Crux 40

To be honest, I tend to buy a new ski bag every year. This one caught my eye because it seemed to check all the boxes, but man, was I wrong.

A bit of background: I’ve used this bag for one season, and it’s been through some serious terrain—from ice climbing in New Hampshire to skiing volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest... its been all over. My average day on skis usually involves 8,000 feet of vertical, breaking trail, and deep wilderness lines in Montana. The design of this bag is completely flawed for anyone who actually skis with purpose.

Stretch Mesh

Let’s start with the stretch mesh. For one, the placement is all wrong—especially for diagonal ski carry. The mesh is so close to my bindings that they end up ripping holes in it every time I use it. The situation gets worse with the shovel blade behind it, which caused my binding to puncture the Dyneema fabric of the main bag. This is a dealbreaker.

Top Closure

The top closure is ridiculously loose. Sure, it’s great for stuffing in a mid-layer or shell, but if you're skiing powder, you’ll be digging snow out of it every time you access the bag. After one season, I’m seriously considering cutting it off entirely.

Cross Carry

Next up, the cross carry system. The skis sit way too low on this bag, making it virtually impossible to carry unless you're on a steep, deep snow slope. On ridge lines or when scrambling on rocks, the skis constantly hit obstacles and get in the way. The A-frame carry is the only decent option here,…

This is actually my second Crux 40 backpack, only because some not so nice people stole all of my gear in Argentina a few days before a ski expedition to Antarctica. Soon after the robbery, I called up Hyperlite and they were able to overnight a new bag to a person I've never met before they went to the airport in Vermont to meet me on the other side of the world. The customer service team rushed to action to help save my expedition and I cannot express more gratitude to the Hyperlite team.

Now for the pack... This thing SLAPS! As a skier with a photography addiction, I often travel with a lot of camera gear. This pack allows me to carry everything I could possibly need in the backcountry, plus all my cameras and lenses. The pack has dedicated storage for avy tools and you can even room to put your ice axe and helmet inside the pack so you don't accidentally stab someone or pop a zodiac as you cruise through the ice in the Antarctic waters. The mesh pouch on the back is perfect to throw your skins in if you're doing hot laps and are too lazy to access the inside of your pack or to stash an extra layer for when you overdress on the skin track. The hip pocket has plenty of room for your snacks and sun screen while you're working hard on that sweet goggle tan. The removable brain is great too! For large days, I keep it on and stuff it full of my headlamp, extra batteries, ski straps, and backcountry repair kit. On short days where the inside of my back is pretty empty, I'll…

I’ve been out skiing on a couple volcanoes with the pack. My initial impressions weren’t great, but I’ve since really been enjoying the pack.

Pros:

- Suspension: the back panel provides much better load transfer directly to the top of the glutes than previous HMG packs I’ve owned. The pack is comfy for extended periods of time in the 30-40lb range.

- Burly side and bottom material. Getting the woven Dyneema material is one of the primary reasons to get this pack.

- Mesh external pocket is useful for wet skins.

- Back panel access is the best option when loaded up with gear, carrying your skis and boots on your pack.

- Weight distribution while skiing is great. Pack moves with you while you ski.

Con:

- Quality control: Mostly minor things. The cordlocks on the ice axe attachments were defective. Seemed like they had no internal spring. Easy enough to replace and I already had extras lying around. All the orange cord pull tabs had to be retied after they came undone within a few days.

- Brain is the worse part of the pack. G-hooks are used to attach the brain to the pack. You need tension on the hooks or they slide right off. However, even with the pack completely full, the brain is too big to tension tight, so the hooks constantly come loose. The only way to tighten the hooks is to clip them further down on the daisy chains, but this isn’t possible with a diagonal carry. You’d need to stuff the pack beyond the outer drawstring cinch for the brain to tension.

- Back panel…