Mountain Hardwear’s Hueco™ 20 Backpack: Simple & Durable
By Rob Coppolillo, Aspirant Mountain Guide
I recently tested Mountain Hardwear’s Hueco™ 20 Backpack, using it as my minimalist daypack on an alpine route in the North Cascades, Wash., and over 15 days of guiding in Eldorado Canyon State Park, Colo.
Overview: Mountain Hardwear’s Hueco™ 20 Backpack is simple, light, inexpensive, and durable. It packs down small enough you can stow it in the bottom of a 35L ‘base camp’ pack, but you can also carry a rope across the top, improvise a helmet carrier (some thicker shock cord does this well), and get by an entire day of guiding in it, too. At $80 retail it’s half the price of summit packs made of fancier materials, but performs just as well.
Durability: Because the Hueco™ 20 lacks a rigid/semi-rigid frame or framesheet, there’s less to abrade against rock. It tends to compress, rather than shred against rock—total bonus. Plus, the front side is made of a heavier ‘tarp-style’ material, which seems burly. After 20+ days in it, it’s doing fine. I didn’t haul the pack, but I’m thinking a long, abrasive haul like Epinephrine in Red Rocks, Las Vegas, Nev., might hammer the side zippers. It might be worthwhile for Mountain Hardwear to fashion zipper garages or a fabric flap over the length of the side-zip pockets to protect them.
Functionality: The Hueco™ 20 Backpack relies on simplicity as its strength; there’s very little in the way of ‘techy’ stuff. A simple length of webbing, with a secure clip, acts as a rope carrier. It deploys through a Velcro’d slot at the top of the pack—simple, light, and it works. There’s a bit of padding in the back and shoulder straps, but nothing excessive. I had 40m of rope, a liter of water, a med kit, hard shell, and various small items in it, no problem. Walking out I could stow a harness, helmet, five cams, a few nuts, jacket, and water bottle inside no problem, rope coiled/fixed across the top. It was comfortable and functional. I intentionally lap-coiled the rope long, then tucked each side of the coils up and through the bottom opening of the shoulder straps; I had no problem down climbing and hiking.
Bottom line: I love this pack. I’ll keep it/use it, for sure, and will be suggesting it to clients!
