Historical and Outstanding Mountaineering Rucksacks

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Messages 181 - 200 of total 237 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
Ledge Rat

Trad climber
Michigan
Mar 19, 2018 - 03:40pm PT
Not as old as many of these great packs, but a personal favorite for sure!


Jeff

jc luddite

Ice climber
ouray, co
Mar 19, 2018 - 08:40pm PT
Those are both great packs. I have a Karrimor pinnacle of the same vintage.

That Chouinard was my favorite. If Patagonia didn't have a version I'd be building this one too.

[photo[photoid=526306]id=526305]
stunewberry

Trad climber
Spokane, WA
Mar 19, 2018 - 09:15pm PT
I had a green Holubar backpack/haulbag, purchased about 1968-9. It was green, bullet shaped with internal pockets, a flap that could be stored inside the pack for hauling, and leather bottom. It was awful to carry, and the nylon wasn't tough enough for hauling. I remember patching it extensively with bicycle inner tube patches when the abrasions got bad. I finally tossed it when the leather straps (with felt padding) stretched too much to carry. I loved that thing, it went on many great trips. No pictures, though.
hamie

Social climber
Thekoots
Mar 19, 2018 - 10:43pm PT
I haven't read the whole thread, so I'm not sure if one of these packs has been featured before. It used to be the quintessential Canadian backpack---the Trapper Nelson.

I acquired this one in exchange from Dick Culbert, over 50 years ago, after he reversed his temperamental Jeep over my beautiful external frame pack from Europe, and turned it into a metal pretzel. He was so surprised when it started, that he forgot it was in reverse!


Here's a photo of two overloaded Trapper Nelsons in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Mine is the one on the left.

Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jun 4, 2018 - 10:23am PT

Millet Sherpa Bonatti rucksacks with leather details:

1. With rectangular details on the side of the rucksack

2. With "elliptical" details on the side

I used to think that the rectangular form predates the elliptical form, but they were at least part of the time produced in parallel...
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Jun 4, 2018 - 04:10pm PT
Oh man, that vintage Trapper Nelson, my first backpack. Snapped the frame with a heavy load one time, but glued and screwed it back together for a zillion miles. Classic and simple.......
nutstory

climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 26, 2018 - 01:54am PT
The Holy Grail! Thank you very much Arnaud!
Risk

Mountain climber
Marooned, 855 miles from Tuolumne Meadows
Jun 26, 2018 - 09:27am PT

Tenaya Canyon, 1981

My old Sacs Millet - pretty sure in was the 1st rucksack to grace Kings Canyon Junior High in 1971
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jun 30, 2018 - 11:08am PT

Nutstory's Millet 444 is the first one I have seen of its kind... pure rucksack history...

I finally found a Millet I think is identical to the one in Nutstory's OP.


... and it is interesting to see the difference in seams and leather details from the one below. I wonder how the two played out in time...

nutstory

climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2018 - 10:24am PT
Marlow, you have found a genuine gem! I'm so happy for you.
1964 seems correct!
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Jul 1, 2018 - 10:26am PT

Nutstory.

I am surprised by the great diversity seen between the early leather detail model(s). Do you know the development story?
nutstory

climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2018 - 10:59am PT
Unfortunately no my friend. My Millet catalog collection does not allow me to be sure of the information that I post here. The advertisements in the climbing magazine are often the same, and I suspect that Millet marketed packs without any published literature. I do my best to be as accurate as possible...
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Nov 15, 2018 - 10:38am PT
I appreciate this is a rucksack thread, but this packframe is certainly historic. I saw this in a Boise Antique store yesterday for only $67.95. I have enough old packs, so I left it behind.


The load would have rested on the two shelf brackets extending to the right in this photo.

Detail of back-pad & strap attachment.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Nov 15, 2018 - 10:54am PT

An early Millet Sherpa Desmaison with leather details

Rustie

climber
Coeur d\\\\\\\'Alene
Nov 15, 2018 - 05:56pm PT
Ah....the wisdom of hindsight.
We have to evaluate this gear based on what came BEFORE, and before Millet soft packs were round and lumpish.........though there is a photo of Herman Buhl in White Spider, where he's swinging across the Hinterstoisser sporting a nice-fitting pack.
Millet put climbing ability into climbing packs. Magic but many francs! Dirtbag types had to wait for Karrimor.
Whillans nailed it but his pack was a bit small for winter routes. For some sad reason the Great Joe Brown came up with a lumpish sac, though, like The Baron, it was very elegant.
They all might have been much lighter if they hadn't used half a cow to reinforce the bottom......but they wore well.....
Gotta love trivia, and the grand traditions of this transcendant and ridiculous life........
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 15, 2018 - 09:05pm PT
The workmanship, materials and styling on these old rucksacks is exceptional. I would love one for a carry on bag for travel. Wouldn't use them for technical outdoor use but for luggage they’re really cool.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Nov 16, 2018 - 10:58am PT

My grandfather's old Bergans rucksack. This is his finest rucksack. He only used it when he went to the capital, Oslo, to visit his daughter, my aunt. He put on the rucksack and his hat and off he went... Soon he was back in the forest and off to Trysil or Svartbekken to fish trout with his other rucksack...

Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Nov 16, 2018 - 12:07pm PT

he Bergans was patented in 1909: http://industrimuseum.no/bergans

I think my grandfather's rucksack is from the early 1960s.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Outside the Asylum
Nov 16, 2018 - 02:22pm PT
Steve's photo from upthread:
Translated, it says "The Sherpa Tenzing, the highest man in the world, 8,600 m on Everest" (She's actually about 8,850 m by modern measure.)

Which indicates that it was from 1952/53, after he'd reached that height with Lambert in spring 1952, but before success the following year. Had the advertisement been post-Chomolungma, it seems likely that they'd have said so, or at least said "8,848 m" or whatever.

This reminds me to get out my father's Bergans pack, and take it for its annual walk.
Tarbuster

climber
right here, right now
Nov 16, 2018 - 05:30pm PT
Up thread quite a ways Marlow posted a picture of a Karrimor Alpiniste Whillans repro - by Nigel Cabourn.

At the time I got pretty excited about it, looked into it, and didn't find much, but recently found a better exposition on what is going on with this reproduction. When James Thomsen of Wilderness Experience started a thread (looking for one of his original Klettersacks) in the last month or so, I started digging deeper into this "heritage gear" category, as it's been coined, that's when I found this link:

http://www.petesy.co.uk/karrimor-whillans-alpiniste-redux/

The “Karrimor K100 Whillan’s Alpiniste by Nigel Cabourn” pack that turned up in stores I’ve never been through the door of such as Van Mildert with a RRP of around £700 (good grief) was done right, exactly right. I know this because they used my original 60’s Whillan’s pack as the pattern for it.

Thread counts, exact dimensions, textures, materials, construction detailing, everything was inspected and modern equivalents were sourced, sampled and tested to make the reissue as close to the original as possible. In same cases they found the obscure original manufacturers, look at the studs that attach the lid.

They did all this in a Glasgow workshop too, itself as historic as the goods being recreated inside.

Metal, leather and cotton. It speaks to me more than any synthetic.

From that link I also fetched these photographs:


The Japanese go crazy over this stuff and do all sorts of reproductions. Of course that's what Supertopo contributor JC Luddite of Alpine Luddites is into as well, having posted up some fine examples here on this thread, and I applaud those efforts!
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