Wanna See How An Innovator of Modern Gear Carries His Pack?

He uses a tumpline. When Yvon Chouinard – founder of Black Diamond (actually he founded the company that Black Diamond replaced) as well as the founder of Patagonia, carries heavy loads up hills, he uses a tumpline. On a recent visit to a trade show, where he was shown the latest in pack technology, he explains why.:

“We spent twenty full minutes going over its sophisticated load distribution features and anatomically S-curved frame, welded with tungsten/inert gas and its wonderful bag made of 420-denier Super-K-coated eight-ounce parapack nylon held together with 18 stitches per inch of cotton-wrapped Dacron thread. Finally, after reaching a fever pitch of enthusiasm and exhausting every aerospace term he knew, he stepped back beaming proudly. As his eyes gradually returned to their respective sockets he asked, ‘Well Mr. Chouinard, how do you like it?’ I shrugged…. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. I carry all my loads with a tump line now. And with one of those it doesn’t matter what you have on your back – a fearsome astro loader like this or a sack of potatoes’.”