DAKINE Heli Pro II Review
Everyone knows that the worst thing about skiing is when you have to carry the skis. Whether it’s having to walk half a mile in your ski boots with your skis over your shoulder to get from the parking lot to the base lodge, trekking the rocky hiking trails to get to the snowfields, or hopping off the chair lift only to realize you still have another 1,000 ft to climb before you reach that chute you’ve been eyeing. Whatever the case may be, lugging your skis around can be a pain. Enter the DAKINE!
Sorry. Weak transition. We can’t afford good ones. The Heli Pro II is one of DAKINE’s second generation snow sport backpacks. If you’re unfamiliar with DAKINE, they make apparel and sports gear for alternative sports like skiing/snowboarding, surfing, windsurfing, and skateboarding. Also, since I had no idea how I was supposed to pronounce it for so long: it’s də ˈkaɪn. Like duh-k-ine. With a long i sound. Or however you want to pronounce it. Compared to its first generation model, the Heli Pro II offers a cleaner front face while being larger as well (28L compared to the 24L and 20L predecessors).
It’s main features include:
- Vertical snowboard carry with 3rd strap as well as dual-diagonal and A-frame ski carry options: The main feature of a skiing backpack is, of course, its ability to carry your skis. It’s nice that you get the option of how to carry your skis with this bag. The A-frame style uses the compression straps on both sides to hold the skis. Alternatively, you can use one of the bottom compression straps along with the strap and hook in the top pocket to carry the skis diagonally. The compression straps can also be used to carry your snowboard vertically by buckling the two top straps to each other, and same with the bottom. Actually getting your skis or snowboard into the straps can always be a bit of a challenge if you’ve already got your gloves on. The buckles are fairly small, so you might feel a bit clumsy with gloves on. The easiest way is to lose the gloves for a minute and lay your backpack on the floor to strap in your gear.
- Back panel zippered main access: The back face unzips to reveal the main pocket, where most of the volume is. Being on the face of the backpack, this is as far from quick-access as you get. However, the benefit of this design is that if you’ve got your skis or board strapped in, you can still open the main pocket. Note that it’s not quite a clamshell opening like the Cotopaxi Allpa or the Minaal Daily. Instead of the entire back face opening, it’s just part of it that unzips.
- The inside of the back opening has a hydration sleeve that accommodates a 2 liter bladder. Unfortunately, there is no grommet for the drinking tube and mouth piece to go through so you’d have to leave a little space unzipped (at least none that I could find… but maybe I’m just blind).
- Zippered vertical side pocket that can fit a slim water bottle. It’s much deeper than you’d think by looking at the outside of it, but not wide enough to fit a large bottle like the regular Nalgenes. Also a great place to store snacks on the go. M&Ms anyone?
- Another large compartment on the front allows you to keep your snow tool / shovel. A necessary tool if you’re trekking in the backcountry. It includes two sleeves in the middle of it to hold the tools in place.
- At the top and toward the back is a “large-volume zippered attic pocket”. I don’t really know what qualifies it as large-volume, but it also has a zippered mesh pocket inside, so it’s a good place to store any valuables as it is still easy to access, but has the security of two layers of zippers.
- On the top of the front face is a fleece-lined goggles pocket. This pocket is very well-designed as it is actually deep enough to hold goggles. It also has a fleece-lined divider in the middle so you can put other things in there and not worry about them scratching up your goggles.
- No snow sport bag would be complete with a quick-draw ice axe loop! To use it, just drop the axe into the loop handle downward. Then rotate the handle upward and tuck it under one of the compression straps. I don’t have an ice axe, so here is a hammer to demonstrate.
- The hipbelt is great in that they added a small pocket on one side and a utility strap on the other. It adds a great deal of functionality to the hip belt. However, the hipbelt is also pretty flimsy as it doesn’t have a ton of padding, and is fairly short, so it wasn’t designed to help carry much load. The padded portion only reaches my sides, they don’t wrap around my waist. But that might mean I’m a bit too plump.
- In the middle of the front face is a vertical slash pocket that has a net to hold your helmet. The net stretches across the front of the bag and has two hooks that you can attach to the lashpoints. I also have a fat head, so my helmet is pretty big. The straps have to be near their loosest configuration to hold my helmet in place.
- The sternum strap also features a built in rescue whistle, like many outdoor bags these days do.
Other features that a worth pointing out on the backpack include:
- Stabilizer straps on the shoulder straps that help make the backpack fit better
- Zipper tabs on all exterior zips for easy grabbing (very helpful when you’re wearing ski gloves)
- Hidden pockets on both the shoulder straps, though only the left side has a zipper. The right side unveils the sternum strap adjustment lashes.
