Alaska packrafting in the 1980s and 1990s was an exercise in gear failure, hypothermia, and general suffering. The lightweight open vinyl and nylon inflatable boats available were simply not up to the task of the Alaska backcountry. But the experience of following your own path on a big landscape traverse was often worth the misery of paddling for hours in an ice water bathtub. Alpacka Raft was founded to remedy the gear failures and suffering on those original packraft trips. And we like to think that we've done a pretty good job over the years, innovating fabrics, hull shapes, spray decks, and the Cargo Fly internal storage system along the way. But as amazing as these innovations are, we still had a hole in our lineup for a packraft that would combine all of our best features into the lightest possible package for the ultimate landscape traverse packraft.

Meet the Refuge, weighing just over 6.5 lbs with full featured outfitting. That weight savings can add days and miles to your range on big trips with a lot of hiking. This is our third generation Refuge and it optimizes the features of the prior versions. The fabrics pair our lightweight 210d nylon hull to minimize weight and bulk with our full strength 840d floor for maximum abrasion resistance in shallow backcountry rives. The WW deck keeps you dry and the Cargo Fly internal storage system lets you pack your gear inside the tubes. Finally, we added our foam backband and our first ever 2-point thigh strap system. The 2-point thigh straps provide better control in a lightweight affordable package, but lack the comfort and harder whitewater performance of our patented 4-point thigh strap systems.

Compared to the Classic, the Refuge is lighter and more packable but doesn’t offer as much carrying capacity, durability, or stability for every-day use. Experienced whitewater paddlers should be able to paddle the occasional Class III rapid in the Refuge, but whitewater and eddylines will be more difficult for novice and intermediate paddlers. The Refuge is ideal for the experienced wilderness packrafter who can limit their pack weight to 50lbs for a 14-day trip.

Very small paddlers who find the small Classic and Expedition to have too much volume should consider building a Custom Lab Refuge with standard fabrics for a better fit. Contact our Custom Lab specialists for additional details.