March 26

SALOMON XA 15L BACKPACK: ULTRA TRAIL BACKPACK, ALPINE TREKKING AND MORE.

Posted by Héctor Rubio on March 26, 2021 in trail running gear, trail running spain | Leave a comment

SALOMON XA 15L BACKPACK: ULTRA TRAIL BACKPACK, ALPINE TREKKING AND MORE. A new concept. Trail running and mountain backpacks offer a wider range every day. Today we present an interesting backpack within the Salomon XA range with an outstanding personality.

This 15L Salomon XA will be a good companion in big ultras, from UTMB to Tor des Geants. But in addition, they are designed for all kinds of mountain uses, seeking maximum lightness.

SALOMON XA 15L BACKPACK: ULTRA TRAIL BACKPACK,
ALPINE TREKKING AND MORE.

As you well know, the concept of moving fast and light is now active everywhere. The idea behind this whole range SALOMON XA is to have backpacks of the French brand not only to run with a bib number but which are also worth it to go further on great journeys where we really must carry all equipment with us, like for example the PTL in Chamonix, a Transpirenaica or the Way of St. James.

Hence the new SALOMON XA range launches three complementary models of 15L-25L-35. As another option, to go faster and lighter are the classic Salomon Sense for mountain racing, as the newly released Salomon Sense Pro 10L. Moreover, to go quieter and carry more stuff, there is the Salomon Out Day range, like this Salomon Out Day 20+4L: In fact, for me this range is presented almost as a natural successor to the very effective Salomon Peak.
A concept that was born a couple of years ago. With them, our partner Alex Fraguela has shone in the Marathon des Sables carrying weights of 5 to 10 kilo, clothes and food for a week, also managing to get the silver medal in th eteam classification, after the all-powerful Moroccan team. The goal from Salomon for this 2020 is to see what can be done better, with the new XA range.

We go with the three backpacks, separately, seeing that none seeks to be a hyperlight weight, but offer solidity of construction and versatility of use. In this way, the weights are as follows: For the 15L we add 347 grams; for the 25L we go to 443 grams and up to 520 grams for a 35L porteo. For reference, it should be remembered that until a few years ago, the traditional travel backpack was in about a kilo and a half. Let’s go with the details of the most compact in the range.

SALOMON XA 15L: DATA SHEET.

Price: 120€. Up to 40€ cheaper than the brand new Salomon Sense Pro 10L. Not bad…
Weight: 347 grams plus soft drums (about 80 grams) Weighs almost 200 grams more with them than Sense. But in return, we have many more belts, volume and waterproofness. The weight, if we have to take a lot of things for many days, is not everything.
SEGMENTED FABRICS. It combines many different fabrics, desicpiration at each point more flexility, (center back for volume) breathability (straps and inner back) or resistance to tearing and water (bottom and backpack cap.
WARRANTY FINISHES. Tensioners to reduce volume in front, back and sides, carriers, whistle, reflective.
MULTIPLE POCKETS: For the drums, for front port under drum, with zipper, the large rear bag… and up to two pockets in the shirts that will come from film to store the used gel or the role of the bar, among other things.

SALOMON XA 15: A PECULIAR DESIGN.

The real challenge when making a medium volume backpack, like these, that you will carry throughout the Marathon des Sables, Way of St. James or similar, is to combine two needs:

On the one hand, it is vital that the more weight you carry the better it fits, for which you have to work what designers call weight transfer, which is why the set of loads between shoulders and hips is here vital, unlike mountain racing backpacks where we trust everything to the shoulders because they are not intended to carry beyond 5kg.

The second challenge is constant comfort: We’re not talking about backpacks to share 2, 3 or up to 10 hours together, like in mountain races. But companions for 4-8hours daily for a week or more.

From there come developments such as the set of shoulder straps and backpacks, the textile ps with basic waterproofness (1,500mm) to protect for a rain shower but not against a strom, which continues to demand waterproof backpack covers. Even that watery top closure, taken from bags initially developed for whitewater sports such as rafting and canoeing.

The assembly is finished in each case with multiple tensioners to increase/decrease volume as required as well as external anchor or port points. Now, we will try them thoroughly for you, in order to share real conclusions as soon as possible.