Words and Photos from Will Peterson, @_will.peterson (@fromthebackcountry)
If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re at least mildly curious about the Pemi 15 running vest just released by Hyperlite Mountain Gear. My name is Will Peterson, and I am a multi-day ultramarathon runner from Maine. Over the past few years, I have had the good fortune to set speed records on the most competitive multi-day routes in New England, including supported and unsupported records on Vermont’s Long Trail and the New Hampshire 48 4,000-footers. I’ve had the equally good fortune of getting to work with the folks at Hyperlite on the testing and development side of tents, quilts, packing pods, apparel, and vests/packs—including the Pemi 15.
When it comes to long days in the mountains, smooth = efficient = fast. Whether I am racing or training, I look for a vest that helps me move through the mountains efficiently and smoothly; the less I need to think about my pack or vest, the better. I need a vest that can carry all the gear I need for long, self-sufficient stretches in the mountains, while also packing down smaller and minimizing bouncing when I am carrying less gear.
In terms of front pockets, the more gels and water I can comfortably fit in those pockets, the less often I must stop to retrieve more fuel. I want a vest that allows me to quickly stash and retrieve my trekking poles on the go, without messing around with taking off the pack or attaching other accessories like quivers. Finally, the White Mountains and Green Mountains are famously wet and rainy, so I value a vest that gives me the confidence to charge through all manner of bad weather, knowing that my gear will stay largely dry. I teamed up with the gang in research and development at Hyperlite to help them develop that very vest, the Pemi 15.
For over a year, I have been testing prototypes, beating them into the ground, and helping the HMG team iterate their way to what I think is a strong, intuitive, and versatile finished product. I’ve now tested five different versions of the Pemi 15 over thousands of trail miles. I used it while pacing John Kelly on the Appalachian Trail, fastpacking through Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness to help Xander Keiter set a new fastest known time, and for hundreds of miles through the Italian Alps on the Tor des Géants.
Along the way, we made all sorts of changes to create the pack you now see. For example, originally, the zipper to access the main body of the pack was welded to the pack. While pacing John Kelly on a 50-mile day on the Appalachian Trail, I managed to rip the zipper entirely off the pack. I was then left chasing down John with my gear flying out all over the trail! Now, on the final version, the zipper is fully sewn into the pack and totally bomb-proof. Another significant change we made was recognizing that the connection point between the shoulder straps and the vest body began to fray after hundreds of miles. The team at R&D totally redid the design for that attachment point to reinforce it and make it solid.
There are countless other tweaks we made to the vest along the way: standardizing the flask pocket size, expanding the phone pocket size, adding elastic loops to hold the flasks in place, widening the mouth of the external reservoir pocket to allow insertion/removal of a loaded 2L bladder, adding an outlet from the reservoir pocket through the flask pocket for running a bladder tube through, tweaking the front clips, yada yada yada, et cetera et cetera et cetera. I could go on for quite a while, but the point is that the folks over at R&D put a nauseating amount of work into making this vest sick, and in my estimation, they succeeded.
With the final version of the Pemi 15, you can expect all the characteristics that I proclaimed to value a few paragraphs above, along with the quality that people have come to expect from HMG packs. The Pemi carries a ton of gear and food for single-day missions without feeling like it’s bouncing, and its roll-top design allows it to pack down smaller if I don’t need as much space. Its well-placed pockets and gear attachment points allow me to move efficiently and focus on my next steps down trail. It’s tough and durable, and the material allows me to take on bad weather conditions with the confidence that my gear will be dry when I need it. If you value efficiency, durability, and thoughtful design in your mountain kit, I strongly encourage you to give the Pemi 15 a look. It’s a vest built for long days, big terrain, and moving well through all of it.
