Pa'lante Snow Pack Review: A Backcountry Pack Inspired by Ultralight Hiking

Pa’lante Snow Pack Quick Stats
Capacity: 33L
Weight: 23oz for black gridstop; 27oz for white ultraweave
Size: One Size (18” torso)
Material options: 210d UHWMPE Gridstop with Carbonate Lining and 3L Ultraweave 400TX

Pa’lante is not a name most skiers will know, but it's a staple in the ultralight thru-hiking world, having made waves on the backs of FKT record seekers since its 2016 launch. With running-vest style chest straps and a clever bottom mesh pocket, the Utah-based brand's minimalist bags have found crossover appeal in recent years for uses far beyond the hiking trail. Leaning into the opportunity—and on co-founder Andrew Bentz's extensive backcountry ski experience and years of prototyping—today, 7 February 2025, we see the introduction of the Pa'lante Snow Pack, the first bag designed specifically for backcountry skiing and snowboarding.

The Snow Pack ($330) is released alongside a new Alpine Pack ($240) for winter and summer climbing objectives (and made without a designated avy tool pocket or diagonal ski carry features), bringing the fast & light ethos of ultralight backpacking to greater mountain missions.

I was in the ultralight thru-hiking world when Pa’lante first captured the hearts of hardcore fanboys and have since switched to backcountry skiing as one of my primary outdoor pursuits. With this shared background I was excited to receive a sample for early testing and curious to explore how this ultralight adventure mentality could apply to backcountry skiing—without compromising safety. After multiple ski tours in the Wasatch and around Niseko, Japan, I have plenty to say about the minimalist new pack. Read on for my complete Pa'lante Snow Pack review.

Materials

The Pa’lante Snow Pack comes in either black or white. The black pack is made of 210d UHWMPE Gridstop with a thick, hydrophobic carbonate lining. The white pack, which I tested, is a classic 400d 3L Ultraweave 400TX, which is more durable and absorbs less water than the Gridstop pack.

Capacity and Sizing

The Snow Pack is 33 liters, both a comfortable size for everyday ski touring and also big enough to carry the essentials for ski mountaineering objectives. I had just enough room to fit a lightweight down jacket, shell, slim backcountry helmet, skins, small first aid and repair kit, and a mirrorless camera in the main compartment. The pack has a relatively narrow silhouette (the back panel is 10” wide) compared to other ski packs from popular brands like Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Osprey, and Patagonia, making it less likely to affect your form when skiing.

The pack comes in just one torso length, 18”. Though I typically wear Pa’lante’s 17” torso hiking backpacks, I did not notice the one-inch difference.

Features

The Snow Pack features a removable, semi-rigid back panel that sits flush with the wearer’s back. The panel is soft enough to mold to your torso and sit virtually unnoticed while skiing, skinning, and climbing, while still providing a bit of support for proper weight distribution.

The shoulder straps are designed to be low-profile and out of the way while climbing and skiing—hence the lack of pockets, usually staples on Pa’lante hiking packs. For the thru-hikers out there, they feel similar to a plush Mountain Laurel Designs strap. Bentz says that these straps will likely trickle down to Pa’lante’s hiking packs eventually. The Snow Pack also comes with a stashable 1.5 inch webbing hip belt but it does not have any hip pockets.

The Snow Pack features one external dedicated avalanche safety pocket with a waterproof zipper and four long, narrow cutouts that can neatly hold a shovel handle, probe, saw, and other safety items. The main compartment of the pack has two small internal pockets and closes with a drawstring.

The Snow Pack comes with four straps attached to two central daisy chains that allow for A-frame carry. A top strap allows for diagonal carry, though skiers will have to supply their own carabiner and voile strap for this option (which most of us already own). Right off the bat, Bentz recommends stripping all of these straps off the pack until needed. This lightens the pack and allows easier access to the side zipper and also draws aesthetic parallels to the streamlined Arc’teryx Alpha packs.

