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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Companion forum thread to:
Montbell Down Hugger 900 #2 Sleeping Bag Review
Article states that the Zpacks bag does not have a zipper baffle, but it does indeed have one.
billy
correction, the Zpacks zipper baffle is an option at time of ordering..
billy
""""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 …
Glad to see Will has not lost his touch. Excellent review.
PHD are making a hoodless bag? How bizarre.
It's the beard that does it, sticking out of the opening …
Cheers
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.
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.
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
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
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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