Cold Cold World backpacks are designed uncompromisingly for the alpine environment. Since 1992 our small factory has been making some of the best packs around for serious climbing and gathering a dedicated cult following from professional guides and hardcore climbers. In fact, many top climbers prefer to buy our packs rather than use free ones that big companies give them. We've built a reputation, without advertising, purely on the word-of- mouth recommendations of climbers all over the country. Even the finicky editors of Climbing Magazine have repeatedly singled out our products in their reviews of lightweight alpine packs.

Why does a tiny company like ours get this kind of attention? Insiders know that the best specialized gear is always made by small companies, where there is no gap between the user and the designer. Every feature on our packs is the direct result of some route, some adventure, or some epic that taught us something about gear. Our small line of packs represents everything we've learned over the years about what is essential and what is just extra weight. When you rely on the gear yourself on a regular basis you have an investment in getting it right.

An alpine pack, like an alpinist, must do many things well. It must carry large loads on approaches, smaller loads on the climb and still be light enough for use as a summit pack. It must survive hauling and help you survive on unplanned bivouacs. It should have attachments for the specific gear that climbers carry like ice tools and crampons. Light weight is paramount yet when your life depends on the contents of your pack durability is mandatory. While many backpacks will carry big loads comfortably while hiking, only a true climbing pack can meet all of these diverse demands. Cold Cold World packs are complete climbing tools.

Here are some reasons why:

  •  Our "soft" suspension consists of a contoured cut that fits your body and a double (or triple) folded foam pad that can be easily removed to serve as an emergency bivvy pad. Without stays or rigid components, it is lightweight and non-restrictive yet supportive enough for any load you can climb with.

  • Multiple haul-points get the load safely up pitches that are too steep to wear it, and robust fabrics ensure it makes it in one piece.

  • Extension sleeves and extra long compression straps allow you to conveniently carry oversize loads when necessary.

  • Floating lids stay on the top of the load- not in the back of your neck-when the pack is overloaded and quickly pop off when it's time to trim down for a summit push.

  • We build gear loops into our larger packs because the ones on your harness are often covered by the hip-belt. And we size them to work equally well as ice tool holsters
 
   
 
 
        WOODCUT PRINTS
now available
   
CHAOS
  4000 cu in    
                 
                     
           
      CHERNOBYL
        3000 cu in
 
       
VALDEZ    
2400 cu in
   
OZONE  
2300 cu in  
 
   
   
...I consider that if everybody were given the chance of undergoing similar experiences they would acquire a much better comprehension of themselves and others. They might also understand that humanity has changed and no longer knows how to live. As though it has gone crazy, it constantly imprisons itself in it's own myths and ambitions, rushing from one servitude to another. Man seems to be positively at pains to dehumanize himself, to abandon all that is most positive in his nature....A glance at our society is almost enough to make one long for a more primitive state of being.... What does it help us to possess all that progress has placed at our service when we have lost all sense of the meaning of things and even of life itself?"

          Walter Bonatti, "The Great Days"  1971