Sleeping bag recommendations please

Stumpym4 · Post by **Stumpym4** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:25 pm

Re: Sleeping bag recommendations please
Post by Blair512 » Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:45 pm
I got an Alpkit Sky High 500 for my birthday a couple of months ago and it's a revelation compared to my old highlander synthetic bag. While my mate lay shivering all night on saturday I had a great sleep and only woke once to take layers off because I was too hot! Well worth the cash if you can stretch your budget

whats the pack size, seems to be a very bulky bag ?

Borderer · Post by **Borderer** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:06 pm

Blair512 wrote:I got an Alpkit Sky High 500 for my birthday a couple of months ago and it's a revelation compared to my old highlander synthetic bag. While my mate lay shivering all night on saturday I had a great sleep and only woke once to take layers off because I was too hot! Well worth the cash if you can stretch your budget

Nice one, thanks Blair. Yes I am looking quite closely at those. As Stumpy says though - how does it pack? I also thought the foot arrangement looked a bit weird - people don't sleep with their feet sticking up vertically after all - how do you find it?

Cheers

Blair512 · Post by **Blair512** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:51 pm

Borderer wrote:
Blair512 wrote:I got an Alpkit Sky High 500 for my birthday a couple of months ago and it's a revelation compared to my old highlander synthetic bag. While my mate lay shivering all night on saturday I had a great sleep and only woke once to take layers off because I was too hot! Well worth the cash if you can stretch your budget
Nice one, thanks Blair. Yes I am looking quite closely at those. As Stumpy says though - how does it pack? I also thought the foot arrangement looked a bit weird - people don't sleep with their feet sticking up vertically after all - how do you find it?

Cheers

I've not noticed anything weird at the foot box, I had a look on their website and I see what you mean but I dont think it's there in real life, there's probably something inside to make it look bigger in the photo. The stuff sack isn't particularly small but I don't bother using it, I use an 20 ltr airlock with my Thermarest unrolled inside it and then the sleeping bag stuffed into the middle of that, I can then get a tarp at one end and a hunka bivvy bag at the other so it works really well for me. Once I get a decent mat that packs down small I think I'll get the whole lot into a 13 ltr no problem

Borderer · Post by **Borderer** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:05 pm

Wow, that is impressive, thanks.

Borderer · Post by **Borderer** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:54 pm

Just thought I would come back and update this thread to let you know what I bought in the end, in case it helps anyone else.
I found someone selling goose down 2-3 season bags new on Ebay and got them for £55 each. They have temp ratings of +3, -2, -18C and are very lightweight at only 890g (confirmed on my scales). They say they have 90/10 hydrophobic white goose down fill at 800 fill power.

They are British made by a company called Hill Venture and I suspect that they have gone out of business and the owner is now selling off the stock on eBay. The original price was £200 each. They were listed for £65 buy-it-now or best offer. I started with an offer of £50 which was auto-rejected, then went to £55 which was sent to the seller and he accepted. They arrived very quickly and I have to say that I am very pleased with them. I haven't tried sleeping out in them yet so I can't say how they perform, but I think with a liner and merino base layer they should be good for most situations. I couldn't find any reviews online or evidence that the temperature test was carried out officially, so it did feel like a bit of a punt to buy them, but now they are here I have to say that they do look and feel the part. Now they are here I can see that the temp label does say 'EN 13537' on it. The guy hasn't done a very good job of marketing these on his website or eBay.

They have a YKK left half zip with a thick baffle, filled drawstring hood and a neck baffle. There is velcro to allow you to join the two ends of the neck baffle together once you are in and also a small 'valuables pocket' built into the neck baffle. This just snugly fits my phone (Moto G4) but doesn't close with it in. This might be a good thing as it means I could take the phone out quietly to check the time without the velcro fastening waking the boy up.

They arrived in a stuff sack, but with a quick shake they lofted out pretty well.

If the temperature ratings are correct then these should be equivalent to something like the Mountain Equip Titan that Stu linked to, or a couple of centigrade poorer than the Alpkit Sky High 500. For the price that seems pretty good to me.

http://www.hillventure.co.uk/product/agate-sleeping-bag
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hillventure-U ... SwPCVX-1Y0

The guy seems to list them in batches of 3 on Ebay, though his website says 56 available.

In the stuff sack:

Lofted out:

Opened as far as it goes:

Neck baffle detail:

Temp label:

This is it inside a Alpkit 13l drybag. It needs other stuff in there too really as the bag is too big otherwise, but it is just to show the size. I haven't done the straps up very tightly:

Bearbonesnorm · Post by **Bearbonesnorm** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:03 pm

They look okay Bridget, certainly up to 3 season UK use I'd say ... shame about the camo but you can't grumble at that price.

As an aside, after following your ebay link, I spotted another bag on there which I looked at. In the description, rather than 'Fill Power', the seller had used the term, 'Fluffy Force' ... a much better description I feel

Borderer · Post by **Borderer** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:19 pm

Yes, my son is more pleased about the camo than I am

I guess it would be good if you were just sleeping under a tarp and wanted to keep a low profile.

Fluffy force is a good one.

You can find some cracking Chinglish descriptions on eBay.

thenorthwind · Post by **thenorthwind** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:20 pm

Along with fluffy force as a measurement of fill power, can we adopt the Tunnocks teacake as the official SI unit of volume?

(Although their shrinking size over the years might compromise the usefulness of this.)

benp1 · Post by **benp1** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:36 pm

thenorthwind wrote:Along with fluffy force as a measurement of fill power, can we adopt the Tunnocks teacake as the official SI unit of volume?

(Although their shrinking size over the years might compromise the usefulness of this.)

Tunnocks have a bit of fill power too

redefined_cycles · Post by **redefined_cycles** » Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:49 am

Slightly off topic. Just wanted to endorse whatever Ian Fitz is saying. He practically gave me his PHD bag which I very much love. If he is using aomething else now that is super cheap and he recommends it, then it must be good... Besides, he's not getting the PHD back...