Patagonia Black Hole Snow Roller Ski Bag

Capacity

When I first saw the Snow Roller, I was packing for a trip to Japan that I knew was going to involve a lot of touring, to be followed immediately by a stopover in Jackson Hole for an Avi-3 class and some lift-served skiing and touring with friends. I was bringing quite a bit of gear and some large skis, and was hesitant about whether I would fit everything I needed into the svelt-looking Snow Roller.

On that trip I carried a pair of 189cm DPS Lotus 120 Spoons and a pair of 190cm DPS Spoons both mounted with Dynafits, in addition to two pairs of skins, all of my avalanche gear, a Black Diamond Agent Avalung pack, two sets of poles, sleeping pad, repair kit and several other small items. The bag was not quite wide enough to lay two 150mm wide skis side by side, but I matched a Lotus 120 with a Spoon on top and bottom, and was able to easily fit all of it without extra strain on the zippers. On my way home from Jackson back to Alaska, I even squeezed my 27.5 Dynafit Vulcan boots in between the skis, and had no issues – except for having to evade the luggage scale at check-in.

For my other trips, these were the arrangements of skis that worked well with the bag:

Jackson/Utah: 190cm DPS Spoon and 192cm Salomon Rocker 2 122’s

New Zealand: 189cm Atomic Automatic 109, 186cm Atomic Theory 95, 188cm Armada Invictus

Overall, while the bag is smaller than the Dakine Concourse Double, I have never had problem bringing a variety of skis with me, and I have been able to hit the scales right at 50lbs every time with a mix of other ski gear included in the bag (except for that time I snuck my boots in for the return trip from Jackson).

Length

Aside from being a little narrow for a pair of 150mm-wide skis placed side by side, the only real limitation I have found with the Snow Roller is the length. The 190cm DPS Spoons are the very upper end of what will fit lengthwise. If the bag wasn’t well padded on the ends, I would have worried a little about the tips being damaged or cutting through the material, because it was definitely a snug fit. The 192cm Salomon Rocker 122’s actually fit pretty well as they are a bit shorter than the 190cm DPS Spoons.

Longer skis like the 193cm Blizzard Cochise or 194cm 4Frnt Devastator are a bit more of a challenge. With some clever packing and by torquing them a little, both skis will fit in the Snow Roller, but if you happen to have skis much larger than these, the 190cm Snow Roller probably isn’t the best choice, and you might consider the 200cm Dakine Concourse Double.

Rolling / Traveling

The wheels on the Snow Roller are similar to other ski bags I’ve used. They roll smoothly, and I haven’t had a single issue with them. Another advantage of the bag maintaining its shape and structure so well is that there is no tendency for it to sag in front of the wheels, causing the bag to drag. This is something I’ve experienced with my Dakine Bag, a Dynastar 2-3 pair wheeled ski sag, and a PM Gear wheeled double ski bag, but never with my Snow Roller.

I’ve rolled this bag through deep snow, across curbs and railroad tracks, on gravel runways, and through a lot of busy Japanese train stations, and have never had an issue with the bag sagging and dragging. It also does quite well bouncing down long flights of stairs.

Carrying Handles

The carrying handles are comfortable and well placed. There is a nice drag handle on the end of the bag; a comfortable handle for carrying suitcase style; and two handles in the middle of the bag for lifting onto buses or luggage scales. One thing that would be nice to have added: a small grab handle on the wheeled end of the bag so it’s easy to grab and pull out of vehicles, regardless of how the bag’s been loaded.

Carrying Other Luggage

This is the other feature of the Snow Roller that immediately appealed to me: it’s quick and easy to attach a duffel bag to the wheeled end of the Snow Roller. I usually travel with either a 90L or 120L Patagonia Black Hole Duffel which have small daisy chains sewn into the sides. These easily interface with a metal hook built into the Snow Roller, allowing you to attach the duffel right over the wheel area.

As mentioned, I have raced through several busy train stations with manys stairs and escalators using this configuration with almost 60lbs in the bag (boots added) and 50lbs in the duffel. No damage was done to my body, the bag, its contents or any innocent bystanders, despite a lot of stairs and running. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with this system.

I’ve mainly used this feature with my Patagonia Black Hole Duffels, but it does seem to work with an older The North Face Duffel that also has daisy chains on the sides.

In short, carrying luggage this way is much more streamlined in busy airports and other areas than having a wheeled duffel in one hand and a wheeled ski bag in the other. An additional benefit is that by traveling without a wheeled duffel you can shave 3-5 lbs off of your luggage. (A wheeled duffel bag like the Patagonia  100L Black Hole Wheeled Duffel weighs over 8lbs, while the 120L Liter Black Hole Duffel comes in at 3lbs.)

Overall then, while a Patagonia Black Hole Duffel and Snow Roller come in around 11lbs total, the combination of a nice wheeled duffel bag and another wheeled ski bags, like those mentioned above, one could easily be carrying 20+ pounds of just luggage.

I should note that the only bag I’m aware of that has this feature is the Douchebag ski bag and duffel system. During my trip to Japan, my ski partner was using a Douchebag Ski Bag and Hugger Duffel and did just as well in the hectic train station scrambles. The only downside of the Douchebag system (aside from its name) compared to Patagonia’s is the limited size of the Hugger bags, which currently only go to 60L.