous pockets and access to the internals of the pack from almost every possible direction make this pack very organization oriented. For a much more detailed description of the pack, along with photos, see my Initial Report.

Field Use:

So far, I've taken the Whitney on two snowcamping overnighters as well as two local conditioning hikes.

Trip 1: Forest Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park
April 3-4, 2004
Elevation: 6,500-7,500' / 2,000-2,300 m
Conditions: Calm, sunny and mid-60s F / 18 C during the day, down to
below freezing and windy by sunset.

The intent of this trip was a quick in and out overnighter where I'd have plenty of time to dig my first snow cave. As a backup, I also packed a GoLite Hex2 which we used as our kitchen and dining room (and to get out of the bright sunlight!). My wife and I hiked in on snowshoes about 1.5 mi / 2.4 km with 1,000' / 300 m of elevation gain on very slushy snow sinking as deep as boot tops even with snowshoes. For a few short sections of the hike, the slopes were steeper than 30 degrees (I always carry a clinometer, especially in Lassen where a good fraction of the park is avalanche friendly). On the return trip the hike was more interesting with soft snow was found in patches where the sun had been shining that morning, so more than once I slid down the hill unexpectedly. The balance and load control of the pack was excellent however, and these slides did not occur because of load shifts (internal to the pack or the whole pack shifting on my back). I also chose to do a standing glissade down a few of the softer stretches of snow, and again, balance was not a problem. Also, this hike gave me the opportunity to see whether the water bottle holder was a problem with hiking poles. I didn't bump the bottle once that I remember on this hike. Below is a photo from at camp showing the perfect match between my elbow and the water bottle (touching in the photo). Also seen in this photo, the ice axe loops still work very well when a sleeping pad is strapped to the bottom. Strapping the pad outside the sleeping bag compartment makes balancing the pack on the ground a non-issue. Since the plan was to dig a snow cave, I of course needed a good shovel. The shovel blade (BD Ascension) fit nicely just inside the front access panel, and was very easy to access. After successful completion of the snowcave, (and dinner, stargazing etc.) I put the pack and it's remaining contents in a garbage bag and used that to (mostly) block the snow cave entrance overnight.

The next morning after getting back to the car, I took a short 2 mi / 3.2 km hike in to see the fumaroles, and check on the status of the road plowing. I opted to carry the top pocket of the pack as a hipsack for this outing, which comfortably carried a quart (liter) of water, camera, and various other odds and ends. My only complaint about the top pocket is that the buckle is not the same size as the waistbelt buckle on the pack. This used to be a nice redundancy feature on the larger Gregory packs in the past - the top pocket buckle could be used to replace a broken waistbelt buckle. Otherwise I'd be stuck carrying the heavy load solely on my shoulders with a lot less stability (unless I'm able to tie a knot in the waistbelt webbing - but I usually trim off any excess). However, I can't say I've broken a waistbelt buckle on any of my packs yet.

Trip 2:
Panther Meadows, Mt. Shasta, CA
April 24-25, 2004
Elevation, 7,000-8,000' / 2,100-2,400 m
Conditions: Sunny and 60-70 F / 15-20 C during the day, and not quite
down to freezing overnight according to the local weather tower.

This was my first overnighter on backcountry skis. I loaded my pack up with the usual winter overnighter gear, totaling around 45 lb / 20 kg this time. I took advantage of the all the pockets this time: ski wax and skins in the front pocket, gloves, mitts, hat, and headband in one side pocket, and a windshirt, toiletries, and a camera in the other side pocket so I had quick access to all of these.

My wife and two friends from our local hiking chapter and I headed in along the snow covered road from Bunny Flat to Panther Meadows. I had no problems at all with balance with the pack on this trip, but my balance on skis wasn't all there yet. Several times, both on the way in and out, I had to catch myself (usually a very awkward position) with one ski pole to keep from falling. On the way out, on two occasions, the pack quickly 'jumped up' a few inches on my back when I lost my balace going downhill (read: arms flailing wildly) but was still able to remain standing.

One observation from this trip was that things tend to slip from the main compartment to the side pockets since the mesh divider separating these areas of the pack doesn't completely separate the two. When we arrived at the campsite, I opened the side pocket to get my windshirt out and a fuel bottle slid out from the main compartment, through the opening described above and fell onto the snow (luckily I was not on a steep slope!) Below is a photo showing the gap in the divider, with a Nalgene N-gen bottle (24 oz / .75 l) poking through for scale. Extending this divider to completely separate these compartments would easily solve this problem.

I also used the hipsack to carry water, a camera, and skins for an afternoon trip up into the Old Ski Bowl.

Trip 3:
Black Mountain, Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve/Monte Bello
Open Space Preserve, Los Altos Hills, CA
May 8, 2004
Elevation: 400-2,800' / 100-850 m
Conditions: Cool, sunny morning, mid 50s F / 12 C

This was the first of two local conditioning hikes during field testing. Normally this is a 11 mi / 18 km (round trip distance) there and back trail with an elevation gain of 2,400' / 750 m. However, I convinced my wife to drop me off at the trailhead, and meet me at the summit via a different trailhead that starts out at a higher elevation - so I get all the climbing, but less downhill, and cut about a mile (1.6 km) off the total distance. I loaded up the Whitney with a mix of climbing gear and disposable weight (six 32 oz (1 l) nalgene bottles, a 96 oz (3 l) hydration bladder, thermos full of coffee, lunch, etc.) totaling 49 lb / 22 kg (before phone, wallet, keys...), grabed my new hiking poles I just got for my birthday and headed out. The pack cinched down very well using the V compression straps on the sides, the 'over the top' compression strap, and the sleeping bag compartment straps. The load did not shift internally at all that I could tell, and was well balanced. Effectively, I had a large hydration bladder against my back, and a half dozen bottles stacked three-wide behind that, with climbing gear filling the sleeping bag compartment and filling in various other nooks and crannies. The overall volume of the contents was probably less than 3,000 cubic inches / 49 l, since I'd fit a similar load in my Dana Design Bombpack (3,200 cubic inches / 52 l), so the Whitney was really shrunk down to 3/5 of its size.

