A giant cool box on steroids. The YETI Roadie 24 is apparently indestructible and I believe it. Strong, sturdy and 2-inch walls of Permafrost™ insulation made with Rocksolid™ strength. Its values are built on toughness and longevity, and made to slide behind your front driver or passenger seats so you can take it wherever you want. This leads me nicely onto my road trip with the Roadie to the Pennine Barrier Ultra marathon in the Yorkshire Dales earlier this month.
Ultra marathons are a tough gig. As a runner myself I understand the logistics of taking enough supplies to feed a small army whilst out supporting your nearest and dearest on the trails in the middle of nowhere. The YETI Roadie is a versatile cooler. Not only is it tall enough to fit a bottle of wine – or in my case, several bottles of water and grape spritzer – it’s strong enough to hold my weight as a seat (or a toddler standing on it). Another bonus when chairs are in short supply at ultra race checkpoints.
It also came with a YETI Ice 900g ice pack, built like a brick and scientifically proven to keep your ice (and supplies) frozen for longer. Trust me it did. Testing it on the road trip with a 2 hour drive to our destination at Malham, plus out and about in warm weather, volunteering at the start line and a trip over to Malham Cove for good measure, five hours later and the Roadie, ice pack and our contents are still cold and chilly.
It was in 2006 when YETI Coolers was founded with a simple mission: “Build the cooler we’d use every day if it existed. One that was built for the serious outdoor enthusiast. One that could take the abuse we knew we’d put it through out in the field and on the water. One that simply wouldn’t break.”
So yes it got banged about on the trip with a couple of rocky tracks in its way but came away unscafed. It easily withstanded a few knocks and bumps. In fact I had more bumps and scratches than the Roadie. The latches and hinges are fuss-free and easy-to-secure the cooler. It could easily weather the challenge of going from checkpoint-to-checkpoint, still keeping items cool as the ultra race goes on.
Another road trip to the Lake District took us and the Roadie to even more hills and an impromptu picnic at the side of a lake. Once again all of our food and drink was kept cold even after a few hours. The strap and HeftyHauler™ handle is strong and easy to haul the cooler around on short journeys, but I definitely wouldn’t carry it very far as it’s heavy… hence its virtual indestructibility.
Also a good point is its non-slip BearFeet™ which meant it didn’t go sliding back and to around the back of our van. Always a bonus as who likes to open a bottle of fizzy mess!
All-in-all the YETI Roadie 24 and YETI Ice pack are fantastic additions to my ultra marathon support equipment as well as road trips in the outdoors. There’s more than enough room for drinks and snacks for 2 people or a small family, and it keeps it all completely chilled for hours on end. It’s a tough cool box that will stay in one piece and therefore happily last for years.
