Best Bag I Have Ever Had
My journey to this bag was long story with a lot of thought. Over 12 years ago I was getting into lightweight backpacking. I did a lot of research. There we not as many options as there are today and if you wanted a quality, warm lightweight bag Western Mountaineering was on the short list of bags to consider. Kids and a long hiatus from camping followed. With my son now in scouts and prospects of real backpacking trips in the future it came time to look again at bags. There are a LOT more options now at wildly different price points. After considering all my gear together I decided my weight budget was 2lbs and I needed something good down to 20F. There are all sorts of interesting designs out there now but I decided to stick with a standard mummy design. I found that Western Mountaineering was still around and still not cheap, though others were more expensive. On one of my trips I had the occasion to “try on” a WM bag and look at it and found it to be a quality item. Generally lighter is better and I considered getting something from the ultralight series, but those required greater care as they are made from a lighter fabric. Since someone other than myself might be using the bag I elected to spend the extra three ounces and get the Microfiber version and not worry about it. The heavier fabric also adds a little to the insulation and the water resistance. When it came to the temp rating this bag was listed as a 15F bag. I wondered if that would be a little on the warm side. When I had originally looked at bags I figured 25F would be fine. But as you get older you get colder. 25F might have worked 10 years ago, 20F might be fine now, but I decided to go with 15F so that 10 years from now I won’t be looking for a new bag. Thinking about your needs as your body ages may not be something on the mind of a 20 something getting their first set of gear, but think about it unless you want to buy a second set years down the road! I figure this will be the last bag I’ll ever need to buy so I decided to pay the premium over some of the other bags claiming the same weight/performance. Observations- It is a very nice bag, quality stitching and materials throughout the bag. No corners cut anywhere. It’s made in the USA, which to me is worth paying a few bucks more. The fabric is smooth and comfortable. I climbed in (I’m 5’8 and slim build) and found it a good fit. It was notably tighter than my older bags and I worried a little if that would be a problem. But once I stopped thinking about it I didn’t really notice the difference. The tighter fit means more efficient heating/lighter bag. One of the billings of this bag is it has all the essentials you need and nothing you don’t. I would say this to be very true. The features it did have were perfectly implemented with nothing extra. So lets look at the features Continuous Baffles – The bag has different “cells” stitched horizontally across the bag that contain the down. With some practice you can shift the down for more or less loft. If you are in warmer conditions you can shift more to the bottom. If you are in colder conditions you can shift more to the top. I would say this is more of a fine tuning than radically changing the insulation on the bag. Zipper – The zipper works great, goes down ¾ the length of the bag which is all you really need. The zipper run is stiffened by fabric so it goes up and down without a snag which is really nice. Hood – The hood doesn’t appear to be as high as the hood on some of the other bags, but the way it comes up when you use the draw string places it just right. The opening that it creates in combination with the draft collar is perfect. It provides warmth while leaving you space to move around in without ending up breathing into your bag. I found the opening to keep its shape well even when rolling to the side. Draft Collar – My old bag had a nice collar that draped down around my kneck that made a huge difference compared to bags without a collar. The WM collar takes it to a whole new level. It consists of two down filled tubes running across the bag on the inside top and bottom with a drawstring. There is a small Velcro closure on one side to complete the seal. When you get in and pull the collar up these to tubes clamshell around your neck with enough loft that they pretty much create a seal preventing cold air from going further down the bag. It works GREAT. After a few minutes in the bag you can really feel the temperature differential on either side of the collar. It’s the best collar I’ve ever used. Draft Tube – Another down filled tube running the length of the bag along the zipper. The zipper gap is always a place to loose heat. Good bags minimize this. This bag has a larger than normal gap in some ways due to the stiffening around the zipper area. The draft tube takes care of that. When I was in the field I flipped the draft tube up and could feel the difference. Shell – It’s made of a nice fabric that seems fairly water repellant. I spent the night in a close in tarp shelter and there was a lot of condensation. A fair amount of it dropped on the bag and it all beaded up and rolled off. Loft – WM uses the best down you can get and the loft is incredible for the weight. The bag is very puffy. So features are nice but how did it work. Before taking it out in the field I spent the night in it on my bed inside. I fully expected to overheat and I did get warm and open it up in the night, but it was not sweatingly uncomfortable. The room temp was in the 60’s. It gave me confidence that my fears about the tighter fit were unfounded. So the real test came on the next scout trip. Two nights in an improvised tarp shelter. The first night was 22F, the second 27F. I had on thin synthetic base layer and a hat sleeping on a 2” self inflating foam mat. It was one of the most amazing sleeping bag experiences I had. Stripping down to my base layer left me cold going into the bag, but after I got situated things warmed up. With my old bag the weak point was always the knees and the feet. I was worried about the feet because some of the loft was compressed by contact with the tight quarters of the tarp shelter. Once my core started warming up the center of the bag I was able to send warm air down to the feet and soon the knees took care of themselves. Eventually everything was a nice uniform warmth south of the draft collar. My head was fine and the extra heat coming off the hood and leaking up out of the bag created a warmth zone around my face. I spent the night in comfort. From a warmth perspective it didn’t feel like I was in a bag, it just felt like I was laying in a room that was heated to a great sleeping temperature. No warm or cold spots. Just comfort. I didn’t overheat, didn’t freeze, just slept in comfort. The second slightly warmer night was a similar experience, I did have to loosen some of the drawstrings up a bit in the morning to dump a little bit of heat, but I had eaten a lot of meat that evening and didn’t quite feel the same. As I mentioned earlier, the tight fit of the tarp shelter left a lot of condensation on the tarp which rolled down onto the bag, beaded up and didn’t get through to the insulation. Packing the bag up was normal for a sleeping bag. It comes with a stuff sack that it will easily fit into. I’ve considered getting a compression sack (14L should fit) but so far still have enough room in my pack. I managed to cram it (with effort) into a compression sack for a Marmont Cloud Break synthetic which results in shrinking volume by 1/3. Conclusion: Where has this bag been all my life! When I think of all those nights of misery this could have saved me at half the weight of what I’ve been using. This is a dream come true. The price is on the steep side, especially for a someone putting together their kit for the first time. It’s probably best as your 2nd+ generation bag. Once you know what you like and understand what you don’t like about your current bag this is a good upgrade. I’m looking forward to seeing how it does in warmer weather and will post updates as I get them. Update: Took it out again in significantly warmer weather. Two nights in the mid 50’s in a tent sleeping on a Thermarest Luxilite cot. Wore just my shorts. I was worried about overheating but it turned out fine. Didn’t use the hood or collar, had the bag unzipped a little at the top. There was not an issue with overheating. The fabric was reasonably comfortable against the skin. Was very pleased. Read more
