Mariposa Stashbag

[JaapSuter 0]

Remember that picture I posted a while ago? Myself and two friends went to check it out this weekend, and unfortunately it turned out to be unjumpable.

There was a series of staircased ledges starting 160 feet below the exit point, as well as a nasty butress on the right side that turned a 90 left into imminent death. Several other exit-point were equally unpromising. We found one exit point that provided a 180 feet static-line or PCA jump but because of the winds I decided not to jump it.

Of all unjumpable exit-points I have ever seen in my life, this one has to be the most beautiful one. It's a real shame. If the diving board was sticking out thirty feet further, we would have had 2000 feet to play with.

The trip was incredible nonetheless. We did a two day hike and camped on the summit. The hike itself turned into a 6 hour to and 5 hour return scramble, climb and bushwack. We had to use the rope a few times, do some very steep climbing and bushwack through forest so thick that we were walking on the branches instead of the ground. This gave me an excellent chance to try out a new backpack I bought earlier that week.

After doing a five hour hike with my regular stashbag two weeks earlier, I had realized that BASE stashbags are not useful for anything longer than two hours because they start digging into your shoulders too much, nor do they allow for easy carrying of extra gear. So I started looking around for something more useful and somebody recommended the Golite Jam Pack to me. I tried ordering one, but they couldn't ship it on time for my next trip. I figured my local outdoor stores would carry some useful backpacks, but all of them were too big and solid and none had detachable frames.

Through the Golite pack, I learned about this thing called ultra-light backpacking which apparently has an entire community dedicated to it. These people get multiple uses out of anything. They wrap shoulder-straps with socks instead of using padding. They use a sleeping-mat as the back-frame of their backpack. Some even cut off the border of their maps and bring a lightweight energy drink because Gatorade is too heavy. Crazy!

Reading up on this world I didn't know existed (my idea of backpacking involved a humongous backpack with a metal frame, and bad-ass mountaineering boots) I ran into a company called Gossamer. They sell a backpack called the Mariposa. It has a carbon fiber frame that you can remove and it's completely compressible.

I send the company an email on Tuesday night at 9 PM. Five minutes later, I got a phone-call from the founder of the company. Turns out the company isn't very big and that he was just sitting at his desk checking his email. So we talk for a while, and he agreed that the Mariposa might be suitable for my needs. I told him that I planned a trip this weekend and I asked him if he could do overnight shipping. He said he would do his best. Incredible service! Two days later I received an envelop on my desk. That's right, an envelope! It goes to show how stashable this bag is. It weighs next to nothing, has a hip and sternum strap and extra wide shoulder straps. The chest-strap comes with an emergency whistle built into the clip. How neat!

Of course the stashability wouldn't be very useful if the bag wasn't durable. So this trip would be a great test. I brought all my BASE gear (rig, body-armour, knee-pads, full-face helmet), a bivy-sack, a sleeping-bag, emergency gear (radios, first-aid, GPS, yadda yadda), food, three liters of water and took it on this total of 10 hours of scrambling through thick forest and on steep rocks. I overloaded the pack a little beyond it's limits and scraped it many times over sharp rock edges and tree barks. Miraculously, it totally held up and came out completely unscatched.

I have not yet been able to take the bag on a jump, but I have geared up completely wearing the stashed pack, body armour, my gear, etcetera. It works great! You can't fold the pack into the rig-pocket, but you can wear it across your chest, stash it down your pants, or wrap it up and wear it fanny pack style.

All in all, the Mariposa is a highly recommend pack if you are looking for something to carry your gear in for longer hikes. I'll still be using my old stashbag for anything less than two hours, but for those longer hikes I'm counting on the Mariposa.

Cheers,

Jaap

[cornishe 0]

I've used an internal frame pack on a jump before. It was the Gregory G-Pack. I was able to where the pack under my rig during the jump. It consists of nothing more than the back-frame and a ripstop material. I put it on under my jacket to make sure none of the straps interfered with the bridle, etc.

Gregory G-Pack"

They used to be on sale for $70. Doesnt look like it anymore...


-

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[veter_ 0]

Jaap, thanks a lot for digging up the gold!!!

[TomAiello 26]

Quote

Golite Jam Pack

Anyone considering one of these ought to read GoLite Sucks by Ray Jardine, who is pretty much the father of ultra light weight backpacking, as well as the inventor of cams (active climbing protection) and apparently not a bad freeflier.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[JaapSuter 0]

Quote

Anyone considering one of these ought to read GoLite Sucks by Ray Jardine

Wow, interesting read and interesting person. Thanks for the link, there's more cool stuff on that website.

For the record, Gossamer offers sewing patterns for some of their packs on their website, in case you want to make your own. Also, when I offered Gossamer to add a small gratuity surcharge on top of my order for speedy service and the hassle of overnight shipment, they strongly refused, suggesting instead that a photograph of myself wearing the pack would be more than enough.

[nicrussell 0]

A few seasons ago North Face had an excellent backpack that was a top loading cinch close that has shoulder strap padding, a few side compartment, and caribeaner clips. and NO FRAME. I forgot the name of it.

[JaapSuter 0]

I posted a few photos of this trip here: http://www.jaapsuter.com/hike/. It shows the Mariposa pack (albeit not very well), the promising exit-point, and a bunch of other shots of the hike/scramble/climb.

[leroydb 0]

nice pics

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[Base733 0]

Nice photos, too bad about the exit point but what a beautiful area to be "forced" to hike in.

Baxter.

[lifewithoutanet 0]

Sorry to hear that you weren't able to jump it, but based on those pics, it doesn't look like the trip was all for naught. Looks like a lot of fun and some beautiful backcountry to experience. Really makes me miss Home.
-C.