UKC

I know sack discussions are endless, but I'm from the days when my 1st climbing sack was a Jaguar V in cotton duck with a capacity of... wait for it... 80 litres. Mind you, these were old fashioned British litres that were about  2/3 the size they are now. The upside was this single compartment bag could have everything bundled into it, rope and all,  at the top of  a route without any sorting whatsoever. Simple days!

Fast forward 40 years. I've just added a belay jacket to my kit and now my 40 litre sack needs the rope and helmet carried outside because of the room taken by the jacket (Rab Photon). For the first time ever I'm thinking a second lower compartment could be handy for stuffing the jacket into and keeping it safe when all the jaggy bits get stuffed back in to the sack at the top. 

Anybody using a workable two room sack for winter climbing?

When I mentioned that I was considering buying a larger rucksack (I currently use a Deuter Guide 35+) for winter climbing due to my belay jacket taking up too much space I was basically told that I took too much out on the hill! On reconsideration I manage to fit everything other than the rope into my rucksack's main body, crampons live in their own little bag and ice screws will get shoved into one of those rolls you can buy (once I have a couple more).

Thanks Spenser, I can see that tiny is fashionable, but I'm happy to have a bigger sack as the weight of light stuff isn't the problem, only the volume. I can make up the difference in  body weight (at one point in my climbing career I lost 3 stone so reckon I have 20kg "in hand" to play with ... or even in sandwiches (maybe not unrelated!). Or water.  But seriously -absence of faff is a big help to my possibly diminishing cognitive  capacity. 

I don't carry a lot of extras -maybe a bothy bag, a malt loaf, a jacket and a fairly large rack, -but  access and usability without dropping anything count for a lot more than compactness. I even wear gaiters unashamedly.

Deuter 45+'s look promising...

Not dual compartment, but Aiguille Alpine make some stonking climbing sacks in rugged, no frills, old skool design. They're made in Staveley too!

N

Cheers, will have a look

I was more trying to save you the cash of buying a new sack! I fully appreciate absence of faff as being important, when I remove my crampons at the end of a day I tend to attach them onto the side of the bag as 35 is a little bit too small for faff free packing with the amount of kit I take! 

I can vouch for the carrying comfort of the Deuter guides, definitely try putting some stuff in the lid and see if it will conflict with your helmet when you try to look up though.

No reason why not. You're not climbing technically at 8000m I don't suppose so go as large as a tha wants. 80l a bit generous though unless a fortnights' winter backpacking,,,

Just a question of "which?". A few hundred grams for a usable feature without going full buttoned upholstery and wheels would be worth finding. :O)

Just spotted Blacks on eBay (not their retail online store) have new old stock Lowe Alpine Mountain Attack 45:55 for  £77 delivered. I'm sorely tempted as I always wanted an Alpine Attack and was a bit surprised how quickly they disappeared. Not keen on all the Hypalon bits on the Mountain, or the extra weight, but the the lower side entry zip looks ideal for stuffing the jacket in and out.