Finally: A Featherweight Backcountry Bouldering Pad

Bouldering pads, a.k.a. crashpads, are not a particularly innovative corner of the climbing industry. I purchased my first pad—a Mad Rock Mad Pad—from Eastern Mountain Sports in 2004, and 20 years later, Mad Rock’s moderated updated Mad Pad is not just still for sale, it’s one of most common pads out there.

But there have, of course, been a few important changes to the pad landscape over this period. Some pads have gotten bigger and heavier, designed to save your life on unreasonably tall problems. Some have gotten thinner and lighter and keep you from tearing your pants on ass-scraping lowballs. Some pads can be stitched together on the ground with velcro. Others are designed to stack onto each other when folded so you can hump two or three or four pads to your solo project. Don’t even get me started with supplements like sliders and blubbers and sit-start pads.

But my personal favorite pad innovation of the last 10-ish years has to do with comfort. More specifically: suspension systems that do only minimal damage to your neck and back when you’re carrying large loads long distances.

Unfortunately, however, most of the available suspension-system pads are (a) pretty large, (b) pretty heavy, and (c) not really designed with small body frames in mind.

Enter Black Diamond’s Erratic Crash Pad.

The Black Diamond Erratic—now available on Black Diamond’s website—is extremely light, moderately sized, and comes with all the bells and whistles a backcountry boulderer might want. It’s by far the best medium sized pad I’ve used for long approaches.

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About the tester

I am a digital editor at Climbing. Over the last 20 years, I’ve fallen on nearly every brand of bouldering pad for sale in the United States. My sample of Black Diamond’s Erratic Crash Pad arrived last autumn, and since then I’ve carried it to boulders throughout Northern New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Upstate New York. I have also relied on the Erratic at my home wall—falling on it for an average of three sessions each week for the last ten months.

Six things I liked about the Erratic Crash Pad—and two things I didn’t

1. I liked the suspension system

I almost don’t have much to say. It’s comfortable. It’s adjustable. If you want the pad to lie flat, or if you plan to carry two Erratics and want to shed weight, you can easily remove the Erratic’s shoulder and waist straps. Between its cushy system and extremely light weight (at just 12 pounds, it’s barely more than half of the weight of the Organic Big Pad), the Erratic is the most comfortable carry I’ve found yet. (The sole competitor is Organic’s Backfourty system paired with its Simple Pad—but the Simple Pad is too small, in my opinion, to be a primary pad.)

2. I liked the stiffness

The Erratic has 4.3 inches of closed- and open-cell foam and is one of the stiffer pads I’ve owned—which is both a strength and a weakness. Heavier climbers, generally speaking, should opt for stiffer pads, since their falls involve larger impact forces, while lighter climbers, whose falls generate less force, might find softer pads more comfortable. I’m a mid-weight climber, and I personally rely on stiff pads like the Erratic (or the Organic Big Pad, or the Asana Super Hero Highball) as the core of my outdoor pad quiver, since they provide more support when I’m falling from higher boulders. I generally place them where I expect to take the largest falls: below topouts or higher sections of climbs. (Two weeks ago, while climbing on my backyard MoonBoard, I punted off of a finishing hold that I’d forgotten to tighten and ass-rocketed from 12 feet up. I was very happy to land on the Erratic. And I was very sad that I didn’t get it on camera for this review.) But I generally carry two pads, and normally I go with a slightly softer second one—like the Trango Stratus or the Black Diamond Circuit—to protect the lower sections of climbs. If you’re not falling far, or if you’re falling on your butt, it’s nice to have a bit more cushion.

3. I disliked the downsides to stiffness 

One con of the Erratic’s combination of lightness and stiffness is that it refuses to mold itself to irregular landings. Where a softer, heavier pad might settle around small variations in landing surface—protruding rocks or roots—the erratic tends to wobble around on top of them.

Another con: If you’re stuffing the pad with loose items, the Erratic doesn’t bend closed around them, making it easier to lose things. (The fact that you can attach a bag on top, however, offsets this for me—read on for more about that.)

4. I liked the durability

The Erratic has maintained its stiffness despite significant abuse over the last several months, which was impressive, since it has played a core role under the home wall in my garage—supporting literally dozens of falls each week and getting walked on regularly. After nearly 10 months of this dual use, I am surprised to say that the Erratic feels almost as supportive as it was out of the box.

It also has reinforced corners, which have done a great job of minimizing wear and tear.

5. I disliked the multi-pad carry system

The Erratic’s suspension system is, as noted, designed to carry a large amount of weight over long distances—and its “integrated multi-pad carry system” makes it easy to carry two Erratics at once.

The problem? This system won’t work with other Black Diamond pad lines (I tried it with the Circuit), much less other brands. So if you, like me, want to carry a second pad but only own one Erratic, the multi pad carrying system might as well not exist.

This isn’t catastrophic, but it does mean you’ll have to either buy an additional strap system. Black Diamond’s Piggyback Carrying System is so poorly designed that I’ve chosen not to review it, so I’d recommend the Organic Load Flap, which works well-ish on the Erratic. Feeling cheap? Just resort to this old DIY method.

6. I liked that it’s water resistant

The Erratic is made of a very tough, water-resistant material, which means that your pad doesn’t gain 30 pounds when sitting all day in the wet spring snow.

7. I liked the bag strap

The Erratic has an unusual top strap that allows you to attach small bags to the top of the pad rather than stuffing them inside it. I was skeptical of this at first, but ultimately a friend who’s a bit savvier with math pointed out that this should make carrying heavy loads more ergonomic, which turned out to be true.

Indeed, this feature is actually a secret game changer, allowing you to walk in a far more upright posture than I’m used to while carrying pads. I did, however, sometimes find myself too top heavy when (a) I wasn’t carrying two pads (the second pad seemed to offset the weight rearward) and (b) that one time I tried to carry all my water up there.

8. I liked the water-bottle holder!

Possibly my single favorite feature of this pad is the most gratuitous one: the water-bottle holder. I’ve probably walked several thousand miles carrying bouldering pads over the last two decades, and I never once stopped to question the fact that I had to fish around inside my pad to find my bottle of water. Then the Erratic arrived and I slapped my forehead. Has anyone else put a water bottle holder on the outside of the pad? I’ve never seen it. Kudos, Black Diamond. Kudos.

Want a bigger, heavier backcountry pad? Check out the Organic Backfourty

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