Gear Review - Arc’teryx Micon 32 backpack
The Micon is the headline skiing pack from Canadian stalwart Arc’teryx. But does it live up to the brand’s exacting standards?
It probably doesn’t seem like it to many, but a backpack is an essential piece of off-piste ski gear, along the same lines as a transceiver or even a pair of skis. At a foundational level, your backpack is what carries your shovel and probe, allowing you to effect a rescue in the event of an avalanche.
But on a day-to-day level, too, backpacks are also incredibly useful. From stashing spare layers to water bottles and snacks, getting the right backpack for your skiing is essential to ensure you are comfortable throughout your skiing day. Skiing Unlocked has been testing the Micon 32 - as the Alpha SK 32 - for the last couple of years all over the world: here is Skiing Unlocked's review of the Arc'teryx Micon 32 backpack.
The Brand
The Micon is the headline skiing offer from Arc’teryx, a Canadian brand that has grown into serious player in the outdoor market in the past thirty years. Based in Vancouver – North Vancouver, to be precise – a stone’s throw from the dramatic and incredibly mountains of the Coastal Ranges, their commitment to excellence in everything they do has set their technical gear apart as, consistently, some of the best on the market.
Just a quick note before we go any further. I have owned and skied with the Alpha SK 32 for the last couple of years; this is a first-generation predecessor of the Micon 32. The name change occurred a couple of years ago, to bring the Micon more in line with Arc'teryx normal naming systems - particularly to move it away from "Alpha" which is reserved for their climbing gear. Fundamentally, however, the bags are identical – only the names are different.
Oh, and one more thing - this is the non-airbag version. If you're looking for the Micon Litric, the airbag version, I've yet to get my mitts on them for testing so if anyone from Arc'teryx is reading this, DM me and I'll forward you my address ...
The Bag
First impressions are generally good. The Micon has a mixed design, going for simplicity in some areas and more complex features in others. The backplate is simple, smooth, devoid of airflow features, a recognition that these are mostly a waste of time, space and weight on when there are so many layers between your back and the bag! Similarly, the shoulder and waist straps are of a super simple design.
The colour and material are well thought out, although Arc’teryx no longer offer the blue that my pack comes in – instead, you are left with a highlighter yellow or black, both colours that work well with Arc’teryx current range of jackets and help you stand out on the hill, but can be a little … over-stimulating at times.
There’s no threat to damage the pack; a mix of 210 and 400 denier ripstop nylon resists everything the slopes can through at you, from rocks and sticks to falling over on concrete outside the lodge (hey it happens, okay?). My pack remains unscathed after a couple of seasons of serious use and misuse. I've since tested other bits of kit that don't have such a tough material, and there's a confidence that comes with having a pack so well constructed.
Finally, the roll down top is a well thought out feature for ski tours, allowing you to stuff your jacket in when transition to the skin track. This was one of my favourite features of the pack, and something I really missed with other packs. You could just stuff your jacket in the top and let the roll down top do the hard work, without a thought in the world. A really well designed addition to the pack from even earlier predecessors.
Drawbacks
Normally, these would all be features that, on the balance of things, swing a review into the positive. But as much good as there is with the pack, there is plenty bad, too. There are a plethora of straps – too many, in fact. And these straps are held in place with the most bizarre clips you have seen, that require twisting and tugging to take apart quickly, something that I found almost impossibly fiddly to do. Whilst they are great to use when strapping your skis on for a bootpack, in everyday use they risk driving you up the wall.
32 litres is pretty big for a ski pack. However the way this space is used is really poor. The pack is split into two narrow pockets, which are tricky to get in and out of with the narrow opening – somewhat redeemed by the ability to access the back pocket via the roll down top. This means that things sit awkwardly in the bag, and you need to dig around to access whatever you need; water bottles don’t sit well, and the awkward space means it is tricky to use the pack off the skin track, especially if you want a multi-purpose pack that you can take on the plane on the way out to resort.
I’ve found that this bag is only really useful for ski touring; the restrictive nature of the space and straps means this pack loses a huge amount of value when skiing lift-access or on-piste.
There is, however, a fatal flaw with the design of this pack. Avalanche safety gear – probe, shovel handle and shovel head – are stored in the front pocket, where you'll find sleeves for holding shovel handle and probe. This pocket is restricted by the same space limitations and overly cumbersome straps as the back pocket, massively slowing down your ability to access this gear in an emergency.
This is absolutely unforgivable, especially for a brand that extolls itself as a pioneer of backcountry and off-piste skiing. It is such a design oversight that I can’t believe it actually got made in the first place. Your avi gear needs to be accessible instantaneously; almost all other brands have a panel that will almost entirely rip off to provide easy, simply, instant access to your avi gear. This is not a time to be experimental or pioneering; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
In an emergency, you waste valuable seconds rooting around to lever your gear out of the sleeves they are stowed in. Your shovel head doesn’t sit comfortably in the pocket, getting in the way both when skiing and when trying to get stuff out in an emergency, and the straps you have attached are too fiddly to rip open in a flash. Finally, because space is so poorly thought out elsewhere, you have been forced to put a couple of items in your avi gear pocket, further slowing down your avalanche rescue.
Again, this is unforgivable. In an emergency situation, you have to access your avi gear speedily. The degree to which the Micon slows down your ability to access this is an incredible oversight at best, or design flaw at worst. There is one design change between the Alpha SK and the Micon; the zip pull for the avi gear pocket is a contrasting colour …
Great, thanks for that …
Final Thoughts
The Micon is, generally, a very good ski touring backpack. But the specialist nature of the design makes it tricky to use for other things – even other forms of skiing – and the really poor design of the avi gear pocket makes this, fundamentally, a piece of gear that I'm not sure I can ever recommend.
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