Monograph

Little Mount Peel

2026-04-26 09:15

I wandered up the south ridge track to the top then back down deer spur today https://connect.garmin.com/app/activity/22660570108

Nice to wander through an area I had never visited before and great to get the legs going and working up a decent sweat.

The new Aarn Featherlite Freedom pack got a good workout and I was impressed with the comfort. No shoulder stress and no pressure points on the hips where most of the weight is concentrated.

  • I need to sort out a better system for connecting my Crazy Creek chair to the bottom. It rode well there and was completely unnoticeable - not hitting the legs and the straps were contained well but it fell out on the way up so I captured it in the lasso lock straps but this was a PITA to get in the lasso's and made it hard to extract but did stay in place.

  • Another minor niggle are the squeaks generated somewhere at the top of the shoulder straps or perhaps the load lifters.

  • I can see why Dan from Further Faster was not a fan of the lower bungy cords that pull the pockets outward at connection points on the hip belt. If you are a walking pole user like I am this moves the pockets out to impede the arms as you reach forward. I removed both bungies and repurposed one of them to do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do - I joined both pockets together and pulled them inwards which was perfect. Still good view to my feet but arms were freed. This does mean an extra strap to undo when taking the pack off but not too onerous. I'll explore better quick release options for this task.

  • A further adjustment was needed on the straps that cross the top of the chest joining the pockets to the shoulder straps. If left as they come then the connecting buckles ride on top of one another and do not move freely. This was fixed by moving the buckle on one up the strap on one and down on the other - an easy fix.

Was great to meet and chat with a couple of keen Pack Rafters while having a break on the way up.

I was surprised by the number of folk out in the area today - beautiful weather with light winds and clear for the first 1/2 of the day before cloud moved in.