Prince Harry’s Bergen

Karrimor SF is a tactical and outdoor equipment company from the UK that builds a variety of gear for the MoD (Ministry of Defence, their counterpart to the DoD). Leveraging a name with a long tradition of quality equipment (the original Karrimor was founded immediately after WWII), Karrimor SF not only supplies load carriage equipment to British soldiers, they provide outdoor/adventure gear to people all around the world. For instance, they were recently a sponsor of The Coldest Journey expedition headed by ‘the world's greatest living explorer' Sir Ranulph Fiennes (the first attempt to cross the Antarctic during the polar winter).

Karrimor SF is not just worn by soldiers, it's worn by royalty as well. Watching news of the recent visit by Prince Harry to Arlington National Cemetery we naturally came across images of Prince Harry in Afghanistan. Curious, we took a closer look at the gear he used while deployed and did a little research to turn up the name of his ruck (though it is a bergen, over there). It is a Karrimor SF “Saber 30”, which apparently is as popular with climbers and mountaineers as it is with squaddies and princes.

The Saber 30 is available in black, Multi Cam, olive green and Coyote. It's sewn of 600 denier rip-stop fabric (KS60-RS) with 1000d reinforcement on the top and bottom. More details here.

Karrimor SF is on the web here; if you want to take one on the trail or up the side of a mountain but do not want to pay shipping from across the Atlantic, watch Grey Ghost Gear. GGG is the official US distributor for Karrimor SF kit. If you'd like to keep track of the trek across the Antarctic (unfortunately Sir Fiennes had to pull out due to frostbite) you can follow their blog.