The Petzl Bolsa doesn't cost too much and can hold its fair share of gear. One of our top scorers, it boasts a funnel style design that makes it an ideal cragging pack.
The Bolsa was one of our top scorers among rope bags for keeping ropes clean and out of the dirt. The Bolsa dimensionally features the second-largest tarp that's 55"x 55". While other tarps were close in measurements to the Bolsa, it felt bigger than the numbers might imply because of its funnel-style design which allowed it to lay flatter, unlike the burrito style designs which tended to bunch up at one end. Overall, the Bolsa does an excellent job of catching falling ropes and gives us plenty of room to flake rope on.
The Bolsa uses a funnel-style design that is among the quickest and easiest rope bags to pack, simply lift all four corners, give a quick shake and the rope slides into the bag. The Bolsa is quicker than most traditional burrito-style bags.
This is the only real downside of the Bolsa and it's a small one. After you have shaken the rope into the bag and moved on to another route, the rope is marginally harder to take out and would tangle slightly more often than a traditional folding/rolling style rope bag, obviously the trade-off with the Bolsa is it's easier and quicker to put away. Again it's not terrible; it's just not quite as easy. The rope tends to get a little more tangled.
The Bolsa, like the Metolius Speedster, is designed to be worn as a backpack rather than be packed inside of a larger crag pack. Unlike most over-the-shoulder carried rope bags, the backpack-style of this model makes long approaches more comfortable. Our testers didn't like wearing sling-style packs on approaches longer than 25-30 minutes when loaded down with a 70m x 10.1mm rope. Those same testers didn't mind wearing the Bolsa for an hour or more on hikes with the same rope, plus extras.
Short DistancesThe Bolsa is easy to move route-to-route, simply grab the four corners and move on. Most of the time, we didn't shake the rope into the lower bag if we were making a short move. This also helped keep the rope from getting as clustered. We did, however, pack the rope away most of the time for moves of more than a few minutes.
Other than backpack straps and the funnel style design the Bolsa doesn't have very many extra small features. The Bolsa does have four grab loops that are also possible places to tie the end of your rope, in addition to its two color-coded tie-in points.
The Bolsa soars above most of the competition on long approaches. If you pack light on crag days, this model is also a two-in-one rope bag and crag pack.
The Bolsa is one of the best-priced rope bags out there and one of the coolest. Among backpack-style and funnel-style rope bags we tested, this model hits the lowest price point.
