Montbell Down Hugger 900 #2 Sleeping Bag Review

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An ultralight sleeping bag in the 20 to 25F (-7 to -4 C) range is a good choice for backpacking in the shoulder seasons, and a good mountain summer bag for cold sleepers. If you were to buy just one ultralight sleeping bag, one in this range would be ideal for many hikers because it keeps extra weight to a minimum while providing extra warmth. Montbell, a leader in down-insulated garments and sleeping bags, has introduced the Down Hugger 900 #2 for spring 2014. As the name implies, its insulated with 900 fill-power down and features Montbell's Super Spiral Stretch System (described below) which contracts the bag around your body and expands to provide loads of girth when you need it.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
- Specifications and Features
Description
Field Testing
Comparisons
Evaluation

# WORDS: 2260
# PHOTOS: 9

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Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Author

Posts
Jun 10, 2014 at 9:10 pm #1317801

Stephanie Jordan
Spectator

@maia
Locale: Rocky Mountains

Companion forum thread to:

Montbell Down Hugger 900 #2 Sleeping Bag Review

Jun 10, 2014 at 9:40 pm #2110548

Billy Ray
Spectator

@rosyfinch
Locale: the mountains

Article states that the Zpacks bag does not have a zipper baffle, but it does indeed have one.

billy

Jun 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm #2110552

Billy Ray
Spectator

@rosyfinch
Locale: the mountains

correction, the Zpacks zipper baffle is an option at time of ordering..

billy

Jun 11, 2014 at 12:30 am #2110577

carlos fernandez rivas
BPL Member

@pitagorin
Locale: Galicia -Spain

""""The hoodless PHD Minim 400 will be available soon with 900 EU (936 US) fill-power down."""

"""Both the PHD and ZPacks bags are hoodless, """""

I din´t notice that phd had hodless bags in his range…. thank you for the info ;-)

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/phd_minim_400_sleeping_bag_review.html#.U5gEWHaJnFY

Maybe including "loft" measures in the comparison chart would be interesting …

Jun 11, 2014 at 6:11 am #2110605

Ken Thompson
BPL Member

@here
Locale: Right there

Glad to see Will has not lost his touch. Excellent review.

Jun 11, 2014 at 10:40 pm #2110863

J C
Spectator

@joomy

PHD are making a hoodless bag? How bizarre.

Jun 12, 2014 at 4:53 pm #2111083

Roger Caffin
BPL Member

@rcaffin
Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

It's the beard that does it, sticking out of the opening …

Cheers

Jun 12, 2014 at 5:21 pm #2111093

J-L
BPL Member

@johnnyh88

Good looking sleeping bag.

12 oz of down seems a little low for a 24 oz bag weight. The down shifting makes me think it is barely enough down to fill the bag.

Jun 12, 2014 at 11:24 pm #2111186

Andy Jarman
Member

@andyjarman
Locale: Edge of the World

I've always wondered, are the baffles through-stitched or do they use box-construction with a divider between the inner and outer fabric? The stitching looks very pronounced for box construction.

Jun 15, 2014 at 8:50 am #2111644

Gary Pikovsky
BPL Member

@gosha007
Locale: New Hampshire White Mountains

Will and BPL,

I'm very surprised to find that you omitted what is arguably the best and lightest sleeping bag of the bunch – Enlightened Equipment's Enigma Pro. I own the Enigma, Zpacks and Montbell bags and can without a doubt say the EE and Zpacks are easily at the top of the list for warmth comfort and weight. EE bags inches to the top, however – fantastic design a super compressible. I would like to see more attention being paid to cottage makers on this site as they have by far the best gear for what a lot of people on BPL are looking for.

I think many others will agree with me on the above. There is no hood, but that's where a light down/synthetic hat can serve a double purpose for hiking, camp and sleeping.

Gary

Jun 17, 2014 at 5:48 pm #2112273

Will Rietveld
BPL Member

@williwabbit
Locale: Southwest Colorado

Hi Gary, Sorry for the delay in responding, I have been in MT for a week. I did check Enlightened Equipment, and Katabatic Gear too, and all I found was QUILTS. I didn't think it would be appropriate to compare mummy bags with quilts, so I kept the comparison to comparable products. Perhaps the hoodless bags should have been left out. Some of the bags are made by cottage industries. Will

Jun 20, 2014 at 9:44 pm #2113276

kevperro .
BPL Member

@kevperro
Locale: Washington State

I think keeping them in separate categories is important. People who know they like quilts will shop for quilts and those of us who know we want a bag/hood want to see them compared apples to apples.
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