Water crossings - buckled or unbuckled?

[sapblatt]

After a near fall into the Lincoln Brook (more like river) this Sunday I was questioning my age old wisdom of unbuckling my hip and shoulder straps. As I slipped and tried to keep my balance I had the pleasure of feeling my pack slip up my neck and head. Luckily, I was able to get the pack back down and keep my head up and body out of the river.

Is there any rule of thumb about how to best handle these situations? I had never had unbuckling cause me an issue in the past. My thought is to unbuckle when I am alone, or if the water is very deep...

Thoughts and ideas appreciated...

 

[el-bagr]

The rationale behind unbuckling is that, in the event that you fall down in sufficiently deep water (deep enough, say, that your face is held underwater by your pack) you want to be able to extricate yourself from your pack so you can resume breathing. In the event that you stumble in such terrain, the idea is that you'd be better off dropping your pack into the water than falling yourself.

For fords where the water isn't really deep enough to cause worry about this, unclipping the pack is less important. For waist-deep fords or outright swims, I think unclipping is critical.

I'm not clear on how your pack managed to slip -- IMO a pack should fit you well enough without chest/waist buckles that it will stay on. (Note that Ray Jardine believes that chest and waist straps reduce performance and should be eliminated as they encourage overly heavy loads. Admittedly, for heavy hauling, I do believe they have their place.) Is this a situation where you bent over with your head lower than your waist? Even chest/waist straps might not completely prevent that.

One idea is to put your pack on one shoulder for the crossing, like a kid walking to school. This works best when the pack is neither too heavy nor too bulky, but can improve stability while also making the pack eminently ditchable.

 

[sapblatt]

Pack crossings

The pack was on the heavy side...35-40 pounds and the problem did happen when I kind of lunged forward. It does ride OK with out the straps in normal situations.

Thank you!