Upon reaching the summit, I drank the coffee (and shared some with my wife), drained the nalgene bottles and ate lunch. After that, I re-arranged the contents of the pack so that all the weight wasn't at the bottom and cinched down a bit more on the compression straps. Below is a photo of the pack in this compressed form, the Shelter-Rite bottom of the pack is pulled up to within a few inches (half dozen centimeters) of the top of the sleeping bag compartment zipper. I sweat more than I can remember on the way up this hike, but I don't attribute this to the pack ventilation. I tend to sweat a lot in the first place, and carrying an extra 1/3 of my bodyweight uphill doesn't help matters.

Trip 4
Location: Mission Peak, Fremont, CA
June 9, 2004
Elevation: 400-2,500' / 100-750 m
Conditions: Sunny and ~60 F / 16 C at the base, much cooler, very windy,
and standing in low clouds at the summit (read: no view, DoH!).

This was a second, shorter conditioning hike up a local peak, approximately 3.5 mi / 5.6 km each way with an elevation gain of 2,000' / 610 m. Starting around 6pm, I took the less traveled road up, which was effectively a cattle trail part of the way, and took the fire road back down, making a loop back to the parking lot. Again the Whitney was loaded with about 45 lb / 20 kg of water, food, change of clothes, jacket, sandals etc. which allowed me to either drink, eat, or pour out about a third of the weight at the summit. My hiking partner on this trip had a much lighter pack, and since this was a conditioning hike was intent on making it to the summit in about an hour (almost made it...) so the pace was very fast. Again, the volume of gear in the pack was just a bit over half of the actual capacity of the pack, so again this was a good test of how effective the compression straps were at securing and stablizing a load. Again, I sweat like a pig on the way up, but cooled off very quickly at the summit, and was more or less dry by the time I got back to the car.

A note on pack sizes:

Overall impressions from field use so far:

What I like:

• This pack carries the load very well (up to 50 lb in my testing so far) and is quite comfortable. The load hauling capabilities and the ability to efficiently shift the load from hips to shoulders so well is well worth the extra weight in my opinion.
• Compresses down very well - much better than I expected from the single V side compression straps. Unfortunately, this compressed form makes the zippered side pockets more or less useless. The pack also functions well even when filling only a little over half of the useful volume.
• The numerous pockets makes for quick access to essentials, and makes organizing gear much easier (read: less digging though the main compartment for a single item).
• Side, front, top and bottom access make it very easy (and quick) to access almost anything inside the pack.
• I find the ability to convert the top pocket into a hipsack very useful, and the pocket is large enough to easily carry standard dayhiking gear (fairly comfortably too.)
• The ice axe loops are well positioned. I was still able to attach an ice axe properly underneath a rolled up sleeping pad, which was attached outside the sleeping bag compartment).

What I do not like:

• The zippered mesh divider that separates the side pockets from the main pack compartment only extend about 2/3 of the way up the opening (see photo). This means that various items including fuel bottles and water bottles packed above these tend to migrate into the side pockets.
• The positioning of the V-compression straps over the side pockets is very inconvenient. When really shrinking the pack down, these pockets become useless. Additionally, this limits the type of items that can be put in these pockets in general (e.g. cameras would be a bad idea).
• The stretch side pocket is large enough for me to fit a small fuel bottle, but really isn't big enough to securely hold a quart (liter) water bottle. Making this pocket just a bit deeper would solve this problem (and would solve the water bottle balance problem described below.)

Other observations:

Unless there's a very strong breeze, then ventilation is a problem for me when carrying a heavy load uphill. On both the conditioning hikes (moreso on the first of the two) I sweat more than I remember ever sweating before (read: every inch of my shirt was soaked, and whenver I stopped to drink from my hydration bladder, a gush of sweat ran down my sun hat.)

I did experience hip hickeys the morning after on the two overnight trips, however I tend to get these wearing any pack (read: bony hips). I did not notice this after the two conditioning hikes, but then again I did not wear the pack that day after these...

My initial impression was that the water bottle pocket would get in the way of my arm swing when using hiking/ski poles, but in field use, this was not a problem. However, having a quart (liter) of water on one side without a counterweight on the other is noticeable even with a heavy pack.

Finally, no signs of wear have shown themselves yet.

Future Testing:

I expect at least a few overnight backpacking trips this summer (including one were a beer keg will be cargo) during the remainder of the testing period. Several of these will include carrying a bear barrel in the pack. I intend to use the pack for car camping at least once to better organize my gear instead of simply throwing everything into a duffel.

Additionally, I still have several mountaineering trips planned for this summer where this pack would be used to hike in to basecamp.

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