I didn’t consider a duffle bag to be an important piece of gear until a couple years ago. I suppose the moment this changed was in Peru during the summer of 2006. I was at a trail head waiting to start the long trek to the base camp of Mount Pisco. I watched as a porter strapped a cheap duffel bag to the side of a donkey. The bag was quickly developing holes and I didn’t think it would make it up to camp. My own duffel bag at the time was an inexpensive bag by Columbia. While it made it through the trip, I doubt it could get through another in one piece. Since that day, I understood the value of a good duffel bag.
The Mountain Hardwear Expedition Duffle is a burly number made out of durable waterproof fabric. Weighing in at five pounds for the medium, this duffel bag can’t be considered lightweight by any stretch of the imagination. However, this weight gets you some pretty nifty features (for a duffel bag at least).
Gone are the usual end pockets that tend to get stuck and ripped by airline baggage handlers. In its place is a very easy to spot metal handle. These come in quite handy when your bag is at the bottom of a pile of equipment and you need to pull it out. The regular handles on the top of the bag are padded and can be converted to use the bag as a backpack for schlepping across airports. An obvious clear ID pocket on the side makes identification of your bag fairly easy.
Once you get out of the airport, you’ll be looking for ways to secure your bags. The Expedition Duffle includes a handy daisy chain and numerous ways to lash the bag to your nearest burro. Getting the bag open in a fairly easy affair and can be accomplished with one hand. There are two zippers and a rather wide opening to get all your stuff to fit. Mountain Hardwear also included compression straps inside the bag so you can more securely strap your gear in place. Depending on the size you pick, the Expedition Duffle will hold from 3000 to a whopping 8000 cubic inches of gear.
The downside is that the bag doesn’t cheap at $100-$160 each. However, if you’ve already shelled out for a trip to Aconcagua, it’s pretty cheap insurance that you’ll have all your gear by the time you reach camp. The best praise I can say is I liked the Expedition Duffle so much that I bought two.
For some more specs, check out the Expedition Duffle on Mountain Hardwear’s website here.
