Best Sleeping Bags for the, $, Money
Four years working in a non-corporate gear shop scored me a lot of time with sweet (and very $$$) demo products. One of my favorite things to demo was always a new sleeping bag, despite a few nights spent shivering in shoddy products. The model-year for gear is a bit different than for cars. Right now is clearance season on great 2004 gear, and the bags listed below are at least 30% off.
With so many brands finally getting fit and hood-shapes right - durability is key to why I picked bags from Marmot, Mountain Hardware and Sierra Designs. If you can’t get to sleep when the loft is gone after a few months in the closet, then who cares what the warranty says. With that in mind: Down, the Marmot Sawtooth, 15-degree is only $130 and Sierra Designs Cloudripper
, 20-degree only $160. Synthetic, the Sierra Designs Wild Bill
, 20-degree is only $60 and the Mountain Hardware 2nd Dimension
, 15-degree bag is only $122 .
Just to mention my favorite bag: the single lightest-smallest-most convenient sleeping bag I’ve ever used is a Western Mountaineering HighLight, 35-degree. At $220-$230 it is pricey, but it’s worth it if you take most of your trips during summer months. The HighLight weighs only 16 oz., fits into a widemouth Nalgene (not recommended except as a stunt), and it works for everything I’ve encountered between June and September (light snow included). It will even cover April - November so long as you have a tent to block wind and add a pair of wool socks and some long underwear. It’s a tough bag to find and I found out personally that Western Mountaineering can keep you waiting for 4 months if you have to special order it. Here are a few reatilers who stock the bag (in this case, none offering commisions to this site): BackcountryGear.com, BentGate.com, MooseJaw.com, and Travelcountry.com. My only complaint is that the lack of a draft collar makes the bag seem shorter than it really is, because you’ll need to cinch the hood and burrow into the bag more. Only consider the 6′0″ size if you’re under 5′10″, otherwise jump up the the 6′6″ length (by the way, you can custom order a 7′ length from Western Mountaineering, but it may take 2 months to be made and delivered).