WESTERN MOUNTAINEERING Caribou 35° Sleeping Bag, Long

Comments about WESTERN MOUNTAINEERING Caribou 35° Sleeping Bag, Long:

Used it on a short backpacking trip in the catskills. Nice quality. Ultra light. Comfortable.

Comments about WESTERN MOUNTAINEERING Caribou 35° Sleeping Bag, Long:

Researched probably 30 different bags before I settled upon this bag for the perfect marriage of lightweight, durable, roomy and warm, yet maximum packability. For the price this is a steal! If you aren't an idiot and take care of your equipment, this bag will last you 10 yrs or more. I had a number of fellow thru-hikers put over 2,200 miles on their Western Mountaineering Sleeping bags and have them still look like new after properly washing them (in a front load commercial machine with down wash, and dried on low with a few tennis balls to break up the clumps). This bag simply disappeared into an XXS stuff sack (I just stuffed it into the bottom of my trash compactor bag / pack liner to fill up the bottom of my pack. With a proper baselayer and fleece hat on, zipped up inside a bivy, I took this bag down to 18* without being ridiculously cold. I'd say the temperature rating is spot on if not a bit generous. I was perfectly comfortable down to 32* with no baselayer, and with a baselayer got it comfortably to 26*. Super rugged - though it looks super fragile and feels like air. It does tend to leak a little down, but over the course of many jam sessions in my backpack over months of use it lost no appreciable weight in down (less than an ounce over probably 90 days of use ( I switched to a lighter cheap summer bag for the middle of summer).

Summary:
- temperature rating is accurate, if not a cold sleeper you can push it even more to the high 20's. ( In the Smoky Mountains I had one "chilly" night when the temps hit 18* and there were 30 mph winds)
- It's durable, but don't abuse it needlessly, use a ground cloth and remember that it costs a lot of money so don't be stupid with it -- if you use sharp objects, clothing, fire places, stoves around it you may regret it (true of most any bag).
- Roomy, easy to unzip and use as a quilt as the temps warm up.
- Very compressible and bounces back to full loft very quickly.
- $$ Up front cost a bit high, but it will last you forever if you take decent care of it.
- Good MF cover, it helped to simply let light ice, condensation, and rain run right off the bag cover without ever soaking into the down (More durable I think than the WM "Lite" series of bags..but just an opinion).
- At 1 lb 8 oz. on my scale it is awesome for lightweight hiking!!
- I'm 6'1" and I'm glad I got the long - it gave me that little bit of extra wiggle room and kept me from cramming into the bag and thus needlessly compressing the the down.

Why are you still reading? Go out and buy one so you can start camping like a boss!