As we MARCHed the Thames Trot 50 mile Ultra on Sat 2 Feb we race tested Saloman’s Advance Skin S-Lab 5 hydration pack. Here’s the MARCH Memo giving you the low down:
– How it looks (alongside some critical MARCH accessories!) =
– Bottom line = Not perfect but very good. Better than any other hydration pack we have worn. Less bounce and less rub. They say it is formfitting – and it is. Fits the torso almost like a glove. Couple of niggles (watch this space, one could be a kit killer…) but a quality piece of race kit.
– Basic facts = Best price we found on the net was £108 so top end price wise. It’s light (640 g), comes with a 1.5l bladder and 1 large pocket, 5 smaller pockets (3 zip and 2 drawstring), 1 spare removable zip pocket and one open ended stuff loop.
– Good points = Lets take them in the order they matter:
1. Form and fit. Saloman have done something the MARCH applaud. They have taken an existing product/concept and made a simple but substantial tweak – that delivers. They have built a hydration pack that follows the form of the human body and naturally hugs the curve of your torso. They have then binned the waist belt (so sensible – with a dodgy belly after a long ultra the last thing you need is a tight waist belt) and built in 2 double elastic chest belts. With the shape of the pack they work perfectly to limit bounce and rub but leave your stomach and diaphragm free making for a comfortable fit. It feels great on the back. Seamless and fluid in motion.
2. Front pockets. No matter where you plan to place in the race, stopping to take your pack off to access rear pockets for vital food is a heart breaker. As shown below, Saloman have placed 3 pockets on the front. They have really built the pack and straps around integrating the front pockets. All easily accessible while running. And they’ve mixed it up with 2 drawstrings and 1 zip. The zip was (just) big enough to fit our Nokia mobile. One drawstring was big enough for an iPhone, an energy bar and some nuts. The other drawstring managed an energy bar, 2 tubes of gels and a bag of yoghurt coasted raisins. Plenty of food for 5 or 6 hours running – without having to take the pack off!
3. Delivering hydration. They have re-routed the hydration tube so it comes up the right strap from the bottom, rather than coming over the shoulder. That worked in terms of ease of accessibility to the mouth piece but also, added user convenience. With the traditional over the shoulder approach we find you always have to reach back and try and find it when you put the pack on as it is hanging down your back somewhere, which is a real pain.
– Bad points = Again, taken in order of priority:
1. Leaking bladder. Now, this might end up being a game changing kit killer but we’re giving Saloman a second chance….At the MARCH, our designers are told all kit must be ‘Super Funky and Super Functional’. Functionality means it must work and must not fail. And on a first outing over a 50 mile race the hydration pack failed – it leaked! We’re giving them the benefit of the doubt and a second chance as there is a possibility that it was driver error – but in truth, kit should flatter a learner driver and we’ve done a few more miles than that. The problem seems to result from the way the hydration tube is threaded up from the bottom. It is not easily removable so instead, the tube is removable from the bladder. To take the bladder out to re-fill (if you choose that route, rather than leaving it in the pack to re-fill, which you could) you unclip the tube from the bladder to remove the bladder. As with any simple plumbing connection it depends on a rubber o-ring to seal the male and female connector. And after one day of racing our o-ring is looking haggard and pinched. Between one set of check points it didn’t seal properly and we lost fluid – if it wasn’t 2 degrees C and if we were sweating a bit more that would have been critical! Might be we didnt clip it together properly…but we’re worried it was a failing o-ring (on the first outing!):
2. Flapping mouthpiece. The hydration tube has good support as it runs up the strap but the last section is unsupported – no doubt to give it flexibility to be able to pull it to your mouth to drink, without tilting your head. That works but it also means there is enough length to flap annoying around, hitting your top strap and making you fixate in an insanely grumpy manner only available when you are miles in to an ultra. We found it was possible to tuck it under one of the straps in the vicinity but it would be helpful to have an additional tube clip higher up its length.
3. Size. Not really the packs fault but the main compartment is quite small. That is intentional because it is meant to be a light weight race pack. We were racing 8 hours in a London winter and it struggled to fit all the layers we needed to carry. And 1.5l hydration isn’t going to get you much past 3 hours running – less if its hot. Saloman produce an S-LAB 12 which would be worth considering for longer runs where support is sporadic and kit needs are greater.
4. Storage. We’re loathe to criticise a cool feature but…the pack comes with a spare zip pocket. The zip pockets velcro on, so the idea is that a supporter can have one pocket filled with goodies and throw it to you as you steam in to a check point. You then rip the old empty one off and give it back to be filled for the next check point, sticking the new one on. Cool! But as you will see in the photo above there is space on one strap to mount the second pocket – 4 front pockets would be good for long runs. BUT, they haven’t put any velcro on that strap – we’ll be gluing some to our one!
That’s our view – MARCH on!
PS: Since this plog we wrote to the Saloman supplier about the valve fault above. They couriered us a replacement straightaway and that has been fine. Maybe a one off flaw in our original bladder? Maybe [fatigued] driver error??
