Down Works

[Franco Darioli]

Down Works has been mentioned in another thread. I never heard of them but I see that they make sleeping bags as well as the balaclava.
The prices seem reasonable, any chance of some pics of that gear ?
(I cannot see them on their Web Site)
http://web.me.com/dgravem/Down_Works/Welcome.html
Franco

[Mark Verber]

A couple pix of my balaclava. Sorry… I don't have time in the next few days to take a careful picture so this will have to do.

The design might be even more refined now. I believe I have one of the earlier balaclavas that Nick made.

–Mark

[Richard Nisley]

Franco,

I purchased mine last week. It weighs 83 grams and has 4 inches of dense loft. Three views of the balaclava are as follows:

The balaclava is reversible and it looks the same regardless of which color is on the outside. Their optional highly water repellant fabric is ~1.3 oz/yd2 polyester. This appears to me to be the same fabric that Western Mountaineering uses on their current sleeping bag shells. My analysis is that the DWR is the result of an Epic Nextec process. This should result in not only good water repellency but also life long use without a need to replenish the DWR. Attached is a photo of the outside fabric (green) taken at 200x.

Attached is a photo of the inside fabric (black) taken at 200x. It appears to be 1 oz/yd2 nylon without a DWR.

[Franco Darioli]

Wow , that is a lot of loft!!!
Now I get the 12f quoted by Mark. (and your shots are more than good enough)
Thanks Richard for your comments (as usual)
If that is what you get for $75 it sounds pretty good to me. ( $10 would be better, but I mean in comparison…)
The Nunatak version does look more professional but here the look is not that important , maybe at Aspen it would be…
Some will prefer the front opening of the Nunatak but nice to have a choice.
Thanks again.
Franco

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