Salomon has been hitting it hard these days with their release of backcountry ski gear like the Quest 12 boots, Guardian bindings and also the Quest 30 backcountry pack. I’ve been hauling my gear on ski tours in the Wasatch with the Quest 30 on my back for the past month, and like all of Salomon’s backcountry-specific gear, this pack has me enamored.
The Salomon Quest 30 is specifically designed to be used as a winter backpack for ski touring or any other cold-weather activity. Certain features like soft contour shoulder straps, adjustable belt with large winter buckle, one main compartment, goggle pocket, two internal side pockets for probe and shovel handle, one zipped belt pocket, one external technical compartment, ice axe carrier, poles carrier, and ski carriers on the sides all add up to make the Quest 30 a backcountry skier’s best friend.
I traveled many miles in the Wasatch with the Salomon Quest 30 and appreciated that it lived up to the most important aspect of any pack: the best packs are the ones you forget you’re wearing. Such is the case with the Quest 30 as the straps, hip belt and back panel are all comfortable and allow freedom of movement. The pack is also designed to be low profile in a way that it doesn’t ever swing from side to side while skinning. The pack stays in place, secure and physically invisible.
I love the clamshell-style zipper opening on the main compartment that makes the pack easy to stuff full of gear, and allows for quick retrieval of stuff like a puffy, extra gloves or safety gear. Internal side pockets keep a shovel handle and probe pole organized while the shovel head fits perfectly inside the main pocket.
A top exterior goggle pocket is lined with fleece to keep expensive lenses from scratching, but I also found it to be the ideal place to keep food and tools like a pocket knife, clinometer and sunscreen. The back panel pocket is the perfect size to store skins for the descent and keeps those wet carpet strips away from the other contents in the pack. I also found the waist-belt pocket to be ideal for a digital camera and was easily accessed so I could whip it out to catch some powder shots when my touring partners skied by.
I’m also impressed with this pack due to smaller details that Salomon thought of. Good examples include the large carry handle on the top of the pack, which makes it easy to pick up with gloved hands, as well as the oversized zipper pulls which prevented fumbling around searching for a zipper – again something made easier while wearing gloves. Also, the ski-carry system is to die for. With the low snowpack we had this winter in Utah, we ended up doing some bootpacking, and I loved how easy it was to strap my skis to the pack, A-frame style. I simply slid my ski tails through the rubber-sheathed straps at the bottom of the pack, then cinched the compression straps at the top. I had a seriously smug feeling after it was all done within a few minutes while my friends struggled to arrange their skis on their own packs.
I do have one dislike about the Salomon Quest 30 pack, concerning the hydration system. A slot for a hydration bladder is found in the main compartment, and two holes in the pack’s top allows routing of a hydration tube. However, there’s no good place to put the bite valve from there, either on the sternum or shoulder straps. An insulated sleeve on the shoulder strap would be nice, because without one, the tube and bite valve froze in short order on a cold day.
At the end of the day though, the Salomon Quest 30 is a badass pack. It looks good, feels great when worn, and has all the features a serious backcountry skier would come to expect in a pack that needs to perform all day in the mountains. If there’s any doubt about that, the Quest 30 won Outside Magazine’s 2011 Fall Buyer’s Guide Gear of the Year award. I say it’s deserving of that distinction, as the Quest 30 is further proof that Salomon is a serious leader in the backcountry skiing market.
For more information about the Salomon Quest 30, check it out on Salomon’s website.
Stats:
Weight: 1110 grams
Volume: 30 liters
Dimensions: 55x22x20 cm