David knew straight away, the first time he threw the pack on his back. “Its lightness took me by surprise,” he says. The Rab Latok is tough and holds its shape – and yet it feels like you're carrying an empty shell. No extra weight – just what you really need.
The Rab Latok 28 weighs just 810 g and is built from an exceptionally tough fabric combination – Cordura® with Spectra® fibres, which are fifteen times stronger than steel at the same weight. The top opening is a roll-top secured with an indestructible metal buckle.
What stands out most about the pack? “The fabric. It looks like it can survive absolutely anything,” David says without hesitation. He put the pack through its paces on ski tours in the Romanian Carpathians and in the Greek mountains of the Peloponnese – and it handled everything that was hung on its back. Literally. “It had two pairs of skis hanging off it – mine and my girlfriend's – and everything held rock solid.”
The pack's fabric combines Cordura® with Spectra® fibres – an extremely strong yet light textile that resists abrasion and tearing. All the important buckles are metal – no plastic that could snap in the frost.
The Latok isn't a soft, fancy pack for a Sunday stroll. But that's exactly why it proved itself so well. “It sits on your body like it's nailed there,” says David. Surprisingly, he also got on well with the back system – no frame sheet, but an extremely good fit and easy to pack down when you need to fold the pack away.
The X-SHIELD™ back panel sits close to the body and snow doesn't stick to it. The shoulder straps are softer at the top and thinner lower down, so they move naturally with your body. Load lifters help keep you stable when climbing.
At first glance it looked as if the Rab Latok had just one pocket. But David discovered two more smaller ones – one inside and one outside. “At first I thought it was one pocket with two openings. But it's divided – that's great.” Inside the main compartment there's plenty of space, and a few clever details help you keep track of things. You can hang anything on the pack – crampons, ice axes, a rope, skis.
The roll-top main compartment is complemented by an internal security pocket with a key clip and an external water-resistant pocket. The side compression straps are ready to carry skis, and the front loops take extra gear. You can secure a rope under the top strap with its metal buckle.
The most memorable moment? “My girlfriend and I were in Greece, the weather turned bad up top and everything iced over. We went up on skins, then on crampons. There was no chance of skiing back down.” So David strapped both his own skis and his girlfriend's to the side loops – and the pack took it without a murmur.
The Rab Latok 28 has a side ski-carry system and front HeadLocker™ attachments for two ice axes – just slide the toggle through the head of the axe. All the key straps finish in metal buckles that can handle frost and heavy loads.
The buckles. On the main closure, the hip belt and the side compression straps, they're all metal. David struggled with them a bit at first. “The metal buckles gave me trouble to begin with, but now I'm glad they're there. They don't freeze, they don't break, and I don't have to worry about them failing.”
The top opening is protected by a metal hook buckle. The hip belt has an aluminium buckle you can undo even with gloves on. The ends of all the main straps are secured with a metal hook with a reverse lock.
