Old Packs rediscovered.

[kanangra]

We were having a bit of a clean out today and amongst my old climbing and caving gear I found two packs both in reasonable condition but quite old. One may even be a museum piece?

Both are made of canvas. One by a company known as "High tops Equipment" of PO Box 98 Glenbrook. Anybody heard of them? I would say it was of late '70's vintage. It is frameless with nylon straps and plastic buckles. It has one compartment with a large pocket on the outside. It has a zippered pocket on the under side of the top flap. The straps are padded as is the back though on the inside of the canvas.

The other is older still. I would say '60's at the latest, possibly even earlier. It is a Paddy Palin "Explorer Model" It has the cross over leather straps over the top flap. All the straps are leather and there is absolutely no padding anywhere. It has an external metal frame with leather and nylon webbing straps to protect the back. Again it has one large compartment with a huge throat. It has a pocket on front of the pack with two leather straps closed with buckles. There is not a single zipper on it. Nor is there a waist belt. It looks very like the pack that one of our party carried with 90lbs. of gear on a 16 day trip in the South west in 1977.

They don't make gear like this any more.

K

[DaveNoble]

HIgh Tops packs were made by my good friend Tom Williams. He had a cottage industry going for a while. His packs are simple and strong. Good for scrub bashing and scrambling. They are made not from canvas, but from ether superdux or cordux - fabrics made from either terylene with a cotton sheaf or alternate cotton and terylene threads - the idea being to have the waterproofness of cotton (it swells when wet, preventing further water ingress) and the abrasion resistance of terylene. Some Paddy Pallin packs of that era were made from the same fabrics. Tom made packs from about 1980, and still makes the odd one or two. I still use High Tops packs for many trips - particularly those in rough country.

Paddy Pallin's Explorer was one of the company's first H frame packs. Its larger "brother" was the "Mountaineer". I can remember a friend with an Explorer remarking that the pack could hold a case of beer (24 cans) and still have room for a sleeping bag. I don't know if that was ever used in marketing campaigns though. I think the pack would have been made from about the late 60's until the mid 70's. My 1972 Paddy Pallin Catalog has them for $30.

Dave

[Strider]

They don't make gear like this any more.

THANK GOD!!!

[HitchHiking]

They sound awesome!

Photos?

[Borismilo]

Unfortunate that hey don't make them anymore! I bought a small High Tops backpack in 1985 or 86. I wanted to get some repairs done on mine - nothing major, just edging had frayed and could not find them. I've used my pack just about daily for the past 30 years. It is fantatic! I only came across this post - I seem to have a knack of bad timing - when I was searching for "High Tops Equipment" with Google.

Does anyone make packs similar to these anymore? That is waterproof and strong?

Boris.