Golite Jam [Large] (£60 608g) Review

Overview

Although I think that the Berghaus Arete 45L is a wonderful pack for climbing I think it is somewhat over-engineered for walking. I have used it on many overnight trips and the thing that I am always conscious of is how heavy the pack is when empty compared with everything that went in in. When your entire load is 8Kg or less then having 1.3Kg of that taken up by the pack alone seems a little excessive.

With that in mind, and after finding myself with some spare cash at the end of the month I decided to treat myself ot the Golite Jam. Since I am 6ft tall I bough the Large version which fits me perfectly. I suspect that it is actually 45+L in size since it took everything that went into the Berghaus and still had room to spare.

The pack that I bough had an actual weight of 608g which is a little lighter than the nominal weight of the medium pack.

The bulk of the pack is made with Dyneema. Dyneema is an ultralight and stong material that is used for climbing slings and accessories. I trust my life to tiny little 10mm tapes made of this stuff. It is STRONG.

When I compare this pack with my summer pack the KIMM AR 25L I can see many design similarities but in some senses I would say the KIMM pack has better engineering.

I was a little disappointed to see that the Golite Jam does not have any reinforcing panels on either the base or the back. I can only assume that the Dyneema as a pack material will be OK with abrasion.

Features

The Golite philosophy like the KIMM philosophy is to design packs that are light and not over-engineered. With the Jam pack Golite have softened a little on their 'hip belts are evil' and 'hydration packs are evil' beliefs and have incorporated both into the pack design. This is a big plus for most people.

All the packs that I own (8!!!) from 15L through to 65L have some form of hip belt. I personally find them essential for stabilising my pack when scrambling and moving over rough ground or bush.

Anyway, here's the feature list:

• Dyneema pack body
• Roll-top closure
• 4 side compression straps
• 1 top compression strap
• Large front pocket for essential accessories.
• Two mesh side pockets for water bottles.
• Internal pouch for hydration pack.
• Removable internal foam pad.
• Left and Right exit points for hydration tube. Hurrah!
• Ice axe / Walking pole loops and velcro
• 4 Attachment loops (daisy chains) for tying kit onto the pack.
• Haul loop (handle)
• Chest strap
• 40mm webbing belt

Outdoor Testing

This pack was taken with me on a recent overnight trip to the Black Mountains in Wales. I was carrying with me everything that was needed for a winter trip in wet and windy conditions plus a number of luxury items. The total pack weight was just under 7.5Kg which I consider to be near to the maximum that I will carry these days for an overnight or 2-3 day trip.

The weather was a bit rough and I was travelling over some very rough ground - peat bog and marshland. So this was a very good test of what the pack could do.

Firstly, the pack leaks slightly in a few places but nothing that cannot be lived with.

The roll-top closure does not roll enough and the result is that water trickles in through the top of the pack. A sacrifice piece of material placed below the closure became quite wet.

The front pocket leaks slightly - mainly through the stiching of the GoLite logo!

Despite these small leaks and some slight feelings of dampness on the interior of the fabric the rest of the contents of the pack stayed dry.

With everything that I was carrying the pack was 90+% full but not overfull in any way. I had placed the heavier items in the middle of the pack to balance it more for rough ground.

The pack proved to be very comfortable and felt almost as rigid as a framed pack. It was easy for me to configure the pack so that most of the weight was on my hips with the shoulder straps providing stability rather than weight transfer.

When carrying it I was not particularily conscious of the pack although towards the end of the first day I did wonder about whether some more padding would be good for the shoulder straps.

Early Conclusions

Overall this pack is not as light as it could be but in this case Golite have traded a little toughness for weight. That is a worthwhile trade-off for a pack in my opinion. The pack itself is well-made and well designed with even some of the plastic buckles carrying the Golite logo.

This pack has all the essential features that I need for a walking and backpacking pack but weights in at 608g. The extra 100g of weight over the KIMM pack has given me at least an extra 20L of space.

The pack weighs 700g less than the Berghaus but still offers me everything I need - albeit with a little less padding in places. That 700g of weight saving is well worth the cash.

The pack is designed to carry up to 15Kg but personally I would not want to take it beyond around 10-12Kg. If you put lots of weight in it you begin to wish for a properly ventillated back and a more rigid chassis. At the end of the day this is an ultralight pack designed for ultralight loads.

In theory the Berghaus Arete and the Golite Jam do the same job and I could use either for climbing. In practice I think I will keep the Berghaus Arete for climbing and keep the Golite Jam for Walking. My climbing packs do see a lot of abuse - being filled with metal things, being dragged accross rocks and up cliffs. Serious pack abuse.

After the recent field test (above) I have mentally retired the Berghaus Arete 45 as a pure backpacking pack and promoted the Golite Jam to be my winter backpacking pack.

I've made a mental note to seam seal the logo on the pack and to make a little lid to cover the roll-top closure.

Fundamentally I think this is a very good and reasonably tough lightweight pack but it has not really been designed to defend against some of the really bad weather that passes for 'normal' on a UK trip. The Berghaus Arete 45 withstands the weather much better but that does not justify the extra 700g for backpacking alone.