Alpacka Wolverine

The love child of the Gnarwhal and Alpackalypse, the Wolverine is the perfect blend of quick engagement, predictable edge control, and precision handling to hit those tight lines that make the difference between just making it to the bottom and running a rapid with style.

In whitewater kayaking, there are play boats for throwing tricks, river runners for carving lines, slalom boats for precision and speed, creek boats for getting rowdy, and all kinds of specialty models which blur the lines. While whitewater packrafts are a long way from achieving similar specialization, kayaks still provide a great source of inspiration for how we approach packraft performance. Think of the Wolverine as a mashup of the stable, forgiving, high-volume creeker inspired Gnarwhal and the quick, responsive, low-volume river runner inspired Alpackalypse, with a few new school kayak features like a slightly shorter stern and a more pronounced bow rocker. The result is a new standard in whitewater packraft performance that provides both the confidence to hit difficult lines with style and the predictability and stability to ride out the rough stuff when you make a mistake.

The Wolverine is built with our Rally Hull, high-performance whitewater rigging, Cargo Fly zipper internal storage system, and Whitewater Deck. The Rally Hull is our highest performance whitewater hull with a center panel stern for stability and forgiveness and a rockered bow for punching over holes and carving eddy turns. The Wolverine is lower volume than the Gnarwhal for quicker engagement and predictable edging. The whitewater rigging includes an adjustable foam backband, ¾ length seat and foot brace and patented 4-point thigh straps. Self bailing configurations are available by special order within size and weight limitations (See the other tabs for additional details).

Trying to choose between the mid-volume Wolverine and the high-volume Gnarwhal? You’ll love the Wolverine if you want squeeze as much as you can out of a rapid with a quick and easy to edge packraft that likes to hit every eddy and play feature, and boof off every lip. You’ll love the Gnarwhal if you want a forgiving and easy to paddle packraft that takes the intimidation out of paddling moderate whitewater, if you want to charge hard in bigger water and features, or if you need to carry a large cargo load on a long trip. Both the Wolverine and Gnarwhal can be reliably rolled by skilled boaters with thigh straps, but the Wolverine roll is a bit easier for most people. The Gnarwhal and Wolverine are sized to fit most average sized adults, but larger and heavier (over 6’0” and 220lbs) paddlers will fit better in the Gnarwhal while smaller and lighter paddlers (under 5’7” and 150lbs) will fit better in the Wolverine.