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Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Sierra Designs Cirque and Mist 2007 > Test Report by Ray Estrella
SIERRA DESIGNS CIRQUE SLEEPING BAG
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TESTER INFORMATION
I have been backpacking for over 30 years, all over California, and in many of the western states and Minnesota. I hike year-round, and average 500+ miles (800+ km) per year. I have made a move to lightweight gear, and smaller volume packs. I start early and hike hard so as to enjoy the afternoons exploring. I usually take a freestanding tent and enjoy hot meals at night. If not hiking solo I am usually with my brother-in-law Dave or fiancée Jenn.
INITIAL REPORT
The Product
Manufacturer: Sierra Designs (a division of American Recreation Products) Product Description
The Sierra Designs Cirque sleeping bag (hereafter referred to as the Cirque, or the bag) is a mummy style down filled sleeping bag. The entire outer shell is yellow. A blue trimmed drawstring surrounds the hood. As the zipper itself is not waterproof, SD has added a "Storm Flap" that covers the zipper keeping moisture from getting to it. This shingled flap is 2 in (5 cm) wide and is held closed by means of four sections of hook-and-loop fasteners spaced along its length. This flap also adds another level of cold blocking protection too. Slightly trapezoidal 6 in (15 cm) wide baffles are used throughout the body of the bag to retain the down, and eliminate cold spots. The offset is about 1 in (2.5 cm). The baffles are sewn to the inner lining of the bag, but are welded to the outer DriZone shell. Welding is a way of chemical bonding (gluing) the fabric together to eliminate stitched penetrations in the shell. This takes away one of the possible ways for water to access the bag. The seams at the hood and down the side of the bag (lengthwise) are welded too. Inside of the bag at shoulder level, is a fat 2.5 x 4 in (6 x 10 cm) insulated draft collar. It has a drawstring and cord lock on the right side of the bag, away from the zipper. It also has a hook-and-loop attachment to keep it together when the zipper is open. Attached to the collar on the right side is a 3 x 4.5 in (8 x 11 cm) mesh "internal media pocket". It is secured with a small piece of hook-and-loop. The hood is very cool. They call it the Expedition Jacket Hood, and claim that it is "the most thermally efficient hood on the market." It has two draft stops. One sits on my neck, and the other wraps around my head. They are adjusted with a drawstring on the right side that goes through a single tethered cord-lock allowing for one handed adjustment. A 5.6 oz (159 g) dark grey nylon compression sack was provided. It also came with a cotton storage bag. On the bottom of the Cirque are two pad locks, removable straps for attaching a sleeping pad to the bag to reduce the occurrence of the bag and pad separating from each other. So far I am pretty impressed with this bag. I have had 6 other Sierra Designs bags over the years. (I still have two in Minnesota plus my children have Sun Ribbons, first generation DriZone bags.) The Cirque is by far the nicest bag I have seen from them. I can find nothing wrong with the construction of the bag. It is very "cushy" feeling. The down lofts up great. The bag seems to have extra down in the foot box and chest area. This concludes the Initial Report. The following reflects the first two months of real-world use.
Field Conditions
I used the Cirque a couple of times in San Jacinto State Park. I was camped at 9200' (2800 m) elevation above Round Valley. Temps dropped down to 20 F (-7 C) at night, it was 24 F (-4 C) in the tent. I was also at a higher elevation once but can't tell because I will get in trouble. (Hmmm…someone's knocking at the door.) Observations
I really like this bag. It is easily my favorite bag from Sierra Designs to date. I had their Sam Jam 800 bag that used 800 fill down also, but this bag lofts up much nicer than the Sam Jam. To my eye, it is also much better made. The bag is very comfortable to lie in. As the tent is so well ventilated, I got barely any condensation on the bag, just a little where I was breathing right on the shell kind of near my shoulder. No moisture soaked into the fabric. So far I am a little ambivalent about the zipper. It does not work that well zipping from outside the bag, a habit I have picked up from sticky zippers that were always worse from inside. Knowing that the bag is made with the new Zipper Tracks I tried to remember to work the zipper from inside. It works much better. I can get snag-free pulls about 60% of the time so far. Maybe that will improve as I get used to it. It is still much better than the zippers on the other six of their bags in my past. I love the double draft tubes. On a solo trip that saw a very windy night I had a lot of very cold wind blowing into the tent. I let it go for a while to see how the Cirque did. I felt nothing getting by the zipper, or any other spot on the bag for that matter. I finally closed the tent up though as my face started freezing. (I know, sissy…) As part of a backpack test I used the dedicated sleeping bag compartment as the only stuff sack for the Cirque on my last trip. The down lofts up, and retains its loft so well that I had a hard time getting it into the compartment. Once stuffed it was no problem. It may be the closest to an actual temperature rating I have of all my bags because of the loft. The only thing that I do not care for at this point is the hook-and-loop patches on the storm flap. They make it a pain using the zipper from the outside. This concludes the Field Report phase of the test. The following are my observations from the final two months testing of the Cirque. Field Conditions I used the Cirque on a 4 night trip in Kings Canyon National Park. (One night was in the Sentinel campground at the trailhead.) The elevations I stayed at ranged from 6500' to 10500' (1980 to 3200 m). The low temps experienced ranged from just below freezing to 40 F (4 C). It rained one day and all sites were very near water. The terrain was dirt and rock under pines three nights and alpine tundra for the other. I carried the Cirque for 83.6 miles (135 km) over 4 days. Observations
I have learned to take a 0 F (-18 C) rated bag to the high Sierra in spring and fall because of the wild weather swings it experiences. This trip did not get as cold as our last four, so the Cirque was not called on to keep me from freezing. On two of the nights I slept in it with the zipper completely opened and was fine. On the other two I used it as a quilt. To do this I stuck my feet into the bottom section that does not have the zipper and let the rest spread out like a V over me, while I lay directly on my Big Agnes pad. Read more reviews of Sierra Designs gear Read more gear reviews by Ray Estrella Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Sierra Designs Cirque and Mist 2007 > Test Report by Ray Estrella |