Mont Bell Ultra-Light Spiral Down Hugger #3 Long

[Greg F]

I had a chance to test out my new UL Spiral down hugger #3. This is the regular version not the super stretch. It still has the diagonal baffles so it does have a little more give than an average bag.

Fit of the bag was good. I like that Mont bell long for this bag is 6' 4" rather than the standard 6'6". I am 6'3" and the the bag fits me perfectly in length. I have always found there to be extra room in the 6'6" bags. 2" shouldn't make a difference but it seems to.

I tested it out for two nights of car camping. The lows on each night were 0 C and 3 C. The 0 C (32F) definately was that cold as there was a little frost. The second night seemed much warmer. I wore lightweight bottoms and a thin running T-shirt top. When I went to sleep I left the hood off as it was too warm still to keep it on. At about 2:00 am I woke up and put the hood on and was warm the rest of the night and was a little bit too warm. So suspect I could go to -2 or -3 C or around 25F.

I generally am always warm when I am sleeping and most bags reach spec or slightly below so this bag. Weight was 20.5 oz with stuff sack so right on the 20 oz listed spec.

The cotton sack that comes with it is too small for storage so I just hang mine. The stuff sack for the bag is very small so I am not sure if I am going to use it or just stuff it loose in the pack liner and allow it to fill the pack.

[Ben W]

Purchased in spring 2010.

This has been an awesome sleeping bag. I typically use it as a quilt and then get in mummy style only when it gets colder.

I have taken it down to (estimated) 25-28F in a breezy pass:
* inside a Titanium Goat Raven bivy (light, breathable)
* on a XS thermarest prolite (torso) and half a Z-rest (legs),
* wearing medium weight wool socks, thin silk long underwear bottoms, medium-weight fleece pants, Ibex woolies shirt, Patagonia R1 hoody.
* fueled by a fat and protein-rich dinner
I was toasty warm and had to vent some throughout the night to avoid sweating.

The smaller sizing vis-a-vis conventional American bag sizes (5'10" reg vs. 6' reg, 6'4" long vs 6'6" long) is good for those of us halfway between the American sizes… (I'm 6 and change. A regular is too short, but my old REI and Kelty longs had more spare than I needed.

I find that due to use in quilt layout, the down tends to shift away from the "hinge" of the bag, but it's easy to fluff it back into a more uniform distribution.

My single pedantic complaint should illuminate my level of satisfaction…
The cords for adjusting the hood are not different shapes as in some of my other bags, so I have to test pulling each one to find which is top and bottom to adjust one independently of the other. Who cares.

[Sam Farrington]

Bought this shortly after the BPL review came out. It was my first down bag since the 70's.

The outstanding DWR treatment shown in the review persuaded me that a down bag might work for me again, and allow sheddng over a half pound in weight.

So far, so good. The bag has yet to wet out anywhere on its surface despite torrential rains outside, and condensation inside the tent.

The down fully fills the bag (just), so there are no shifting issues. Note that the bag is NEVER compressed except when in the pack while trekking.

The thin draft cover is a great step forward in bag design, IMO. Not as toasty a bag as some others report, but did fine around the freezing point without needing the cocoon top and pants that I still carry and often had to use with ~2 LB. synthetic bags.

My only concern is what happens when it has to be cleaned, and how that may affect the loft AND the DWR. After reading many threads about this, still not sure if a cleaner or DIY is best. A well referenced mail away cleaner would be the choice if I were sure of one. I'm still drawn to UL synthetic bags due to the cleaning issues, but for the time being, this is the one that goes in the pack.

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