Imlay Canyon Gear - Rope Silo - GearReview.com
By Matt Smith

For several years now I have been using cross-over or European products as my primary canyoneering gear, mostly because that is all I could find. Over the last 18 months, a friend and colorado plateau native Tom Jones (remember JRAT climbing gear...same guy!) has been growing a company that provides colorado plateau specific canyoneering gear. The company? Imlay Canyon Gear. Over the next several months we will be featuring several items from his bomber collection.

This month we are looking at the Rope Silo. We chose to test the medium size as it fits a 60 M or 220 ft 9 mm rope (a handy custom length) perfectly. The medium size also fits a 100 M 8 mm rope very well.

Capacity: The Rope silo comes in small, medium, and large. As mentioned above, the medium is a very practical size. If you do much exploring, the large size can accommodate longer, larger ropes of course, but becomes close to the same size as a rope pack, which would eliminate a little weight over going with the rope bag + pack combination. The stiffend rim and convenient webbing loops make it easy and efficient to stuff rope into the bag solo by hanging the Rope Silo off your harness. Even with an extra set of hands holding the bag, the self-opening rim allows much more working space as your buddy's hands don't have to be inside the lip of the bag holding it open.

Durability: As the namesake implies, Imlay Canyon Gear is pretty bomber, particularly if you don't hang it and drag it through mae-west canyons. Because the Rope Silo is intended to slip inside a backpack, it really didn't suffer terrible abrasion, other than wounds inflicted from bouncing off obstacles on the way to the bottom. One of the handles did start to tear out of the pack. I talked to Imlay Canyon Gear customer service who informed me this was an infrequent manufacturing problem with the early models which has since been corrected. They offered to repair the handle at no charge. Excellent customer service is tough to find these days, and I appreciated Imlay Canyons Gear's.

Comfort: Because the Rope Silo is intended to be carried primarly inside another pack, the strap system is minimal. Most of the time the single adjustable sling type strap was sufficient, but when exploring new canyons I sometimes wished there was another strap so I could carry the bag backpack style. For the minimal weight, I think it would be a welcome addition.

Summary: The Imlay Canyon Gear Rope Silo is my favorite rope bag. It is the right size to easily slip inside many daypacks and canyon packs. It is abrasion resistant, drains quickly, and for the minimal price of $70, you can't beat the quality. <

For more information contact:
Tom Jones
Imlay Canyon Gear
Canyoneering USA
www.imlaycanyongear.com
2625 S State Street
Mt Carmel, UT 84755
435-648-3089

Matt Smith is the canyoneering specialist at GearReview.com, and always gets stuck carrying the longest damn rope!