Best 0 Bag for the Money?

[Jeremy Price]

I paid $335 for it one week ago. I just checked EMS's site again, and it is back to $419!

[James R]

http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3981927

Jeremy, I just added it to cart, and it shows $199 – definitely do price adjustment ASAP!

[James R]

Jeremy, upon closer look, it appears there are two versions of Mountain Light 0 at ems website: older and newer versions. You purchased the newer one while the one linked by me is the older. They have the older style long version available as well.

[Ryan Linn]

I've had my eyes on this for a few days, too. I can't wait to hear how it performs at the lower end of its temp rating, especially since the -20 version is 1.75 pounds heavier than the 0, with less than half of that weight coming from extra down. If the 0 is accurate to its temp rating, it would be a pretty sweet winter bag with the option of wearing extra down pants and jacket inside.

[Ryan Linn]

I took some quick measurements at EMS today in case anyone is interested. The new Mountain Light 0 looks pretty snazzy, although the amount of loft is very different throughout the bag. According to their and Marmot's literature, there's supposed to be more down by the feet and chest… here's what I found (measurements were messy, but seemed close enough):

Loft at chest: 7-8"
Loft at thighs: 5"
Loft at feet: 8-9"

The deflated thigh area looks kind of unattractive, but the loft throughout the rest looks nice.

[Jeremy Price]

First trial on the EMS Mountain Light 0 (Long) bag:

Unfortunately, temps were unseasonably warm on the Cumberland Plateau this weekend, however, it didn't stop me from foolishly taking the new bag. Night time lows were in the upper 30's to low 40's. I couldn't help but to take my new purchase. I definitely had to regulate with the zipper. The bag was very, very warm.

However, aside from no real relative info regarding temperature performance, here are a few things I did note:

1) The "long" is really long. I'm 6'0" even. If you don't plan on stuffing extra clothes, water filter, camera, etc in the bottom of the bag at cold temps, don't get the long. It feels like it is about 7' long. I'm not really complaining, but just noting that the extra length may not be needed. However, the extra length between the long and regular only tacks on 4 extra ounces.

2) It is a very comfortable bag. I'm quite stocky and I still have plenty of wiggle room without hints of claustrophobia. I was really expecting a "tighter" bag with such a reasonable weight of 3.0 lbs. Not the case.

3) The compression sack included was nice. It's also kind of neat because instead of 4 compression straps (that I'm used to on my old Granite Gear compression sacks) it only has 3…shedding unneeded weight. It compresses very well and fits in my very stingy sleeping bag compartment on my Osprey Atmos 65.

4) The shell and interior material are very comfortable, overall it just feels nice lying in it. (Especially after stripping down because you wake up wringing wet because you just can't wait until cold weather gets here to test it out…just saying)

5) The zipper. The bag has a great anti-draft tube. However, as you can imagine that causes zipper snags. I took my time and worked the zipper slowly up the bag. It seems like it literally takes about 60 seconds to get the bag zipped. Since I'm not really threatened by quick-onset blizzards, I can deal with that. I still managed to lightly snag the zipper about 4 or 5 times. A nice feature of the zipper is that it zips to within about 8 inches (or so) of the bottom. Again, a nice feature when you decide to use it in unseasonably warm temps.

Overall, the bag has passed my initial quality test. Longevity…who knows? Zero degree performance…yet to be seen. I'll continue to post after I can get a relevant cold weather performance test under my belt.

[Ryan Linn]

Jeremy, thanks for the initial impressions! I've been really leaning toward getting one of these to try this winter (or at least renting one from the local EMS for a test run). I tried climbing into one in the store, and also noticed the very snag-prone zipper. I'll have to try it a few more times and see if there's any trick to zipping it up. One thing that doesn't help for me is that all the regular size Mountain Lights have right-side zip, and I'm used to zipping on the left… not that that's a huge issue, but I'll have to get used to something different.

I'll be looking forward to more updates if they're coming.

[Ken Strayer]

Have you thought about quilts? I use a hammock and find the winter burrow from hammockgear.com to be superb for winter use. IMO it is very accurately rated. I have one with 2oz of overfill and have taken it to 10F in comfort.

Winter burrow 0F quilt $254 27oz 800fp down quilt.

[Walter Carrington]

I have the EMS Mountain Light -20F. I haven't used it in the cold yet, but it has a lot of loft and seems well made.

There seem to have been changes in these over time. Mine was shipped to EMS in fall 2009, weighs 3.75 lb (by my scale) and has 36.9 oz of down by the label. It was $279 on sale (a bargain for what seems to be authentically a below zero bag).

[drowning in spam]

@Ken

I wouldn't recommend a 0°F for a first time quilt user. The drafts when the temperature is in the teens are brutal and only get worse when it gets colder. I recommend being comfortable with quilts before pushing below 20°F.

[Author]

Posts