A warm and comfortable environmentally friendly synthetic sleeping bag
A white sleeping bag? My first reaction on seeing this at an outdoor trade show was the same as everybody’s – but it’ll show the dirt. So why have Mountain Hardwear made a white sleeping bag? The clue is in the Eco part of the name. The bag is designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible and that includes not dying the fabric, which saves chemicals and gallons of water. The bag also has recycled fabric, insulation, and trims, plus recycled storage and compression sacks. The shell and lining are 100% 20D recycled ripstop nylon and the insulation is 70% recycled polyester. The outer has a PFC-free DWR treatment.
In design the bag has is a standard mummy shape with a box foot, a close-fitting hood, a shaped draft collar and a three-quarter length two-way zip. There are no stitched seams as the bag has Mountain Hardwear’s proprietary welded Lamina construction. The bag weighs 1.13kg in the regular length, which is good for a synthetic bag with this temperature rating. It compresses quite well too. The compression stuff sack provided is a rather hefty 135 grams.
Such an environmentally friendly sleeping bag sounds a great idea, but the performance needs to be good as well. Happily, I’ve found it is. The bag is very comfortable and conforms to the body better than many synthetic bags, reducing cold spots, as both shell and insulation are soft and flexible. In temperatures around freezing it’s very warm. A more severe test came on a night in Glen Feshie when the temperature dropped to -6°C. Wearing just thin underwear I was perfectly warm, and I found the hood snug enough that I didn’t need to tighten the drawcord.
For a warm sleeper like me this is an excellent winter sleeping bag. Mountain Hardwear deserve praise for producing such an environmentally friendly high-performance sleeping bag. I hope it starts a trend.
£240
