Peak PS Compact Line Review | George Fell
The Compact Line - I mean, it’s just a bag of floaty rope innit? Well yes... and also no.
- It’s the way to lower my boat into the Findhorn gorge when it’s too low to paddle Randolph’s Leap.
- It’s a hand line to get on to the Braan gorge.
- It’s part of my tracking system to move my open canoe upstream without having to lift it out of the river.
- Shhhh! It’s also the washing line that my gear dries on in the Alps.
- It holds my tarp up overnight, by the side of the river in Nepal.
- It’s part of a mechanical advantage system to shift a pinned canoe.
Oh yes; apparently you can also throw it at swimmers to drag them out of the river.
This bag is slightly longer and thinner than other compact lines, which means it sits really nicely clipped into the middle of my boat and tends not to come adrift no matter many different axes I rotate around.
It has 8mm polyprop with a breaking strain of at least 10 KN before you start putting knots in it. Thicker rope would be easier to hold on to, but what you gain is a useful 18m of rope in a compact bag, which weighs just over 500g (dry).
In a remarkable design breakthrough, it has a bag that’s actually big enough to pack all the rope back into, even when you’re paddling in January and your hands stopped working a couple of hours ago. It also has a metal O-ring at the bag end, giving a really obvious point to attach a krab.
Most importantly (as a tight Yorkshireman, albeit one who’s been in Scotland for the last couple of decades) my compact bag is coming to the end of its second season and it’s still going strong. I’m generally sceptical about press studs on bags, but these ones are still working just fine and show no signs of seizing up or pulling through the fabric.
So yes, it is just a bag of floaty rope, but this is one that I personally get on with, and it seems to be built to last.
Words: George Fell
Model: Jon Best on location River Derwent.
Images: Peak PS
