Simply wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing this. I am curious about the backpack! I am a bit of a bag nerd and love to see custom work.
Of course, thanks for the response. The backpack was fantastic. I'll try to do it justice here. Credit/disclaimer for the creator here; this was an incredibly rushed job. I think he designed and made it in around 1-2 days. So there's quite a bit I really liked about the bag. It was made purposefully for this trip, so it worked perfectly. The flaps on the front serve as ski/pole/whatever fits holder. Also specially fit for the helmets that we use. There are also ice ax holders(the loops at bottom/top). Worked well enough; The material itself is super durable. I abused the hell out of it and had no problems. I can get the exact details on it if you're interested. He used a single metal bar as the frame. If I was loading it with anything more then 60lbs it'd probably not be sufficient, but I was traveling light. His ALICE frame packs are pretty solid for heavier weights. The shoulder straps are the best I've ever used. I absolutely love them. No hip belt as I wasn't planning on heavy loads, but there is a space for one as needed. The pack fit perfectly and rode extremely well. Now for what I don't like. As I said earlier, it was rushed, and you can tell. I nearly ripped the load lifter out hiking up the mountain. The bottom shoulder strap mount started to unravel. I straight pulled one of the buckles out while tightening in the skis. The lid doesn't quite fit to the rest of the pack. He's working on completely redoing the lid, he isn't really happy with it either. All in all it's an incredible pack. I'm lucky to be the "product tester" for his gear.
He's dabbling, mostly for friends at the moment. Seems to be testing the waters on ramping it up with various other projects