Blue Ice Stache 60L

Does anyone have the Blue Ice Stache 60L
Questions if you do 

How do you like it overall?

How does it handle with a heavy load? 

Hows the durability for the most part 

I've had one for a couple years. I like it overall with a lot of "buts." 

It does carry a load pretty well, up to about 45-50lb and then it just isn't robust enough and gets really uncomfortable. It's made to be an ultralight alpine pack for carrying bulky items that would be found on higher altitude missions, it's not meant to be durable. It shows wear easily, but it's also not super expensive. As the old expression goes... "light, strong, or affordable, you can pick two." 

For the limited times when I need a pack that big, it has served me well and remains in good shape. It's been on 7 or 8 trips with 18-20 days of use on it and is in good shape overall with a couple patches of abrasion but no holes or tears. I love how light it is. I like how streamlined it is when climbing with it on my back. I like the 60 enough that I'd buy a 90 the next time I go on a trip where I need something bigger than the 60. 

Things to know:

• The top lid is the worst design in the history of top lids on packs. I'm not sure I could come up with something worse if you sat me down and paid me thousands of dollars to do so. It's completely fucking worthless. The shape is terrible, the attachment system sucks, it sits poorly on top of the pack when loaded, it doesn't hold very much for all the fussing you have to do with it. 
• The hip belt is not removable. This is a big design miss in my eyes. The belt can be clipped backwards around the pack to get it out of the way, but it gets abraded from climbing with it like this and it can hang up on things. It's not bulky, but in the way enough to interfere with your harness while climbing technical terrain with it on the waist. 
• The compression straps are barely long enough for most uses. Depending on the situation and what you're lashing to the pack they may not be long enough (really thick sleeping pads can be a problem) 

This is how I advertised my stache 60 when I sold it 

- it's not just marketing hype - this is a great pack which really can do both: carry heavy loads on approaches and climb well (at least in terms of ice/alpine climbing; sending your 5.1x project might be a stretch). Weight 900g which is insane for a good 60l pack!!  For ice, alpine or moderate rock objectives; or if the plan is to have only the follower carry this pack; you really only need to carry 1 pack for both the approach and the climb.  just doesn't work for me because 1) I have a short torso, and this comes in one medium torso size. 2) I have chronic back pain, so my requirements for pack supportiveness are higher than most. It should work fine for most young male climbers of average height or taller without back problems. 

Warthog 45 was the perfect pack for me. Discontinued and mine is running into the ground of course :(

Random but I've noticed Colin Haley has been using the Stache 60L in Patagonia recently 

Ben Flowers wrote:

Random but I've noticed Colin Haley has been using the Stache 60L in Patagonia recently 

Ya he used the 90L on winter attempt on cerro torre 

I have one that i got secondhand here on MP and I like it so far. I’m about 5’11’’ with an average torso and it seems to carry weight well. Haven’t carried more than 30lbs but i imagine that it could comfortably carry 40. can’t comment on the climbing performance yet but I can say that the brain is stupid and I took it off. If you like having a brain on your pack I would look elsewhere.

Can't speak for the Stache unfortunately but I have the dragonfly and it's been really solid. First time trying a blue ice bag and it handled -30 on Mt Washington without anything freezing up and enough adjustments to not hurt the back much routerlogin.uno/  .

i have the big blue ice stache bag (90L), it's fantastic. Like others said, this is a lightweight bag that's not going to excel at carrying massive loads, and is probably not going to be mega durable. It serves a niche, and given the price i've been very happy with it. 

Also-- fyi when you see colin hailey hiking around patagonia with a 60L backpack-- i'm 90% sure he has depots of climbing gear at each of the major climbing zones-- eg that he uses the 'stache 60L' for the hike from town to get to his gear staches, grabbing what he needs to actually go climb stuff in the massif. A long way of saying that I doubt this nicely packed 60L bag is carrying everything he needs to climb... 

MP wrote:

i have the big blue ice stache bag (90L), it's fantastic. Like others said, this is a lightweight bag that's not going to excel at carrying massive loads, and is probably not going to be mega durable. It serves a niche, and given the price i've been very happy with it. 

Also-- fyi when you see colin hailey hiking around patagonia with a 60L backpack-- i'm 90% sure he has depots of climbing gear at each of the major climbing zones-- eg that he uses the 'stache 60L' for the hike from town to get to his gear staches, grabbing what he needs to actually go climb stuff in the massif. A long way of saying that I doubt this nicely packed 60L bag is carrying everything he needs to climb... 

Interesting, I had never considered climbers might be caching gear in the area for an entire season or longer. That makes sense though and saves huffing a lot of weight and gear from town in. I always wondered how his 60L packs managed to look so small / clean.

Yeah with 3 gear staches it's a lot easier to take advantage of all available weather windows. If your down there all season and a pro....

M DP wrote:

Interesting, I had never considered climbers might be caching gear in the area for an entire season or longer. That makes sense though and saves huffing a lot of weight and gear from town in. I always wondered how his 60L packs managed to look so small / clean.

In one of Colin's films on the Patagonia YouTube, he actually documents that part of it. going into the mountains to cache gear, then returning to town.