[pct-l] To buckle or not to buckle

[wiclimber2004 at yahoo.com (WIclimber)]

msarahm@cox.net wrote:
A mountaineering friend gave me a tip a couple years ago that I've found helpful: unbuckle your hip belt before making a rock-climbing-ish move. This prevents the situation where you're leaning forward and the pack weight suddenly flops over your head, interfering with your balance. Without the hip belt buckled, the pack tends to hang heavily on your shoulders.

Maybe this is common knowledge, but it was new to me a couple years ago. It's especially useful off trail.

 

 

 

 

 

>From my experience (climbing, mtneering, ski mtneernig...), unbuckling would only make the matter worse.  To really prevent what you are talking about, you need to have a chest strap.  Many light-weight packs don't have those though, so the waist buckle would be better than nothing....if you have a waist strap on your pack.

 

If I'm climbing with a pack, both chest and waist belts are buckled and snugged up.  I've had too many packs flip over my head and wobble from side to side to do otherwise.

 

I'd be interested in hearing what other say.