Blue Ice Durability

I bought a 40L pack from them a few years back and was disappointed with how the material wore down with minimal use.

They have some nice looking harnesses and other gear but would like to hear about other experiences before buying anything else. 

Been using my Blue Ice Cuesta consistently for a year now for sport/trad and it’s been working great. No obvious signs of wear.

One thing I wish it had was reinforced gear loops but the loops haven’t started breaking down at all so can’t complain yet. I have to admit - the dyneema belay loop looks so thin I wish it was thicker nylon. I know it doesn’t matter but it’s a mental thing for me.

Harnesses and ice screws have been great. Choucas buckle desperately needs an update, the halo and cuesta ones are good though.

Dragonfly pack wore holes in it on the first multi i took it on. The akila pick is some of softest steel ive had the pleasure of filing (best compared to petzl gully, and its softer than the gully pick ime)

My wife and I have put a whole lot of days on our two Blue Ice Octopus packs. They are surprisingly burley and functional for their price point compared to where the market is at. I even put them in the washer and they come out looking like new. We really like these. 

We also have two Reach 12 packs. I’ve worn a small hole in mine, and I don’t use it much. I’m not surprised or upset though, it’s like a $50 ultralight pack. I ended up going with a Samaya Ultra, which is way more robust, but is literally like 10x the price.

I have or have used a few other Blue Ice products. All of them are good value imo. 

For what it's worth, I've been using a Chiru 25 as my everyday bag since last summer. I haven't climbed with it a ton save for some simple scrambling, but often everyday use is the most abusive of uses. 

Other than some light wear on the Aquaguard zipper (which I was expecting anyway given their nature) it hasn't let me down so far. 

The plastic knobs came off two aero light screws (one first gen and the second much newer). This is a well known problem they reportedly fixed.

• Broke the sternum buckle on the Firecrest pack. If I could change one thing about blue ice, it would be their use of very finnicky, and not durable, proprietary fasttex buckles.

Wore the inside (weird wear spot) of the left loop of the Cuestra harness. I really like this harness but it may be the least durable harness I've ever owned.

Weight, durability, price.  You can only pick 2. 

k och wrote:

The belay loop on my Blue Ice Cuesta started fraying and the stitching started to come undone after around 10 days out cragging. I emailed them and they said this was normal wear and tear.  Kinda garbage quality for $85 if you ask me.

Do you have a picture of what was fraying?

My cuesta is pretty close to retirement after 1 year of moderate to heavy use. Bottom hard point is cut through the protective cover, and stitching has come undone on the belay loop so I tape the protective nylon in place.

Their heavy stuff is burly and their light stuff is not. Same as every other company in my experience. 

Wictor Dahlström wrote:

Their heavy stuff is burly and their light stuff is not. Same as every other company in my experience. 

This.

I'm pretty happy with my Moonlight 55, after a year of regular use there's hardly any visible wear and tear, and I don't treat it very carefully...
My Dragonfly 18, on the other hand, is very light but thin, and I wouldn't throw it around.

T H wrote:

This.

I'm pretty happy with my Moonlight 55, after a year of regular use there's hardly any visible wear and tear, and I don't treat it very carefully...
My Dragonfly 18, on the other hand, is very light but thin, and I wouldn't throw it around.

LOL, I have the same bags...

I also have multiple blue ice gear(packs, ice screws, ice axe, crampons), and really digging their stuff, i'm not a brand hoe to anyone but they are a lot of times on the top my requirements list. 

They have the burliest things (some of them are still very light weight because of their minimality) and the lightest things in the category (which are not speciality fabrics at 2-3x price) but don't expect robustness from the latter.