From the fell-britain.co.uk archives: Trakke Banana review

As soon as I heard about the Trakke Banana bag, I was intrigued. I’d already come across Trakke as friends who I’ve cycled with in Scotland were raving about their courier bags. I was intrigued to see if these “adventure carry” bags could make it off the bike and on to the fell. After some internet trawling, I discovered that I’d been beaten to it: the Trakke Krukke has been taken deep into the wilds and high into the Alps.

I decided it was time to get in touch with Trakke to see if they had any fell / hill / mountain runners looking at the Banana as a way of carrying kit. Alec at Trakke hadn’t had any runners interested yet - the Banana was a brand new product at the time - but didn’t think there would be a problem. He also recommended that instead of the waxed cotton version on the website, I might be better off with a ventile cotton version instead. On explaining that the ventile fabric is used by the British Antarctic Survey, I was totally won over as polar science and exploration are professional and personal passions of mine. I had a couple of worries before ordering, which Alec was quick to alleviate. The first was the length of the waist strap (I’m skinny and often can’t get them short enough) and the second was a way to compress the bag if I wasn’t using it full. One of the great things about dealing with companies manufacturing in the UK is that they can sort things like this out: Alec sorted a custom length of belt and added an adjustable strap to the top of the bag to compress it and stabilise the load when necessary.

When the bag arrived I had mixed reactions. The positive was the incredible build quality, which can only be enhanced by the lengths Trakke have gone to in sourcing their materials: buckles and sliders are stamped from sheet metal in Wales; zips are brought in from Leicestershire; and the webbing is woven in Derbyshire. However, I was initially worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit full fell running kit into the bag. I needn’t have worried at all, the Banana bag swallowed a waterproof jacket and trousers, compass, whistle, hat and gloves. So there wasn’t much room to spare, but it was doing the job. Now to test it out.

On Saturday 14th September, I was in Rossendale for the first running of the Turbine Tangle: a fell / orienteering event with the idea to visit each of the 26 wind turbines at the Scout Moor wind farm. On registering, I was told full kit was required. I’d taken my old bumbag with me, but was desperate to try the Trakke out so in went my kit, with the addition of my mobile and car key. I went for a quick warm up jog and everything seemed fine, so decided that I’d made the right call. And after two hours of the event, all I can say is I hardly noticed the bag was there - which is a ringing endorsement. I didn’t have any issues with it bouncing on the descents - a problem I’ve always had in the past - and it seemed very stable. The only problem was due to packing my car key next to my back and getting a small rub from it, but I won’t do that again.

At the time of writing the ventile version isn’t on the Trakke website, but head over there or to @TrakkeBasecamp on Twitter and get in touch if you want to take a handmade in Glasgow adventure carry bag on your next trip into the fells. it comes highly recommended.