Camp Gear: 3 New Sleeping Bags
Sleep tight! If you’re heading into the woods this weekend, here are three new sleeping bags sure to keep you cozy all night long:
Nemo StratoLoft 25 — $430
Temp: -4°C
Weight: 1.4 kg (3 lbs)
Best For: Everything from couch-surfing to casual backpacking.
This sleeper offers the comfort of a rectangular bag with the packability and weight usually reserved for serious backpacking bags. Quilted into boxed baffles stuffed with 700-fill water-resistant down feathers, the StratoLoft is thick and sleeps warm. The old-school rectangular cut provides plenty of restless legroom by itself — and with zips down both sides, it also provides easy temperature regulation or the ability to zip to another bag for cuddling. At a respectable 1.4 kg and packing down small, it could go backpacking.
Bottom Line: More versatility than a futon. Nemo
Therm-a-Rest Antares 20F — $350
Temp: -7°C
Weight: 0.9 kg (1.9 lbs)
Best for: Restless sleepers.
Therm-a-Rest believes insulation should be placed strategically, not just blanketed equally. Thus, they stuffed 70 per cent of this bag’s insulation on the top, 30 per cent on the sides and nothing on the bottom, relying on the pad to provide insulation. Loops of fabric hold the pad in place, keeping us on-top all night long. The design also cuts weight. But what our testers really appreciated was sleep comfort — Therm-a-Rest added extra room in the torso and hips and used a soft liner fabric.
Bottom line: Two-pound weight equals sleep comfort in a performance package. Cascade Designs
The North Face Hightail 35 2S — $350
Temp: +2°C
Weight: 0.5 kg (1.2 lbs)
Best For: If you only backpack in the summer.
Sleeping bags don’t get much lighter than this — just over a pound with enough insulation for summer camping everywhere but in the mountains. Stuffed with 850-fill goose down, it packs to the size of a softball. A two-way full-length zip helps regulate temperature on really warm nights, while a full hood kept us cozy when temps dipped towards the bag’s limit. Water-resistant fabric in condensation-prone areas — hood and feet — protected the down from wetting out.
Bottom Line: Go light. Go far. The North Face
