adventure907
WKR
Three years ago following the hunting season I wrote up an evaluation and debrief of all the new gear I had used during that season. My field trials if you will, consisted of three sheep hunts which I felt provided a pretty good shakedown in how the gear would perform and a baseline as to the gears durability potential. Now that in the blink of an eye my sheep and fall 2023 guiding season has seemed to have come and gone, I figured I’d sit down and do the same as I have added a few new items of gear over the last couple of seasons. Like my previous review, this season consisted of three sheep hunts followed by a moose hunt just for good measure. As for the 2020 Gear recap, you can find that here:
https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/alaska-sheep-season-2020-new-gear-review.187276/
(Meeting of the minds)
Frontier Gear of Alaska, Freighter Frame and Yukon Ultralight Pack Bag:
First off, I’ll start with my pack. We all know packs seem to be a hotly debated topic on this forum with many folks arguing their merits in the tradition of good ole boys arguing their Ford’s and Chevy’s. When it comes to my favorite pack, I seem to be falling into the category of, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” As each season comes and goes, I become more steadfast in my belief that the “Barney’s Pack” is the best pack in the business for hauling heavy loads. While the Barney’s pack may initially be slightly heavier than the competing offerings, it more than makes up for and outshines the competition when the loads get heavy. Let’s face it, 100+ pounds on your back is no fun no matter what pack you are using, but the strength of the external frame and the robust shoulder and waist harness system handle that weight much more “comfortably” and stable than your run of the mill hybrid or internal frame. If I have equal loads with the overall Barneys pack being 103 pounds versus a Stone Glacier/Kifaru/Exo at 100 pounds (hypothetical), the stability and load hauling capability will be much more “comfortable” in the Barneys system. That extra three pounds of pack weight isn’t going to make an iota of difference in perceived pain. Also, I believe the reduction in strain on your body with the more stable platform will allow a hunter to conserve some of the energy that would be burned by a hunter using their various small and large muscles to keep an inferior pack stable. Anyway, I digress. I won’t go too in depth as to the pro’s and con’s that I find between some of the various packs out there, you can find some of that in my previous review, but I will talk a bit about Barney’s latest offering in the pack bag department, their new ‘Yukon Ultralight’ pack bag.
In the past I’ve often used their “Hunter Bag”. This is a 3/4 quarter length pack bag which saved a little weight over their full length offerings, the “Yukon” and “Pinnacle”. When using this bag, I would strap my sleeping back underneath the bag to the frame with the rest of the gear going inside the main pack body. I’ve also used the “Yukon” bag in past seasons. This is a full length bag with an access zipper in the bottom along with a zippered interior meat shelf which helps get the weight off your lower back and higher on the torso where it should be while packing significant weight. I like the bigger bags for my later season hunts as I tend to bring a little bit heavier weight gear and I can keep the sleeping bag inside the pack while not having to tie it off the bottom. This also comes in handy while bushwacking, as many sleeping bag stuff sacks have met their ultimate demise in the alders. And, it obviously offers more room which is always nice when the hunt is successful and we are packing out a sheep. Depending on my hunters ability to help with weight, that extra room, 10,000+ cubic inches, often becomes invaluable. Anyhow, this year Kevin at Barney’s introduced his newest pack bag, the “Yukon Ultralight”. It is made not from the traditional Cordura, but rather it is cut from Challenge ULTRA sailcloth. This material is lighter than the Cordura and also almost double the strength and abrasion resistance. Not only that, it is a waterproof material! This was a game changer and convinced me I had to give this bag a try. Overall, you get about a half pound in weight savings from the traditional “Yukon” bag, but the fact that the material is waterproof and I wouldn’t have to pack around a pack cover (which saves another half pound or so), I was sold.
Of course, with any new piece of gear, there is always reservations and concerns and this pack was no different. With the nature of the material, my first concern was would it be noisy? Second, how would it hold up? I am admittedly hard on gear and this pack would either sink or swim with the abuse it was going to take. My packs are always being thrown down on rocks, dirt, dragged across tundra, slept on while siwashing, etc, etc, so I wasn’t quite sure how this bag would hold up compared to the older, proven material.
So, after three sheep and a moose hunt, how’d it do? Well, it exceeded my expectations and performed better than I could have imagined. My aforementioned concerns turned out to be of no concern at all. A few scuffs here and there in the material, but with no cuts or holes after the rock dragging abuse I put it through, that was quite impressive. As for being noisy, it wasn’t. The material seems to “break in” and didn’t produce the “ruffling” noise I had predicted.
