U-Haul

Seven user-friendly crag bags for short approaches

Picture this: You’re in Rifle, Colorado, land of the car-belay, and you need to get your rope, draws, shoes, cell phone, post-send libations, and some sustenance all of 20 yards away. You left your big pack at home because, after all, it’s Rifle, and you don’t need backpacking-style suspension. Plus, going elbow-deep into a top-loading pack to find a brush or lost draw is beyond annoying. Do you grab a few plastic grocery bags and hump your gear over to the wall and then spread it out? Not if you have a “crag bag,” a relatively new category of packs that serves climbers who don’t lug their gear very far. These packs are minimalistic but hold everything you need, and some feature rope tarps and/or special configurations for organizing your gear for easy viewing. They are quickly becoming a top choice for approaches that are laughable to high-country climbers.

To help sort out great crag bags from the riff-raff, we turned to seven members of the Climbing Association of Colorado College, whose climbing exploits, past and present, put the rest of us to shame (see sidebar below). They loaded up these bags and took them cragging, from gear-heavy Indian Creek to sport-tastic Red River Gorge, and they came away with varying levels of endorsements for each bag, but resounding support for the category as a whole. Given crag bags’ reasonable price and functionality, you might be surprised how much you grow to love such a simple product.

METOLIUS CRAG STATION
$99
41 Liters
Burly; easy to move
metoliusclimbing.com

Movable Monster
This baby toted a full trad rack, Jetboil stove, food, water, and rope. Our tester also used it as a carry-on while flying for a multi-day trip (not carrying climbing gear). A tuckable waist belt and cushy straps made a 30-pound load in this 41L pack actually seem comfortable. The tester praised the two pockets for keys, wallet, and cell phone, and says, “The buckles will open beer with a little patience and practice.” Two compression straps are not very useful because they don’t wrap around the whole pack. The duffel design meant it didn’t lay out flat for the rope, but the shape made it convenient to move this bag from climb to climb, and the zip made everything inside easily accessible. After a spring shower sent one of our testers bailing, the durable Crag Station kept his stuff dry. In short: It’s burly, big, and simple.