The Snow Pack can carry a splitboard, but requires two longer voile straps. It has a simple carry for two ice axes and a central shock cord for stashing crampons. It can also hold a rope securely across the top. It does not have a helmet harness system though, which may be contentious. That said, I was able to fit a slim helmet tucked vertically inside the pack. You can also cinch a helmet to the top by threading the pack’s strap through a helmet vent.

Impressions After Testing

As an avid gear tester and product copywriter for a popular ski retailer, it feels a bit odd to sing praises for a ski pack that’s notable for what it doesn’t have. For the past three years, I’ve written about the heaviest, most over-designed packs drowning in pockets, breakable zippers, and dated fabrics and wondered why there weren’t more cottage brands making interesting ski packs.

I’ve used the Pa’lante Snow Pack eleven times so far and it’s the only backcountry ski pack I’ve worn that actually disappears on the skin track and on the descent. This may boil down to its smaller size and the fact you can stash the hip belt, which I’ve always found restrictive and unnecessary on other packs. No matter, it makes it an almost-perfect daily driver for your average ski tour—especially ones that involve minimal gear, short mileage, and high vert. Pa’lante doesn’t look the part of a skimo bro but the snow pack has the heart of an 8k vertical day.

Access to everything you’ve packed is easy. The drawcord is fast to open and didn’t let any snow in, though it’s worth noting that skiers in areas prone to winter rain may need a more watertight seal.

The extra long side zipper also comes in handy when you need to efficiently grab something without taking your pack off. Much like thru-hiking, there’s a strategy to packing an ultralight ski bag like this—essentials on the bottom, anything extra on top. This isn’t the pack for the skier who carries so much stuff that they need back panel access to visualize it all at once.

The external avalanche gear pocket is designed better than other similar-minded packs on the market. For example, the avy gear housing on the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Headwall is accessible, but I’ve never liked the way the pocket protrudes like an afterthought. The Raide Research LF and SB packs split the shovel handle and probe from the shovel blade, which could in theory increase response time in an avalanche emergency but it seems like an over-design.

The top strap helmet carry option can’t accommodate popular backcountry-esque helmets with Koroyd in the vents like the Smith Vantage and that will be a problem for some skiers. Larger helmets will not fit well inside, either. And this is one place where the skimo “ultralight” vs “lightweight” philosophies come into full force—Pa’lante as true ultralight and everyone else as lightweight.

Bentz maintains that external helmet harnesses are unnecessary. And anyway, the pack is not meant for the skiers who want to take their helmets on and off. It’s intended for those who prioritize quicker transitions—leaving the helmet on for the whole tour, stashing skins in the jacket for the ski down to avoid removing the pack (this will help keep skin glue warm and malleable, too, btw).

There’s a time when I also would have gone down the r/ultralight rabbit hole proclaiming that helmet harnesses are unnecessary and for that matter just wear an emergency poncho instead of a ski shell! But that extremism has faded with age. I agree in theory more than practice that we should be wearing helmets on the skintrack and don’t think helmet harnesses are a great design but for now, users who have bulkier helmets can attach an off-brand elasticated harness to the daisy chains (my Blue Ice one fits well).

Final Thoughts on the Pa'lante Snow Pack

As much as I love this pack, it's for a very specific user. I don’t think it will revolutionize backcountry skiing the way Pa'lante ultralight packs did thru-hiking. Backcountry skiers simply don’t have the pressure to cut weight the way thru-hikers do, so I don’t see them all rising up against Big Feature. I still think it’s going to sell out, as Pa’lante packs tend to do, but non thru-hikers are going to knock the lack of features and the fact that this pack is designed for a niche, borderline skimo individual. I think most people can look at some mass-produced packs and acknowledge that they’re over-designed, but charging more for fewer features is a tough sell.

Then again, paying more to have less—sometimes a lot more for a lot less—is the entire idea behind ultralight activities like thru-hiking and ski mountaineer racing. Minimizing burdens to move further and faster is elitist and will attract a select group of skiers who have the passion and budget to support small businesses with cutting edge fabrics. It’s a fine line between “ultralight” and “lightweight” but this particular demographic is highly attuned to these differences.

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