Yellowknife
WKR
This last winter I acquired a Stone Glacier Terminus. Since the people on this site are essentially the target market, I thought I'd do a review on how it's holding up.
The pack was acquired as a well used "demo" pack that Kurt sold me at a good price. It was from his first run of packs, so didn't have any of the minor refinements that the current packs have. When I got it, the pack had traveled all over Alaska being tested by some pretty hard core people, so it was "well used" when I got it in February. Since then, I've used it as a work pack, packpacking pack, hunting pack, and just generally abused the living daylights out of it. To give you an idea of what this pack has been through: it's been on two winter snowshoeing trips north of the Yukon, been strapped to the external racks or stuffed under the seat of half a dozen helicopters, tied to the racks of snowmachines, ATV's, and UTV's many times, done beach landings in SE Alaska, been stuffed in the back of several different Cessna 206's, used as checked luggage on Alaska Airlines, used for backpacking trips, and even a canoe trip. Then a month ago, I loaned it to my dad, who subjected it to more helicopters and bushplanes, took it to the Alaska Range again, crashed brush on the Alaska Peninsula, and then finally took it sheep hunting for a week in the rain. Basically, we subjected it to an accelerated wear test and are pushing 50 days in the field with it this year.
Some photos:
So far, I can state that it is holding up very very well. I've got one small tear in the cordura and I'm starting to see a bit of fabric wear at the bottom of the frame. No broken buckles, frayed straps, or loose stitching. All of the velcro, suspension foam, etc is holding up very well. Basically, it's holding up like I expect a premium pack to do. A few comments on the features:
Frame: The carbon in the Krux frame consists of solid carbon fiber rods just over 1/4" in diameter. The seem to be extremely strong, and the force require to break the frame would almost certainly destroy any other type of frame out there. The main wear point on the frame appears to be bottom fabric when dropped in the rocks. That can be said for most packs, so no points deducted at this point. The frame is very thin and wears quite close to the body, a plus in my book. Barreling has never been an issue, and I've seriously overstuffed the thing on a few occasions.
Suspension: So far everything is holding up great. Unfortunately, the one thing I haven't done is packed out meat loads. My dad had it in his possession when I needed to haul a caribou recently, so my Barneys pack did the job. I find the suspension comfortable both light and heavy. I'm not a fan of aggressive lumbar pads, so think the customizable one for the SG is genius. I use it with single 1/4" layer of foam, and my dad strongly prefers no pad at all. I had no issues getting the hip belt tight enough.
Bag: I have the Terminus bag and find that it does have it's pluses and minuses. The Xpac fabric is great.. doesn't soak up any water, and looks like new. Both dad and I have used it as a day pack pretty extensively, and find the compression system to be excellent when lightly loaded. The main drawbacks are access. I hated fighting the lid and snow collar to get down inside a relatively small bag opening. A 17" side zip that I had added to the left side made a huge difference in functionality and really made the thing into to a great pack. The other issue I have is with the top lid. The way it attaches can only be described as "floppy" when the pack is partially loaded and it tends to sag down enough to actually expose the main bag opening. A more solid attachment to the top of the bag would make me much happier. I'd also prefer that the snow collar be ditched in favor of an extended main bag. The "no pocket" thing is ideal for alders and willow crashing, and I haven't purchased any pockets for it. A spotting scope easily straps to the outside in a small roll top bag.
The Solo bag cures all of the Terminus issues, but it's at the cost of a smaller main pack. I will probably get one for use as a day pack or shorter trips.
Gun Attachment: I thought this was pretty good. The gun rides tight to your body and completely out of the way. The QR drops it into your hand with no fuss. We had one accidental release when the strap got pulled, and took to using one of the compression straps as a safety if the gun wasn't needed. If the release strap is tucked away correctly, I don't really think it's a big issue.
Hope that helps people considering this pack in the future.
Yk
The pack was acquired as a well used "demo" pack that Kurt sold me at a good price. It was from his first run of packs, so didn't have any of the minor refinements that the current packs have. When I got it, the pack had traveled all over Alaska being tested by some pretty hard core people, so it was "well used" when I got it in February. Since then, I've used it as a work pack, packpacking pack, hunting pack, and just generally abused the living daylights out of it. To give you an idea of what this pack has been through: it's been on two winter snowshoeing trips north of the Yukon, been strapped to the external racks or stuffed under the seat of half a dozen helicopters, tied to the racks of snowmachines, ATV's, and UTV's many times, done beach landings in SE Alaska, been stuffed in the back of several different Cessna 206's, used as checked luggage on Alaska Airlines, used for backpacking trips, and even a canoe trip. Then a month ago, I loaned it to my dad, who subjected it to more helicopters and bushplanes, took it to the Alaska Range again, crashed brush on the Alaska Peninsula, and then finally took it sheep hunting for a week in the rain. Basically, we subjected it to an accelerated wear test and are pushing 50 days in the field with it this year.
Some photos:
So far, I can state that it is holding up very very well. I've got one small tear in the cordura and I'm starting to see a bit of fabric wear at the bottom of the frame. No broken buckles, frayed straps, or loose stitching. All of the velcro, suspension foam, etc is holding up very well. Basically, it's holding up like I expect a premium pack to do. A few comments on the features:
Frame: The carbon in the Krux frame consists of solid carbon fiber rods just over 1/4" in diameter. The seem to be extremely strong, and the force require to break the frame would almost certainly destroy any other type of frame out there. The main wear point on the frame appears to be bottom fabric when dropped in the rocks. That can be said for most packs, so no points deducted at this point. The frame is very thin and wears quite close to the body, a plus in my book. Barreling has never been an issue, and I've seriously overstuffed the thing on a few occasions.
Suspension: So far everything is holding up great. Unfortunately, the one thing I haven't done is packed out meat loads. My dad had it in his possession when I needed to haul a caribou recently, so my Barneys pack did the job. I find the suspension comfortable both light and heavy. I'm not a fan of aggressive lumbar pads, so think the customizable one for the SG is genius. I use it with single 1/4" layer of foam, and my dad strongly prefers no pad at all. I had no issues getting the hip belt tight enough.
Bag: I have the Terminus bag and find that it does have it's pluses and minuses. The Xpac fabric is great.. doesn't soak up any water, and looks like new. Both dad and I have used it as a day pack pretty extensively, and find the compression system to be excellent when lightly loaded. The main drawbacks are access. I hated fighting the lid and snow collar to get down inside a relatively small bag opening. A 17" side zip that I had added to the left side made a huge difference in functionality and really made the thing into to a great pack. The other issue I have is with the top lid. The way it attaches can only be described as "floppy" when the pack is partially loaded and it tends to sag down enough to actually expose the main bag opening. A more solid attachment to the top of the bag would make me much happier. I'd also prefer that the snow collar be ditched in favor of an extended main bag. The "no pocket" thing is ideal for alders and willow crashing, and I haven't purchased any pockets for it. A spotting scope easily straps to the outside in a small roll top bag.
The Solo bag cures all of the Terminus issues, but it's at the cost of a smaller main pack. I will probably get one for use as a day pack or shorter trips.
Gun Attachment: I thought this was pretty good. The gun rides tight to your body and completely out of the way. The QR drops it into your hand with no fuss. We had one accidental release when the strap got pulled, and took to using one of the compression straps as a safety if the gun wasn't needed. If the release strap is tucked away correctly, I don't really think it's a big issue.
Hope that helps people considering this pack in the future.
Yk
