For many years, I’ve admired the build of Camelbak’s running
packs but have always steered myself away from them as I’m not a bladder man; I
like my bottles and/or soft flasks as I like to know how much I’m drinking. The
packs have always looked well thought out and have a nice shape to them,
looking like they would be really comfortable for trail running. I became very
interested earlier this year when I noticed that Camelbak had produced a
minimalist race vest designed for use with soft flasks, the Ultra Pro Vest.
I was very kindly sent a pack to try out by Burton McCall
Ltd, UK distributor for Camelbak.
The first thing you notice is just how light the pack is,
weighing in at a svelte 180g. This is
definitely a minimalist pack and gives the impression that it is made for
racing, this is not an expedition pack. There are lots of easily accessible
pockets of varying sizes to suit every eventuality of kit we are determined (or
instructed) to carry.
I particularly liked the large zipped pocket on the upper
left chest strap which can take a mobile phone but I tended to use it for trail
snacks and energy bars.
On the opposite chest strap is a small two pocket combination, useful for items like salt tabs and also includes a whistle, which is clipped to the strap (no flapping around – nice touch.)
The
under arm pockets are simple stretch mesh affairs, but can take good stash of
bits and bobs. Over the late winter/early spring months, I kept hat and gloves
in these pockets for easy access. What I really liked about these side pockets
was that I could easily reach back to use them, even when running at a good
pace. I have struggled to contort my arms to reach these type of pockets on
some other race vests but had no problem with the Camelbak.
On your back, you have the main storage compartment for
those items for which you don’t need immediate access. For a minimalist pack,
you can get a fair amount of gear in there and, I’m sure that if you really
thought it through, you could probably squeeze in compulsory kit for events
like The Lakeland 100. When I was forced to stuff a number of bigger clothing
items in during the recent Hardmoors 110 mile race, I found that the shape of
the pack was altered to the point where the set-up I had on the straps was no
longer comfortable and I had to readjust on the move. The minimalist nature of
the pack will not cope with extra fleece jumpers and jackets, but I don’t think
that was really in the design brief. When packed to the correct capacity, this
is a very comfortable pack.
One more pocket design I liked was the outer mesh pocket on
the back. I could stuff a light jacket, maps, extra gloves, hat and food into
this space and still reach back and access anything whilst on the run. When I’m racing, I really don’t want to
be taking my pack off to reach essential items, I could even put a small video
camera in any one of the pockets; this is a versatile little pack.
The pack comes in three different sizes (S, M and L with an
online size guide) with the medium fitting me nicely though I did have to spend
a lot of time on my first few training runs with the pack trying different
chest strap options until I found the best combination. Initially, the fully
loaded bottles were bouncing around a lot, but persistence paid off and I got
the perfect fit. Both front chest straps are adjustable in width and height.
Now for the main shift from Camelbak; the Quick Stow 500ml soft flasks. On some other race
vests, the flasks are designed to be used whilst staying in the chest pouch,
this does involve a degree of neck craning unless you use flasks with straws,
as I do. As the name suggests, the Camelbak flasks are more of a half-way house
between traditional bottles and “stowed” soft flasks. You take them out of the
pouch to drink from and are then able to quickly pop them back in place once
finished drinking, as you would with traditional bottles. This system does work
but it’s a little bit trickier, making it a trade-off between not quite having
the ease and speed of a bottle whilst enjoying the greater comfort of a soft
flask. I guess you pays your money and takes your choice.
The flasks themselves are really well made, feeling robust,
and are a nice shape to hold and stow away on the run. They have a slightly
larger opening than some other flasks which makes adding powders to you drinks
a bit easier.
In addition to a normal bite valve, there is an extra twist
locking mechanism to prevent leaking. This may be a bit of over-kill, but it
certainly works well.
On really long runs/races, I still prefer to drink from the
flasks without taking them out of the pouch, so I am delighted that pretty much
any type of flask will fit and I could substitute my straw flasks when
required.
To really set this pack off nicely, I would like to have
seen some sort of facility for carrying running poles. I know this will not be
an issue for lots of ultra-runners who do not use poles, but I am sitting on a
plane as I write this having just had a week training in Chamonix (sorry
everyone ;-) ) and I like running poles, particularly in the BIG mountains. There are other packs in the Camelbak range that do provide a harness for running poles, such as the Ultra 10 vest.
Those of you that know me personally or who read this blog
regularly will know that I am a self-confessed kit nerd and I will only use
equipment that I think will aid my performance, to this end, after a month or
so of training with this pack I decided to use it as my pack for the recent
Hardmoors 110 mile race.
This was a supported race meaning I could go for
minimalist kit, seeing my crew every 60 – 90 minutes. However, during the hours
of darkness we were required to carry more mandatory kit which the pack
swallowed with ease. The Camelbak Ultra Pro Vest performed flawlessly, to the
point that I didn’t really know I was wearing it for long periods of time and I
guess that is just about the nicest comment you can make about any race vest.
