ProView – Thule RoundTrip 60L Review

The convenience factor of being able to loosely dump snowboard gear in the back of your SUV after a backcountry tour or morning at the resort diminishes significantly as the season wears on. Searching for a glove under your WeatherTechs or unearthing your low-vis lens in the rear seat slot while your friends are already hashtagging #thirdchair! may read like standard tenets of ski-bum mystique, but in true Instagram vs. reality fashion, it’s a pain in the ass. 

I’ve been snowboarding throughout the Tahoe Basin for the last eight years, visiting the Ikon resorts often, Donner Summit’s under-the-radar Sugar Bowl, and most of the region’s popular backcountry zones. I stopped using a boot bag I’ve owned for years a few seasons ago because it began to feel small as my needs and expertise evolved. It started to make sense to carry a repair kit with me, and a water bottle, sunscreen, and an aprés layer, along with other critical needs and miscellaneous wants — items the old bag couldn’t hang on to. This is where the 60L Thule RoundTrip Ski and Snowboard Boot Backpack excels. 

After more than a month of hard use, I’m still finding space in this bag, a point I made to a fellow lodge-goblin when asked if it would be good for families. (These are the moments gear testers long for.) I told them they could probably carry their family in it. Kidding aside, it’s an ideal lodge basecamp, truck organizer, lunch caterer and technical winter garment wardrobe. At risk of sounding hyperbolic, know that with size 9 snowboard boots, a Pret helmet, two pair of goggles, a Hydroflask food jar (nestled under the helmet) and Kinco gloves on board, the Thule RoundTrip 60L still imbibed a Patagonia Powder Town jacket and a Mountain Hardwear Mtn. Tech 2 mid-layer. Conveniently. 

Winter came late to the Sierra, piecing itself together with a series of small, warm storms. Ten inches here, a persistent weak layer there. It hasn’t been awesome. A key advantage of being local to places where it snows is that one can get while the getting’s good, even when it’s not all that good. This tough, smartly ergonomic and bluesign™-approved boot bag was tested in a number of trips to local Tahoe resorts, Mt. Rose wilderness tours, dark mornings shuffling uphill at Sugar Bowl and generally treated as a one-stop source for gear storage in the back of my truck, where it competes for space with a shovel, moving blanket, a couple of Therm-A-Rest Z-Lites for parking lot boot swaps and of course, dog hair. It will also serve as my lone piece of baggage on a British Columbia heli-trip come late March.

Product Description

The 60L Thule RoundTrip Ski and Snowboard Boot Backpack is designed for the every-day user of groomed ski runs, cross-country urban ski vacationer and the cynical mountain town local whose grown attached to the idea of their gear being in one place. With a convex top lid to more smartly fit a helmet and partitioned soft-lined goggle slot, access to all things head protection is terrific. The rear-accessed boot compartment is nothing short of capacious, never requiring a moment of tedious fitment positioning. All that space is what allows the opposing front pocket to absorb so much GORE-TEX and down. Each side pocket is designed with half-length zippers from top and bottom that meet in the middle, ideal for clasping shut with travel locks, and in the wearer’s right are mesh accessory dividers to hold in place snacks, Buffs®, gloves, mobile devices and their requisite accoutrement. The exterior handles are burly and well-placed for multiple carry needs, an under-rated component of this pack.    

Quality

No doubt the exterior polyester is up for the job of keeping the inside dry when the outside is wet. Thule’s long history of succeeding in the mission of securing outdoor equipment has yet another case study, once again justifying the company’s move into sport-specific luggage. The stitches are all but invisible, the carry straps are broad and comfortable and as so noted, the overall intent of this pack — to carry ski and snowboard boots and accessories — is executed superbly.

Features

Bluesign certification is the quiet winner, as technical fabric manufacturing, in general, is about as environmentally friendly as an oil spill in a wetland. Because Thule doesn’t produce any wearables, the company’s commitment to achieving this mark stands out even more, meaning the company is going through quite a bit of financial effort for a small component of its business.

Beyond that, the helmet pocket, carry straps and primary boot tunnel highlight a practically designed transporter. I tested the “drying capacity” of its side pocket twice using my damp, sweaty gloves and found it largely ineffective. Perhaps using an alternative materials or additional external venting could overcome this. The boot compartment, however, does a better job, likely because of its additional space. (It’s worth noting I’m an excessive perspirer.)

The side zippers’ goal of allowing for either quick top or bottom access and a middle-point for locking is certainly worthwhile, but does require creating the habit of remembering that, or else the user stress each of them trying to get passed the middle barrier. It’s annoying, but understandable. I also found the boot pocket zipper frustrating at times, needing two ungloved hands to work around the corners. 

Use of the boot pocket lid as a standing pad seems trite. It’s too small, straps are in the way and I think Thule is unnecessarily pushing it as a feature. Maybe a swath of fabric stitched to the internal flap’s top edge that either rolls up/down or folds horizontally to extend the space would be worth considering. 

Storage & Organization

Not to belabor the point, but the engineers at Thule know quite a bit about product design. It’s not easy to create something that can adjust to fit the rooftops of countless automobiles, for example, nor is it easy to apply those fundamentals to something as compact and intimate as a boot bag. 

Peering inside the bag’s core, you can see how the loose shape of the polyester pocket will allow softgoods to push into the space created by what’s left over when the boots are in place. This also means it doesn’t matter in what order you place gear. 

The side pockets have ample capacity, as well, and the additional internal mesh drop-ins are nice-to-haves but could use some additional depth. Nevertheless, a phone, charger and some cables can find a home there while the rest of the pockets swallow a water bottle, bulky mitts, hats and whatever else needs to make it to the hill, or across the country. Oh, and I use the external side pocket for a small parts bag and snacks. (Check it often, or your post-tour clementines will go green on you.)

For most users, the helmet pocket will delight. The side orientation of the helmet ensures it never needs to be shoved or fiddled with for everything to zip together firmly. One other minor complaint: when the bag is unpacked of its primary contents, it tends to collapse, needing a second hand to hold it upright when repacking. However, any sort of internal frame would negate its ability to absorb additional gear. So, the slight inconvenience is a worthy trade-off.

The Final Word

Despite a few nags, there’s little not to like about the Thule RoundTrip Ski and Snowboard Boot Backpack 60L. It’s burly, easy to handle and ready to be tossed around, snowed upon and made dirty with parking-lot detritus. The bag carries well and is as comfortable as you need it to be. If you don’t think you need something for your day at the resort, bring it anyway.

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