Surgery to make aging gear better and vintage gear like new

Michael Darter

Makeover: the author's pack in action

The Fix is In Peregrine Threadworks Lilburn, GA (770-638-4975) From Fastex buckle and webbing additions to creative zipper access, Peregrine Threadworks takes special requests. Feel lucky, punk? They once added a concealed pistol holster to a Lowe lumbar pack for a local lawman. Wayment Custom Manufacturing, Salt Lake City, UT (801-487-5124) Wayment tricks out packs with shovel sleeves, daisy chains, and diagonal slash zips for easy main-compartment access. Local heli-guides get binocular pockets and avalanche-forecasting-gear stashes, and search-and-rescue folks get modified external frame packs for lugging unconscious backcountry victims. Rainy Pass Repair Seattle, WA (800-733-4340) Need an extra map slot on your trusty old one-pocket Dana Design Bomb Pack? Rainy Pass is Dana Design's repair and customization specialist, though all brands are welcome. Entropy Sport Portland, OR (888-256-2105) Mount Hood Ski Patrol is a regular client (custom radio attachments). For the rest of us, water-bottle pockets and rain covers are just two of the modifications Entropy can handle. New Sun Productions New Paltz, NY (800-763-9786) Want a new carry loop on your rucksack? How about added compression straps for your upcoming Adirondack runabout? New Sun has been customizing packs for seven years. — DeBenedetti

I FURIOUSLY pawed through catalogs. I haunted shops. I labored under the burden of an affliction: pack envy. My backcountry ski pack, which Ibought for $100 in 1994, was still in good shape, but it lacked an efficient ski-retention system and a hydration pocket. I didn¹t really need a new pack. I just needed a better old pack.

This led me to Human Nature (530-477-2427; www.humannaturegear.com), a company in Grass Valley, California, that modifies gear for a reasonable price. It¹s an outfit that doesn¹t just repair your gear, but improves it. I promptly shipped my pack off to Human Nature owner-operator Craig Polley, along with a sketch detailing several of my own design inspirations, all of which struck me as brilliant. And all of which Polley, an avid backcountry skier himself, summarily discarded. My vision of carrying skis diagonally across the pack, he explained, sounded like something I¹d conceived while sitting at a desk (true). All the weight would be on one shoulder (also true). ³After a couple of hours jumping around in the wilderness, your back will be screwed up,² said Polley, who began customizing gear for college friends in 1992 with a thrift-shop sewing machine.

Tell me your problems, not your pathetic solutions, Polley seemed to be saying. I acquiesced. ³It takes too long to get my skis on the pack, and when I do, the tails smack me behind the knees,² I whined. ³And I want a sleeve for my CamelBak bladder. And a little pocket on the chest strap for a compass.²

A week later my pack arrived with everything I wanted but not much of what I asked for. To refine the strap system he added Fastex-style buckle straps up high for stability. To solve the tail-bang he got creative, adding two adjustable (and detachable) sleeves to prevent slippage‹the system lets me hoist the skis higher on the pack, making a more stable A-frame. To save weight and cost, he ignored my request for a hydration pouch and simply installed a double zipper in the cavity between the foam pad and nylon liner‹slip the bladder in and cinch the zipper around the tube. The chest pocket, which Polley designed to accommodate my compass perfectly, was pleasantly overbuilt: It¹s padded and detachable by means of a Buddylock, a plastic cam that releases with a 45-degree twist.

The entire project cost $57 and came with a lifetime guarantee on the labor‹a killer deal. Now I get to keep my trusted pack. And without the constant pain behind my knees I can concentrate on other things, like the pain in my knees. ‹Marc Peruzzi

VITAL SIGNS
Back From the Dead
Pulled stitches, torn fabric, a hole courtesy of a Utah chipmunk, the 1980s vintage pack below was dumpster bound. Instead, we shipped it to Human Nature for an overhaul. Repairs and a variety of added whistles and bells cost merely $80, and boosted the weight by less than a pound.

Clay Ellis; Eric Swanson