The Parka Tube

This is going to be a short post because I don’t think it needs a lot of explaining: I’m an ice climber, I was starting to get into Make Your Own Gear (MYOG) and I saw a problem that I wanted to fix that there wasn’t really a market to use money to fix it.

The Problem

If you are an ice climber, alpinist, or even an avid outdoor rock climber and have ever wanted to carry minimal gear with you on a climb that required you to be warm at belays but stay cool on the climb, you might be familiar with this problem.

Simply put, the more warmth you need, the (generally) larger and more weight of warmth you need to carry with you in the form of a jacket (although it doesn’t exclusively need to be a jacket) and the larger the jacket means the larger the stuff sack and the more dangle you will have off of your harness. Exhibit A (photo below - props to High Mtn Gear because I love this cannon either way) shows this problem.

As we attach this normal cinch sack, we also elongate the problem (literally). The gear loop has some non-zero distance from the waist-belt, the carabiner to attach the bag adds to this as well and then the distance/size of the loop on the bag itself also extends the bag off of us downward. In ice climbing, dry tooling, ski mountaineering, etc. - really any sport that involves a harness and sharps - this problem becomes a hazard as well as the bag can catch our crampons, ice screws or even tools while we are mid-climb causing increased fall risk.

The Solution

The answer to this problem I have called The Parka Tube (or Parka Pack - I have gone back and forth). As simple as the problem itself, allow the bag to be oriented in the other plane and wrap around the waist as opposed to hang off the harness. See the photo below to compare from before.

Adding loops along the length seam to loop some sort of coordage with a closure on the front allows us to seat the jacket above everything else and thus keep it out of the way. There are a few key things that this helps:

1. Keeps your warmth above the harness to avoid sharps if it were dangling
2. Often times the bag rests on the gear below it, whether it be ice tool clippers or other hardware racked on the gear loops which takes strain away from the cordage to hold the weight constantly
3. If not needed around the waist, the bag still functions as a cinch bag to store items in as an organizational piece in your pack
4. Using coordage around the waist allows you to swing the bag from the back to the front and remove and add the jacket to the bag without taking the bag off - this means less risk of dropping it like clipping and unclipping it from your harness
5. The simple addition of loops along the spine seam means that this can be done/added to existing cinch bag designs with very little overhead

Using it in The Real World

I made the first bag and started climbing with it in the 24/25 winter. Currently I am in the second season of using it(well multiple variants) and it is exactly what I wanted it to be. It is simple, efficient, light, and trustworthy.

I have chosen to make the bag out of 1 oz Dyneema composite because I already had it and also it allows me to trust it with my warmth not getting wet from dripping water, snow, ice and back sweat.

In addition to ice climbing, I have made smaller version to carry something like a Nuclei FL around my waist during some trad climbing as well as bringing the bigger version with me ski touring. When skinning up, it will carry a mid-layer piece of warmth, snacks, and water. Coming down, I swap the warmth for my skins and carry them out that way. It worked very well for someone who gets a sweaty back and doesn’t always want to have a backpack on (even small one) for short skins after work.

I think it is worth noting the scenarios I find myself using it versus not because of the application or what I have with me. Granted, you can bring it with you in your pack (or keep it in your jacket pocket because it weight so little) but not necessarily be using it around your waist on the climbs.

When I Do and Do Not Want It

• Do WANT: 1-3 pitch ice climbs where bags are brought on the approach but not needed on the climb and rappelling or walking back to them
• Do NOT WANT: Larger alpine/ski mountaineering objective where you rarely find yourself without your pack on. I will caveat this one with the fact that it has been nice if you are skinning to an ice climbing that you then rappel back down and then ski out - having warmth here without your pack is a dream!
• Do WANT: Single pitch climbs where you are belaying from the top
• Do WANT: Leading climbs where only a single pack for gear was brought - the follower can take it
• Do NOT WANT: At the crag - pretty much in any rock climbing discipline, the crag is comfortable enough to just stash your jacket around your stuff as you might want it while not climbing but do not really need it after you top out
• Do WANT: Following in any aspect where I do not need to bring my pack

The Future

I have made a few of these for locals who have seen me with it on and really have wanted something similar but I have decided against trying to make them in mass because that would just become a job. I will continue to use the ones I have and iterate on them.

I was going to include a section here for more detail on how I made them, little things I have learned and cool additions that have been helpful (or not) but I have decided that should be a post on its own if and only if people want to hear about it. Thanks for reading if you made it here - hit me up on Instagram (svendelton) if you liked it, hated it or just want to chat!