Hi all,
So I had my first alpine trip in Switzerland and it went rally well, however I need some advice.
I recently bought the Black Diamond Speed 40. I like the bag for the most part, (apart from the lack of a side zip). However I ran into a few "issues"
On the way to the mountain hut it was stuffed to the max with gear (crampons harness etc) and food even using its extendable hood in some cases.
However then, after leaving the mountain hut and wearing most the gear to ascend the mountain, the pack then becomes too large and "floppy" as it will not have a lot of things in it and its a bit annoying/ in the way.
On my third mountain I removed the lid which helped a bit but then I have no easy to access pockets, and the internal one is too low down so there's other gear in the way.
One thing I could definitely improve is to remove some unnecessary kit I didn't need to take. up.
So the way I see it my options are to either get a 30-35l pack and take less gear up (mind you this was the summer so I didn't need that much in the first place. A 30-45l wouldn't do for a winter trip?)
Or take a 25l in the 40l and use the 25l for the ascends.
Some wisdom would be greatly appreciated.