Spoonin’ Bag

Yes Robert- this is breaking news from Feathered Friends- the Spoonbill bag!:

"Designed for backpacking and alpine climbing, it is the lightest, warmest, most efficient two-person sleep system that will be on the market. It is cut a little narrower than our other two-person systems, has a very unique collar design, and when done, will weigh 2 pounds 4 ounces or less for a 20-degree rating. We may choose to make a 30-degree version that will be under 2 pounds.

The bag further lightens your overall weight by the unique way groundpads are used with it. Instead of having sleeves on the bottom, the weight-saving user cuts two foam pads to fit inside the bag. As a result, two people can sleep on 1.5 pads, reducing total weight even further. If you don't want to do this, you can simply lay the bag on top of two pads.

Take a look at the pictures of our prototype. Keep in mind that I designed the prototype as a zero-degree bag to be used on high altitude mountaineering expeditions. It just came back from the fifth ascent of the Diamond route on Denali, and the climbers reported that it was too warm at negative temperatures. The sizing was comfortable for two burly climbers. This bag is extremely efficient. The prototype weighs 2lb 11 oz, which is lighter than our lightest zero-degree mummy. Changes to the final version will include eliminating the hoods and continuing the collar around the floor of the bag to create a 360-degree collar, repositioning of the drawcords at the opening so both occupants can operate them independently, simplification of the footbox, eliminating redundant vertical side baffles, and reducing the fill weight considerably.

The price for the bag will be $589 for a regular length and $614 for a long at the 20-degree rating. Owing to the specialized nature of this bag and the difficulty of making it, we are introducing it on a limited basis. For all Spoonbills to be made in 2007 I am taking advance orders, and in late August/early September we will do one production run….We will not take custom orders for them, and when they are gone, they are gone until 2008 when we will make another production run in the spring. If demand is higher than we projected, we might rearrange our production schedule."

I looked at this in their store in Seattle. VERY exciting!

Utterly depends on who you're sharing this bag with… :-)>

Kevin, you said it, dude..
I think two zip-together UL down bags are a more versitile choice; you can match the halves to the person/situation; a 40'bag on one side for the warm sleeper, and a 30' on the other side for the cold sleeper, etc.. even put them one inside the other if it's unexpectedly cold, if they are wide enough (Montbell for example)
But this has it's place, Steve House uses a custom built one for his epic climbs.

Yeah, but ain’t nothing as light or effecient for two people as thinking like this…as well as what’s available at Nunatak.

And two zipped together bags has some serious downsides such as draftiness and material redundancy. Oh yeah, weight. That’s a HUGE one.

For couples looking for the lightest option that is the most effecient, almost nada exists.

Match this with the Oware Dixon Double bivy and a Gossamer Gear SpinnTwinn and you have a two person setup that is definitely much lighter than two redundant solo setups.

And besides that, you get to sleep with your honey!

DJ

This looks like a really nice bag. I spent some time considering options for my wife and myself before buying a puffin (http://tinyurl.com/2h6pmz) and a toucan (http://tinyurl.com/2d7fnu). I got the same color (and presumably the same "nano" material) as that shown. We got the heavier, warmer toucan, but I think I may get the lighter one as well. The weight of our system is more than the new bag, but still lighter than two bags. I'm sorry but I don't have the numbers with me (I'm at work) but I'll try and get them on this post. One nice thing about the toucan system is that you can use whatever pad you already use (or standard pads, if you will). We certainly would have considered this spooning bag had it been available when we were shopping.

I plan on doing a full report on the system when we actually use it, but it sure looks good now (plenty of loft and a nice design). I was planning on doing a review as well as a comment on a previous thread (http://tinyurl.com/2yu2sr) which talks a bit about two person systems.

Oh, I should mention that the weight of both the bag and the toucan is way lighter than what the web site states. Doug, when you talk to the Feathered Friends folks, you might ask them (or plead with them) to please update their web site. The style is fine, but most of the information is way out of date (they don't list the "nano" material, the down fill weight is wrong, the bag weights are wrong, some links don't work, etc.). Of course, better to get a bag and be pleasantly surprised at the weight than to order a bag and find out it weighs more than you thought (Marmot).

I have the numbers on the gear I bought last winter:

Feathered Friends 20° Penguin ("Nano" fabric): 43.1 oz.
Feathered Friends Toucan Deluxe (fleece): 14.2 oz.
Large Stuff sack (silnylon?): 0.8 oz.

I didn't get any hoods but is has zippers for them. This is a very roomy, toasty and flexible set up (zips on both sides) for less than the weight of two 20° bags. I can shave about a half pound by going with a lighter Toucan. I can shave quite a bit more by getting the Spoonbill mentioned (at a cost of a bit of room, I suppose).