Climbing Mount Elbrus for dummies: Gear Review: First Ascent Yak Sac

My choice of duffel bag for our expedition was the First Ascent 120l Yak Sac. It was recommended to me by numerous people as it is strong, large and the price is really good.
As we had booked our trip through Adventure Dynamics International, we got a great 15% discount on all goods purchased from Trappers Trading, so that is where I bought my bag.
Retail price is around R900-1000, prices do vary by store so shop around!

This bag is enormous! I love enormous....but seriously you could fit a few bodies in there for sure..

The bag looks shiny as it is coated in a product to make it waterproof - an absolute must for any expedition.

I had absolutely no problem fitting all my goodies into this bag, and there was space left!!

The bag is super sturdy and I was happy that my gear (worth thousands and thousands of rands) would be quite safe inside whilst travelling. I could also attach a lock to the zips for safety.

I did line my bag with black garbage bags, but you can line it with proper liners from Cape Union Mart or any other store specialising in outdoor equipment. I'm glad I did this as some of the groups bags were a bit wet on the bottom inside after the bags were dragged through some snow on the snow cat. Mine was fine and also all my gear was packed into individual zip lock bags anyway.

The great thing about this bag is that it has the extra straps which are stowed in its own little pocket on the top - easily converting it to a back pack to be carried if necessary. The straps are sewn onto the bag on the one side, so they cannot go missing once you take them out of the pouch. We did have to use the straps at times and it worked really well on the guys, I didn't even attempt it on my back as the bag is almost longer than I am!

The Verdict:

I would definitely recommend this bag, and I am planning on using it to Aconcagua and to a few other mountains in my future! A little tip: tie some ribbon or something onto the bag to make it easily recognisable to you at airports etc - we had about 6 of them together so this helped me a lot!