The biggest benefit though is its ability to keep the water out. It was a wet sheep season and leaving the pack cover at home was a bit of a risk. The older Cordura packs would tend to soak up the water adding even more weight to the pack. Not so with the Ultralight. It did a fine job keeping the water out, especially while hiking in a heavy rain. I was able to leave the pack outside my tent while it rained all night and not have to worry about whatever was inside getting wet. It was also nice being able to have certain items stored in the exterior pockets and not worry about them getting saturated. This came in handy with hats, gloves, and other items that I wanted to have quick access to while not having to dig into the main pack body. With all that said, one thing to keep in mind is the zippers, which aren’t waterproof. I didn’t have any issues with this, but I was mindful to make sure the cuffs that covered the zippers were mostly in place at all times, especially when I left the pack outside overnight.
https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/alaska-sheep-season-2020-new-gear-review.187276/
(Meeting of the minds)
Frontier Gear of Alaska, Freighter Frame and Yukon Ultralight Pack Bag:
First off, I’ll start with my pack. We all know packs seem to be a hotly debated topic on this forum with many folks arguing their merits in the tradition of good ole boys arguing their Ford’s and Chevy’s. When it comes to my favorite pack, I seem to be falling into the category of, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” As each season comes and goes, I become more steadfast in my belief that the “Barney’s Pack” is the best pack in the business for hauling heavy loads. While the Barney’s pack may initially be slightly heavier than the competing offerings, it more than makes up for and outshines the competition when the loads get heavy. Let’s face it, 100+ pounds on your back is no fun no matter what pack you are using, but the strength of the external frame and the robust shoulder and waist harness system handle that weight much more “comfortably” and stable than your run of the mill hybrid or internal frame. If I have equal loads with the overall Barneys pack being 103 pounds versus a Stone Glacier/Kifaru/Exo at 100 pounds (hypothetical), the stability and load hauling capability will be much more “comfortable” in the Barneys system. That extra three pounds of pack weight isn’t going to make an iota of difference in perceived pain. Also, I believe the reduction in strain on your body with the more stable platform will allow a hunter to conserve some of the energy that would be burned by a hunter using their various small and large muscles to keep an inferior pack stable. Anyway, I digress. I won’t go too in depth as to the pro’s and con’s that I find between some of the various packs out there, you can find some of that in my previous review, but I will talk a bit about Barney’s latest offering in the pack bag department, their new ‘Yukon Ultralight’ pack bag.
In the past I’ve often used their “Hunter Bag”. This is a 3/4 quarter length pack bag which saved a little weight over their full length offerings, the “Yukon” and “Pinnacle”. When using this bag, I would strap my sleeping back underneath the bag to the frame with the rest of the gear going inside the main pack body. I’ve also used the “Yukon” bag in past seasons. This is a full length bag with an access zipper in the bottom along with a zippered interior meat shelf which helps get the weight off your lower back and higher on the torso where it should be while packing significant weight. I like the bigger bags for my later season hunts as I tend to bring a little bit heavier weight gear and I can keep the sleeping bag inside the pack while not having to tie it off the bottom. This also comes in handy while bushwacking, as many sleeping bag stuff sacks have met their ultimate demise in the alders. And, it obviously offers more room which is always nice when the hunt is successful and we are packing out a sheep. Depending on my hunters ability to help with weight, that extra room, 10,000+ cubic inches, often becomes invaluable. Anyhow, this year Kevin at Barney’s introduced his newest pack bag, the “Yukon Ultralight”. It is made not from the traditional Cordura, but rather it is cut from Challenge ULTRA sailcloth. This material is lighter than the Cordura and also almost double the strength and abrasion resistance. Not only that, it is a waterproof material! This was a game changer and convinced me I had to give this bag a try. Overall, you get about a half pound in weight savings from the traditional “Yukon” bag, but the fact that the material is waterproof and I wouldn’t have to pack around a pack cover (which saves another half pound or so), I was sold.
Of course, with any new piece of gear, there is always reservations and concerns and this pack was no different. With the nature of the material, my first concern was would it be noisy? Second, how would it hold up? I am admittedly hard on gear and this pack would either sink or swim with the abuse it was going to take. My packs are always being thrown down on rocks, dirt, dragged across tundra, slept on while siwashing, etc, etc, so I wasn’t quite sure how this bag would hold up compared to the older, proven material.
So, after three sheep and a moose hunt, how’d it do? Well, it exceeded my expectations and performed better than I could have imagined. My aforementioned concerns turned out to be of no concern at all. A few scuffs here and there in the material, but with no cuts or holes after the rock dragging abuse I put it through, that was quite impressive. As for being noisy, it wasn’t. The material seems to “break in” and didn’t produce the “ruffling” noise I had predicted.
The biggest benefit though is its ability to keep the water out. It was a wet sheep season and leaving the pack cover at home was a bit of a risk. The older Cordura packs would tend to soak up the water adding even more weight to the pack. Not so with the Ultralight. It did a fine job keeping the water out, especially while hiking in a heavy rain. I was able to leave the pack outside my tent while it rained all night and not have to worry about whatever was inside getting wet. It was also nice being able to have certain items stored in the exterior pockets and not worry about them getting saturated. This came in handy with hats, gloves, and other items that I wanted to have quick access to while not having to dig into the main pack body. With all that said, one thing to keep in mind is the zippers, which aren’t waterproof. I didn’t have any issues with this, but I was mindful to make sure the cuffs that covered the zippers were mostly in place at all times, especially when I left the pack outside overnight.
