Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting My McHale Pack Experience - Part II

I've been using my McHale for a couple years now. It's a CM pack that is about 4200cu in. It does everything I want it to and is pretty lightweight (went with the dyneema fabric). I only went with a McHale pack after all the packs I tried were insufficient for my needs. For my back, this pack fits the best, and that's what's most important. BTW, beautiful pack you've got Russ, makes me so jealous.

Got yourself in trouble, eh?.....

Still, at that price I should be able to put a leash on it and have that pack walk itself up the hill.........


Of course, when I think about it, I believe I paid almost $500 out the door for my Dana in 1991.....in today's dollars, that would be...what?-- a 1000 bucks?.......

Casey

Yeah, insert foot, etc.

Still, I'd sooner run a 1991 Dana... hey wait, I did have a Terraplane from then!

PS, Dana's were no where near $500 in 1991... yer memory's failing

Hey Russ, thanks for posting the pack - looks good.

I remember wanting a Dana Terraplane badly. They were pretty spendy. Has it really been almost twenty years? Still, those were/are great packs.

Here's some useless trivia:

In the early 90's I was looking at top of the line packs at a local mountaineering store. The two they carried were the Dana Terraplane and Gregory Denali Pro. I ended up the the Gregory at around $450. It was a great pack then, and still is now. What's interesting is the recent switch back to carbon fiber frame stays / frame sheets. My nearly 20 year old Gregory has carbon fiber stays with a plastic frame sheet. At the time they were marketed as "state of the art". Surprisingly enough, the version of the Denali Pro that followed my pack after a few years went back to aluminum stays. Two down sides to carbon fiber is you can't shape it to your individual back like aluminum and when it breaks, it's broken and tough to repair in the field. It will be interesting to see if the current crop of carbon fiber suspensions stick around this time.

Really nice; looking forward to hearing about your hunting experience with it.

Thanks for sharing!

Hey, that reminds me...... I've got a brand new Denali somewhere in the garage.

Russ: What is the final weight?

Stripped down to the basics my McHale is just over 4 lbs. Fully outfitted around 5-1/4 lbs.

Hi Russ,

Had you looked at CiloGear packs before buying your McHale?

Ultimate Mountaineering Pack $1,500 USD

[img]http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-72629531875391_2173_37252143[/img]

I figure that a person could always dye the pack color to a green or grey themselves. They also come highly recommended, though they are not as customizable as McHale. Thoughts?

Kifaru's KU stays are carbon/wood laminate, not straight carbon.

I did look a CiloGear when researching my pack. Dan's product just seemed a better fit for what I wanted and were customizable.

It is my understanding Spectra/Dyneema is very very difficult to color or die. Dan has a special secret process he uses. I'm not aware of any other pack maker offering colored or dyed full Spectra/Dyneema fabric other than Dan.

I am thinking of selling my new Kifaru KU3700 and having one of these built.

Well, I ain't sellin' mine. It is just about the perfect hiking pack, and I think humping out an entire deer is well within its capability, I hope to find out this fall.

I know I am probable a fool to sell considering the wait times they have but I am really eyeing a new Mchale.I love the fact that I can built it any way I want.

what is the deal with Mchale being closed?

I believe he takes a month or so off every fall to go backpacking/camping and whatnot.

of coarse it is the month that I want to order a pack..

Russ - that's one sweet pack you've got there!!!!

elim - Dan's probably a couple months out on delivery so you're not really "out" if you were wanting it for this season.

I've been eye-balling a McHale pack for a couple of years now, but i've had other gear-stuff i've needed 1st. Also, my personal $ have been going into medium format photography so my McHale dream will have to wait, but he sure makes a sweet pack.

I don't even want to look at his site again - i've configured 2 packs and that's some big $jack$...

any new news?