The Black Diamond Blitz 28 is a tough one for me to review. I don’t love it, nor do I hate it. It works well, but it has some huge design flaws too. As a lightweight alpine bag, it works and it does what it says on the tin. However, I’d expect more from Black Diamond, this bag has the potential to be great, and some of the flaws are fixable. However, others are not.
Anyway, I’ll get into the review and look at what I do and don’t like about this bag. If you already have it or are dead set on getting it, in this review, I am also going to include what we did to improve some of its features.
Black Diamond Blitz 38l Review
I’ll start with what I like about this bag. It is extremely lightweight, making super-fast alpine routes a breeze. The weight of this bag is incredible, especially where every gram counts. Things have been removed that I like to see on bags… That’s extra weight though. This bag has removed everything and anything it can to make it as lightweight as possible.
It also packs very easily. with one large pocket only accessible from the top (extra zips would add non-essential weight). It is a bag that even though is small at 28l, it can be packed tight. You can fit a lot in this tiny bag.
Additionally, it does also have a small zip pocket on the hood, which is ideal for valuables such as keys, or anything you may need to access quickly such as a headtorch, a snack or a knife.
That just about covers what I like about this bag. It’s not much, but what it does have is decent.
Now what don’t I like about this bag…
First off, the dogbone for the ice axe doesn’t fit all axes, and we had to shave it down a bit for the axe to easily fit. But hey, extra weight saved. You also have the Velcro for the handle of your axe is cheap and prone to coming open. We had to fix this, as it happened all the time. We got a small piece of bungee and a squeeze clip, we swapped this for the Velcro and it worked perfectly for strapping the handle to the bag.
Doing the above two things, made attaching the axe easy and secure. Now it works it’s good. It’s just not ideal that we have to do things ourselves to the bag to make it work properly. Especially for an axe, as an alpine pack, it’s almost always going to have an axe on it… Unless you are using the tool.
The second thing I don’t like is it’s not the most durable, and is prone to ripping at the smallest bit of abrasion, yes it can be patched, but as it’s a mountaineering bag, it gets scraped a lot.
Being light and having minimal padding also makes this not the most comfortable bag. Especially if you have a lot in it, you’ll feel things sticking into your back.
The lack of side straps isn’t a big deal, because I get it is unneeded weight, but I am a fan of them to keep my rope secure and out of the way a bit more. I didn’t find this to be much of an issue though.
Finally, and for me the biggest thing is the hood/closure system. However tight you pull it, it will never close fully and will always be slightly open. This is fine on dry days, I’m not saying I think gear is going to fall out. However, if you get a snowy or rainy day, you better be okay with all your kit getting soaked. A dry bag is essential, but water gets in easily and will pool at the bottom of the bag making it heavier throughout the day unless you keep emptying it.
Specifications
- RRP £105
- BD UHMWPE “Mini Rip” 100d Nylon with 200d PE body fabric
- One-handed top closure
- Easily accessible, water-resistant zip pocket on the lid
- Strippable design with a removable hip belt, and frame sheet/bivy pad
- Colour-coded red rope strap
- Ice tool Pick Pockets™ with a new custom metal dogbone ice tool attachment
- Hydration compatibility
- Internal zippered pocket
- Rain cover available separately – With how bad this bag is in the wet, I think this should come as standard with the bag.
Conclusion
To conclude this review yes the bag has its pros, but it has a lot of cons too. In a competitive market such as mountain packs, there are just too many cons for me to recommend this bag over any other. It’s a decent bag if you do what I mentioned about the issues we fixed, and it’s a dry day.
Most of the issues this bag has are fixable, but still, when buying a bag, I don’t want to be doing lots to it to make it good. So no, I can’t recommend this bag, especially for UK mountaineers. I currently use the Blue Ice Faircrest 38 and recommend it. If 28 is what you are after does come in a 28l. And by the looks, it is the same just smaller (which you’d expect).
If you would like to buy this bag, take a look here.
I also mention some improvements that could make this a solid choice for a lightweight affordable pack. If they come out with a 2.0 and fix the issues I state, I would be buying it.
