UKH

Hi all,

I will be moving to Lausanne in August and will be keen to get into the mountains and get my mountaineering on again.

I need a decent winter sleeping bag and thought I'd ask what you UKC folk think is the best out there.

Weight vs Comfort Rating vs Price?

Any Alpkit users out there?... they seem to be wriggling into the market so I hear/read.

Any help would be great.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Pricewise Cumulus makes really good sleepingbags, and about half the price from major brands. Alpkit might also be there, but their new range isn't available yet.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

You seek the lightest warmest cheapest bag. Your question is so open that it is almost impssible to answer. You will have to make compromises.

Warm for what?Camping or high alpine use?

Would you wear your insulation layers inside it e.g. down jacket?

Do you want cheap or calue for money?

You need to be more specific here,your stated requirements are all in competition with eachother and you won't find one that scores highly on all three. Maybe have a think what you are prepared to compromise on and set a rough budget.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

The best? PHD, Western Mountaineering, Feathered Friends, Valendre. Top end specialist companies that do nothing but high class down gear. Not strong the "vs Price" axis of your equation though.

I have a Cumulus lightweight bag for summer. Materials and construction are fine and the price was decent, but beware: it's cut *extremely* tight and I as a normal sized adult male (180, 80kg) barely fit into it.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Money to burn. Go PHD!

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Second hand good quality down bag (assuming it's been looked after well, and you're not planning on anything where damp is an issue)

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:


PHD Hispar 500. Though if you're into lightweight mountaineering you might look into a half bag + down jacket combo.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry: alpkit are talking about Easter for their sleeping bags to be back in stock - so you should be ok for August. I have a pipedream400 and a previous generation 600(limited edition short version), which kept me warm at -20C in Hidden Valley (Dhaulagiri). Great value for money.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

I´d wait and see what was on offer in the summer in Europe, the way things are going they´ll be cheap

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Faced with the same question I went with a synthetic quilt over a down bag. Its been going well.

Feathered friends is the first site I hit up when looking at bags.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Mountain Equipment UK. I have one of their Redline bags which is still going well after 27 years of regular use. It'll still keep me warm down to -7c and when it was new was plenty warm enough at -20c!

In reply to needvert:


Which quilt did you go for?

To the OP, I'd thoroughly recommend spending time looking at your mat(s) - you lose far more heat downwards into the ground than up into the atmosphere. You can get away with relatively little on top if you have a windproof layer and an effective mattress.

In reply to Carney:

The equivalent now is PHD - Peter Hutchinson Designs. He founded Mountain Equipment but then sold it in 1991 before going on to form PHD to concentrate solely on quality.

I do rate mountain equipmet still as most of my mountaineering trousers or salopettes are made by them, but if I wanted a bag that would last built to my own specification I would go PHD (but not if I had a budget of the cheapest!).

In reply to Martin not maisie:

MLD Spirit 38, XL, ~.6kg - http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=133

In reply to needvert:

You're not from round here, are you.....

In reply to sleavesley:

Thanks for that info Sleavesley. I didn't know any of that. In this case the original cost of about £300 doesn't seem that expensive spread over 27 years! When I replace it I'll go and check out PHD.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Light
Warm
Cheap

pick any two but I am afraid you cant have all three at once

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

Military bags.
French in particular, then British with a bivi bag, Also military. Less than £50 a piece

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

A friend is keen to sell the v high quality bag he used very infrequently in his "greater ranges" climbing days. It's some years old but knowing him I know it will have been selected as the best available and will have been kept in pristine condition as he is meticulously diligent about care and maintenance of his stuff. (His yellow plastic caving suit is 10 years old, has been used a lot and looks like new - mine's grey brown with mud and has holes all over it!!!)
Email me if you're interested and I'll get the full details for you. Cheers. Martin.

In reply to m0unt41n:





The new Alpkit bags coming before Easter will do all three... Although they will be 0ºC / -5ºC the extended range coming later in the year, most likely before summer will be the rest of the range - more info to come soon -

https://www.alpkit.com/sleeping-bags

Jay (Alpkit)

In reply to Alpjay:

Maybe.

But I suspect its a balance to get the lightest weight from using best quality goose down (expensive) and the lightest best quality materials (expensive) and best design and manufacturing (expensive).

Hard to see how you can get that and also ignore the bit in the brackets (expensive).

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

I use an ME Snowline. My brief review & pics here:

https://ruinapartum.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/gear-review-mountain-equipment...

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:
Well I've got a brand new never used ME ICELINE that I could let you have for £250...look it up online...they are pretty good and pretty warm! That's not a bad price either!
So cost v quality think it's pretty hard to beat.

In reply to samuelraymondoparry:

I've had a couple of Alpkit bags for the kids - they're certainly a good compromise for the price (particularly if you buy them second hand ). Probably not the lightest, and maybe not the most compressible for their warmth, but pretty good on both counts, and a great starting point for general use.

You'd have to be doing pretty extreme stuff before you needed something more expensive - and at that level, exactly what you're planning to do would influence the features you want.

In reply to m0unt41n:

Well - that's where you are wrong...

Basically the mark up you see on all other bags is due to selling in shops, sales reps, overheads, labels, targets etc. We don't have that, hence our price being so competitive.

High quality 750 Fill power 90/10 goose down, high end toray fabric (same as ME/Rab etc.), Alpkit design - that has one numerous best in test awards, customer service awards and design awards - all made in the same factory as competitors bags - but ours are 30-40% cheaper than other bags.

Just saying...