La Sportiva Laspo Chalk Bag

This climber’s essential has all of the necessary features of a chalk bag, at a great price point. This chalk bag works well for any type of indoor or outdoor climber, whether bouldering at the gym, or multi-pitch days on a big wall.

When it comes to knowing a product will perform flawlessly, people reach out to a small handful of brands. La Sportiva is certainly one of these elite companies, handcrafting products in northern Italy for outdoor enthusiasts since 1929. Although footwear for climbing and skiing is their expertise, they have excelled in the textile industry as well. A product like a chalk bag may well be a simple piece of climbing gear, but finding that piece of gear, relying on it to ALWAYS work, and never having to think about said gear is not so simple. 

Specifications:

• Weight: 4.5oz/128g
• Opening Diameter: 5.5"
• Maximum chalk capacity: Approximately 3oz
• Material: Ripstop nylon exterior, fleece lining
• Drawstring: Yes
• Included waistbelt: Yes (42" maximum waist)
• Reinforced aperture/cuff: Yes
• Exterior loop for harness: No
• Brush Holder: Yes
• Color Choices: One option, Black/Yellow

The LaSpo chalk bag is a typical easy to use tool for the climber. Once it is opened up and snapped onto one’s waist, there’s quite simply nothing else to need to think about. Well, there is that thing about making sure chalk is in the bag...

The Laspo Chalk Bag holds enough volume for all day climbing

No chalk spills occur with the drawstring

La Sportiva excels when it comes to attention to detail

Some argue that an external harness loop should be included on all chalk bags, but the argument that the bag is then too far under the harness, making it more difficult to reach. Although the bag could in theory be problematic to use in an inverted position, no concern was evident in attempts to do so during testing. 

The bag is made of a durable ripstop nylon, which keeps the contents dry inside, and protected from constant abrasion...indoors and out. 

The La Sportiva Laspo Chalk Bag has been tested during the summer and early autumn of 2018 indoors. A combination of bouldering, top rope, and lead climbing has been the upper limits of the tester’s capability; hopefully a more dry year will allow for future outdoor testing. 

Many thanks to the people at La Sportiva for the opportunity to to test the Laspo Chalk Bag for the Trailspace Gear Review Corps.

Background

The product tester has been climbing on a beginner to intermediate level for approximately three years. Several other climbing chalk bags have been used over the years. This product has been tested in several indoor climbing gyms during summer-autumn of 2018. Types of climbing during testing: bouldering, top rope, sport lead.