Taking the
Leading
Edge
ALUULA in places your
friends have never heard of.
Founder of Italian Mountaineering brand, PARBAT Designs, Daniele Ciurleo and Ed ‘Iggy’ Hannam mountaineering trip lead for Feeding the Rat Expeditions have spent hours perfecting what they believe to be the ultimate pack for extreme mountaineering.
Feeding the Rat Expeditions take people to places your friends have never heard of. With over 20 years and 20 trips climbing China and Central Saia, Ed is well versed on what the ideal piece of gear is for these extreme environments.
Daniele and Ed collaborated on the design of Parbat’s El 110L pack for the Feeding the Rat Expeditions, taking these packs into extreme environments.
We found out more about this unique design collaboration.
How did you both first hear about ALUULA?
D: I met the ALUULA crew at ISPO in 2023 and immediately saw the potential for design innovation. For me, the perfect backpack is stitch-free. When I discovered that ALUULA could be heat-bonded together, that it could melt over the EVA foam, I was blown away.
E: I first heard about ALUULA in the context that ALUULA was this obscure material being used by the aeronautical crowd. I had been chatting to Daniele and when I saw that he was using ALUULA, I reached out immediately.
How did you collaborate on the design of this 110L pack?
E: We put our gear through a lot taking it to such extreme environments, so we need packs that are extremely durable. We’ll get together as a crew and brainstorm what we’d love from the packs. Each time we are out on a trip PARBAT will get an email asking if they can make it twice as big or twice as light. The design of the gear is now at a point where we can make products like this, that really meet our needs for expeditions, they are our tools, not just an accessory.
Daniele, can you tell me a bit about the packs that you’ve made for Feeding the Rat?
D: The word to describe them is minimal. I remember when I met Ed for the first time, he said can you remove RECCO (avalanche rescue technology), which is 1g, because even that was too heavy. The goal for Ed is that every part on the pack must be 100% useful, and any element that doesn’t have a purpose should be removed. We tried to make the packs clean and built for performance. These design concepts have been translated into the packs you can purchase online at PARBAT.
You only use ALUULA for the construction of all your packs, why did you choose ALUULA?
We chose to use ALUULA because as a designer, it is the fabric I had long imagined. A light, extremely durable fabric, that can be welded at low temperatures. This not only allows us to create what was previously impossible but, also helped with production as it made construction easier. We chose to use only ALUULA to the point that even the logo on our EL line is made with ALUULA to obtain maximum performance in every smallest detail.
Ed, how many of these packs does the expedition have?
E: Boxes of them! All the crew on the trips have got a couple of them each. They get used for all sorts different things, hauling, climbing, on the back of a donkey! Some of them we use as development gear, to see how we can improve design and push it further. For us, it’s crazy that the thing you carry makes up most of the weight you carry, so that’s why these bags are great.
Ed, what are some of the extreme environments you have put the packs through?
E: They have been everywhere. As it’s so cold, we need lots of puffy layers, so big, light packs we can stuff and save 1kg on the bag itself per person. That equates to another week out on the expedition. PARBAT’s packs are several kilos lighter so the difference that makes over five or six people means less trips up the glacier for example.
Compared to other fabrics / packs that you’ve used on these crazy adventures, how do you think the ALUULA material is holding up in terms of durability?
E: They don’t show any signs of wear! Unlike other fabrics they retain their shape well. Being able to thermoform the material onto the padding on the shoulder straps and hip belts makes a huge difference as it stops the degrading of the foam. They are the things you notice as you are wearing it for 10 hours a day.
On our last trip our thermometers stopped at -35 degrees. It was way below that, and it didn’t seem to make a difference. Other fabrics that absorb water get folds and bends in them and show signs and weakness.
Daniele, did you make any specific design adjustments for Feeding the Rat Expeditions.
D: All of the design features that you see on the 30L, the 50L etc are the same as the ones Ed and I worked together on for Feeding the Rat Expeditions. The experience Ed is having in the field is directly impacting my designs, making them more functional, lighter. We’ve been working together for about a year now. We still have room to make further improvements, but at the moment we are pleased with where we are at!
Ed, what big expeditions have these been on?
E: Everything we have done for over a year, Western China, Tibet, K2, G1, the list goes on. At any given moment there are a couple of them somewhere out on a peak. When ALUULA material came along we knew that this was going to be the material we wanted for our gear.
How are you really using them while you are out there?
E: The dream is to have one pack that can do it all. Carry, climb, haul. That was one of those fantasies before ALUULA came along. The other benefit of these is that you can check them as luggage. The idea that you can get something from your living room to the top of these peaks as one continuous journey not only saves weight but a lot of messing around! The semi-rigidity helps with this. If you were to make something that light out of anything else it would just feel like one of those eco-bags. It wouldn’t make it in the plane or being carried on a horse.
Daniele, what’s next for PARBAT and ALUULA?
Well, there are many projects, we will see some of these very soon, others require more time but one thing is for sure it will be something never seen before that I would define as unique. What I have always said since 2020 is there are already valid products on the market and we will never put a product on the market IF its not more technical and more valid than the present one, each piece of equipment will reflect the motto “Made for a reason”.
Ends
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