Review: Access Gear Canyoning Bag II

Most of my outdoors gear is pretty lightweight. Silnylon is the material of choice, and though it seems impossibly thin it stands up to all but the worst scrub encountered while bushwalking pretty well. However, canyoning is a totally different proposition – you find yourself squeezing through narrow rock crevices, and it’s pretty hard on your gear. So when I started canyoning in earnest a few months ago, I was looking for a hard-wearing pack.

Ideally a canyoning pack is well draining (so you don’t end up carrying half the creek on your back), tough, and easy to pack your gear into. I considered Resurgence packs from Climbing Anchors, or Summit Gear’s in-house packs. These start at about $220. However, I found an outfit in New Zealand, Access Gear, who make all their own gear there, and have a big range of canyoning bags. I settled on the Canyoning Bag II (NZ$105 incl. postage to Sydney, about AU$85 at the moment).

Specs from the website:

• PVC ripstop – yellow or cool blue
• black mesh panels for water drainage
• quick release straps
• 2 hanging loops (new design, less likely to snag)
• 2 interior loops for tying off rope
• 770mm(h) x 400mm(w)
• 40 litres approx.

For 40L it looks big! Although tall, it’s quite narrow, so you won’t get stuck in small gaps. I do occasionally find it a bit of a squeeze to fit everything in there, but that’s when I’m carrying wetsuits for people who haven’t brought bags, and I’ve never actually run out of room. If you need to carry overnight equipment you will probably need something bigger. Here’s a photo showing the bag packed with a harness, spare tube tape, 10L dry bag, 1L thermos, 1.25L water bottle, wetsuit (steamer), 60m rope and a helmet.

The sides are huge mesh panels, so while it fills up quickly with water, it drains just as fast.

It’s made of durable PVC, which while heavy is a good choice. I’ve treated it pretty roughly, throwing it down into the water and onto the rocks. So far it’s been through 11 canyons without any holes starting to develop.

The shoulder straps aren’t padded at all. This is good because they don’t absorb water, but they can become uncomfortable if you’re carrying heavy gear for a long time. It’s fine when you have a wetsuit on, and I’m happy with the trade-off. The straps have quick-release buckles, so if you need to drop it in an emergency it should be easier.

It has a couple of internal loops for tying ropes to if that’s your thing, as well as a couple of haul loops at the top.

There’s no lid on the pack, and no pockets – it’s basically just a tube. I like this design, as it minimises places for trapping sand, and it makes finding stuff easy.

The top is closed with a drawstring. I was initially concerned about stuff floating out the top while I was swimming, but it’s proved to be a secure arrangement (though I wouldn’t leave small stuff loose in the pack).

One deficiency I found with this pack was that it lacks waist or chest straps. When walking and abseiling the shoulder straps were enough, but when swimming I found that the buoyancy in my dry bag would lift the pack off my shoulders.

I recently attached a sternum strap of my own, and so far it seems to be doing the trick. I wear the pack quite high, so the strap is towards the bottom of the pack. I tried it the other day in Empress and it did keep the pack better positioned behind me while I was in the water.

Another minor quibble is that the webbing at the base of the pack has a tiny little rough sewn/melted bit that sometimes digs into my back. Not much of a problem but a bit annoying. I think it’s becoming a bit softer over time, but maybe that’s just me hardening up.

Despite those small niggles, if you need a bag for canyoning, I reckon for $85 you probably can’t do better than this pack.