Construction
The exterior fabrics are made of 630 D nylon and 400 D ripstop nylon — here’s a refresher on fabrics. That’s some pretty strong materials, which should be expected for something intended for sports. It’s also water resistant, which is essential for snow sports. All the straps, including the handles and the ones holding your skis feel very durable and while the buckles are all plastic, they don’t feel like cheap fragile plastic. The only metal component is the hook for the strap that holds your skis when carrying them diagonally, which is probably because of all the hooks and buckles, that is the one that will have to hold the heaviest load. The hooks for the helmet net are plastic, though since your helmet should weigh very little, there is no problem there. The zippers are all YKK.
In the field
Outside of skiing, I’ve also tried this backpack for some day hiking and for travel as a carry-on bag. It should come as no surprise that its usefulness in those aspects isn’t quite as good as it is for skiing (though it’s still not too bad either).
For hiking, the main drawback is the lack of a water bottle holder/pocket. I know… I complain about that on half my backpacks. I understand that it isn’t as needed for a skiing backpack since any sort of wipeout or yard sale is going to turn your water bottle into a projectile and in sub-zero temps your water bottle is just going to freeze. So can’t really complain about that. Another issue is that the main compartment is accessed through the back, which makes it inconvenient to get anything out of there. So when hiking, I’d just store anything I want quick access to in another pocket. Again, this is (probably) an intentional design so that you can access the main compartment even when carrying skis.
As a carry-on bag, it’s actually half decent. It does lack all the organizational aspects of actual travel/EDC bags, particularly a laptop sleeve. But keeping anything you don’t need quick access to in the main back-accessed compartment keeps it all out of your way. Then when you go into the other compartments to find something (e.g., your passport), it’s easy to grab.
HOWEVER, one of the first things I noticed when I put the backpack on is that I can feel the top of the back-access panel jutting out into my back. Even through a couple layers of clothing, including my skiing jacket (albeit it’s a shell), I can still feel it on my back, right between my shoulder blades. It’s really annoying at first and I kind of got used to it after a while. But whenever I take the backpack off and then put it back on again, I notice it. You can kind of push it inward so that it doesn’t jut out as much, and that does help slightly.
While we’re on the topic of the back, there is a decently thick layer of foam padding with breathable mesh on the back face. It doesn’t quite have the toughness of closed-cell foam, but is also not as soft as open-cell. So maybe it’s a hybrid of some sort. There is a thin layer of the same foam and mesh on the shoulder straps and on the hip belt as well.
The other issue that I find really annoying about this bag is that the zippers on the largest pocket on the front ALWAYS get stuck near the top, where the inner nylon lining is folded. Since this is caused by the way the bag is stitched, I imagine it would happen in all of the units, which means it’s a major design flaw (at least in my books).
One last difficulty I’ve found with the Heli Pro II is that the buckles are a little bit small when trying to work with them while wearing ski gloves. I can still clip and unclip them, it just takes a bit of fidgeting because of how fat my fingers are when wearing the gloves. It’d be great to see them (or anyone else) implement some sort of clip that requires less dexterity.
Summary
To wrap things up, this bag is great for the outdoor winter adventure, be it skiing, snowboarding, or ice climbing. It has a few configurations to hold your skis/board and does a good job at that. It’s pretty decent for hiking too but not ideal for EDC, as it lacks the organizational components needed. It’s sturdy and from what I can tell so far, durable. There is an issue with the back comfort and the zippers for one of the pockets, but aside from that, it does its job well.
- Utility: 4 of 5. There is plenty of functionality to this bag, including the ski/board carrying system, the fleece-lined pocket, and the helmet net.
- Organization: 3 of 5. Not enough organizational features to function as a good travel or EDC bag, but still many pockets to help arrange items.
- Construction: 3 of 5. As an outdoor and winter sports backpack, it has to be built tough. High density fiber plus ripstop. If not for the folding and stitching in the inner lining that keeps getting caught in the zipper, this would probably be a 4.
- Aesthetic design: 3 of 5. Clean design. Nothing very eye-catching, but pretty decent-looking at the same time.
- Comfort: 3 of 5. A good amount of padding on the back and shoulder straps, plus the addition of a sternum strap and hip belt is pretty standard. The way the back padding juts out is a drawback though.
- Life-integration curve: 3 of 5. The ski/board carry functionality requires a few tries to get used to it and figuring out the easiest way to use them.
- X-factor: 2 of 5. A new category we are now adding in, it captures the “Wow” factor or “coolness” factor of the bag that makes it truly special or jaw-dropping. Being a brand name bag, there isn’t anything particularly uniquely cool about this bag.
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