The Robens Glacier II -5°C is a warm budget sleeping bag that offers plenty of wriggle-room for those who appreciate a spacious bag: its Loft Expander system’s elasticity enables the upper to swell, accordion-like, as you wriggle and turn, then contract around you as you settle, so there are no momentary cold spots. It offers wriggle-space while retaining warmth and maintaining the insulation’s even distribution, going some way to solving the common grumble of being claustrophobically bound like a mummy.
John Manning Recommends
For all its weight and bulk, it’s comfortingly cosy, roomy, three-season bag which warms quickly once you slide in.- Warm
- Generous zip and collar baffles
- Inner zipper stow garage
- Bulky
- Zip snag
| Quick specs | |
|---|---|
| Price: £117.99 Weight: 1572g (1487g + 86g compression sack ) (Roben’s stated weight =1380g) Fill: AirThermo (100% polyester) Shell: 40D 290T nylon ripstop (100% nylon) Construction: Mummy-shaped; double layer on top, single layer on bottom Zip: Two-way, full-length YKK auto lock; choice of left or right Length: 220cm (body length 195cm) Rating: Comfort: men -5°C, women 1°C. Extreme: -22°C Sizes: Single length Women’s/men’s version: Unisex URL: www.robens.de/en-gb |
The Robens Glacier II has generously filled draught baffles at the collar and down the length of the zip. The collar baffle is in two sections – front and back – linked by a shared drawcord that pulls both in tight. The front baffle has a neat cup so mouth and chin aren’t too encumbered: synched in effectively, baffle and hood were snug, with only my nose protruding from the bag.
The footbox is spacious, and designed in what Robens dubs a “shark’s fin” shape: there’s plenty of unconstricted toe space.
The sample supplied had a full-length right-hand zip rather than my preferred left, so its flat-corded drawcords were on my left shoulder. The hood’s cord is colour coded – red for chin, green for forehead – though that, in the darkness of a tent that, was irrelevant, and I occasionally also confused collar and hood cords.
Small devices could be stashed in an accessories pouch beneath the inner collar baffle, to keep their batteries alive on cold nights (though I’ve read enough about radiofrequency radiation to at least switch my smartphone off before doing that).
The full-length YKK zip has a stow port at the foot, so the zipper doesn’t scratch your legs in the night. It lacks an anti-snag devices of the kind being incorporated elsewhere in the industry, and had a tendency to snag on the shell fabric.
The synthetic-filled Glacier II is about 50% heavier than many (more expensive) down-filled bags with similar temperature ratings but, for all its weight and bulk, it’s comfortingly cosy, roomy, three-season bag which warms quickly once you slide in.
