highway
09-05-2002, 09:46
Check out their website at:
http://www.mchalepacks.com/tents/
Arguably the best made pack manufactured today.
I owned two packs before I discovered Dan Mchale's little custom company. I was never quite comfortable with the fit of those packs and just knew there was a better way to carry a load.Those packs were purchased at outfitters where I was measured, fit, etc., a Mountainsmith and a Dana Design, good quality packs both-just not what I thought comfortable should be. So, I searched the net and found McHales. Amazing all the outstanding writeups he gets on the packs he makes by hand and now I know why.
First all his packs are custom fit and made to your physical dimensions. He does not mass produce. In fact he want even sell you one unless he talks with you a few times by phone and works with you, helping you determine just what you want in a pack. In my case, after talking with me a few times, he sent me one to try out, so that I could better decide what to buy. I loaded it to more than I would ever carry-44 pounds of old clothes, wife's rags , and numerous platypus and nalgene bottles of water for weight. It was an unwieldy load and I went on a few 12 mile day hikes to try it out. The difference was amazing. No belt slippage. Easy to adjust, simple shoulder straps. I was impressed, completely. Pricey but I ordered mine. While waiting for mine to be made, I put that very same unweildy weight into the Terraplane X I had and did another 12 mile day hike. What a disaster. Now that I knew how a pack should carry weight, I knew I would never use it again. Sold it on E-bay!
The workmanship is such that it may never wear out. His packs are made for the climbing community first and then backpackers. They are so well made that you can dangle it from a climbing rope, hooked to the haul loop with a carabiner and stand on it and it want break. Try that with your pack.
My pack is the SARC and although Dan says it has a capacity 0f 3500-4500 ci, you will think it is much bigger. The apparent reason is that most pack manufacturers exaggerate their size. At least that is what I gathered from reading other's reviews of the packs' and I will concur. So if you want one, get it smaller than what you are accustomed to or think you need. Mine is now to large by volume for what I carry[that 44 pounds went into the 3500 ci portion of the pack without utilizing the extension] but it is just so darn comfortable. It FEELS at least 10 pounds lighter than in the Terraplane X.
The Terraplane had a complicated adjustment sequence in a handbook that I really never masterd. Mchale doesnt even give you adjustment instructions. His arrangement is second-nature and you do it almost without thinking.
I could go on aand on. It is the one piece of gear I will never give up. If I get a smaller pack it will be another Mchale model. Its pricey but its a heck of a lot less than I paid for the past two packs. I just wish I had known about it then.
http://www.mchalepacks.com/tents/
Arguably the best made pack manufactured today.
I owned two packs before I discovered Dan Mchale's little custom company. I was never quite comfortable with the fit of those packs and just knew there was a better way to carry a load.Those packs were purchased at outfitters where I was measured, fit, etc., a Mountainsmith and a Dana Design, good quality packs both-just not what I thought comfortable should be. So, I searched the net and found McHales. Amazing all the outstanding writeups he gets on the packs he makes by hand and now I know why.
First all his packs are custom fit and made to your physical dimensions. He does not mass produce. In fact he want even sell you one unless he talks with you a few times by phone and works with you, helping you determine just what you want in a pack. In my case, after talking with me a few times, he sent me one to try out, so that I could better decide what to buy. I loaded it to more than I would ever carry-44 pounds of old clothes, wife's rags , and numerous platypus and nalgene bottles of water for weight. It was an unwieldy load and I went on a few 12 mile day hikes to try it out. The difference was amazing. No belt slippage. Easy to adjust, simple shoulder straps. I was impressed, completely. Pricey but I ordered mine. While waiting for mine to be made, I put that very same unweildy weight into the Terraplane X I had and did another 12 mile day hike. What a disaster. Now that I knew how a pack should carry weight, I knew I would never use it again. Sold it on E-bay!
The workmanship is such that it may never wear out. His packs are made for the climbing community first and then backpackers. They are so well made that you can dangle it from a climbing rope, hooked to the haul loop with a carabiner and stand on it and it want break. Try that with your pack.
My pack is the SARC and although Dan says it has a capacity 0f 3500-4500 ci, you will think it is much bigger. The apparent reason is that most pack manufacturers exaggerate their size. At least that is what I gathered from reading other's reviews of the packs' and I will concur. So if you want one, get it smaller than what you are accustomed to or think you need. Mine is now to large by volume for what I carry[that 44 pounds went into the 3500 ci portion of the pack without utilizing the extension] but it is just so darn comfortable. It FEELS at least 10 pounds lighter than in the Terraplane X.
The Terraplane had a complicated adjustment sequence in a handbook that I really never masterd. Mchale doesnt even give you adjustment instructions. His arrangement is second-nature and you do it almost without thinking.
I could go on aand on. It is the one piece of gear I will never give up. If I get a smaller pack it will be another Mchale model. Its pricey but its a heck of a lot less than I paid for the past two packs. I just wish I had known about it then.