Petzl Bolsa Rope Bag Review

You may feel this is a stupid thing to review, but I've found an amazing lack of good backpack style rope bags. The choices are very limited. Additionally, my experience is that when a rope bag manufacturer says it will hold a 70 meter rope, you rack, your harness, and your shoes, what they really mean is your 60 meter rope may fit. Hence, here is some basic info on this bag.

First impressions: the bag fits my 10.5 mm x 60 meter rope with room to spare. I can fit my shoes, a small rack (6 cams, nut set, 20 biners, 10 slings, misc stuff), and my harness if I really pack it in on top. I will likely wear my harness on shorter approach hikes to avoid the bulk. I repacked it with a TR setup: held the rope, shoes, (2) 120 cm slings, 10 carabiners, belay, some misc small nuts and other gear, and about 20 meters of 1" tubular webbing. Will try it out with a 9.8 mm x 70 meter double dry rope later this week and report how much it will hold with that slightly smaller, slightly stiffer, slightly longer rope.

More info to come.

Update: the shoulder straps cut in after a short (5 minute) hike. Will be adding some padding for sure.

How did it work with your 70m?

Works great with the 70 meter. Had room for shoes, harness, chalk bag, and a small amount of gear plus the rope. I think I also hVe thrown in around 20 meters of webbing to set TR from time to time

Also the tarp is large enough to keep the rope clean even when it's not managed too neatly. If you are a gear modifyerrrr or for the "bolsa 2" a few gear loops or daisy chain sewn on and a small zip pocket would complete it.

Update - the bag lasted exactly 1 season (climbing approximately 3 days a week April - November/December). It completely tore in half where the gray panel meets the blue panel horizontally across the bag. Will be repairing it and continuing use, but it wasn't very robust.

Also, all said, the shoulder straps are horrendously uncomfortable. Sewing some padding on those when I fix the bag.

Check out the DMM Pitcher Rope Bag. Similar design, but more robust and no zipper to fuss with. Its also slightly bigger. I had a bolsa that busted in the same place you noted and swapped it out for the pitcher.

dmmclimbing.com/products/pi…

If you want a slightly different design that is even better try the classic rope bag from DMM.

dmmclimbing.com/products/ro…

I don't work for them or anything, just love their stuff.

Had one for about a month and used it four or five times.. The straps dug into my shoulders and the rope always came out a mess. I returned it and picked up the rope master.. Haven't been able to use it yet but I already like it more.

Time will tell.