Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Exped Wall Creeper > Brian Tannehill > Field Report

Personal Information

Background Information

Product Information

Field Locations

Field Reporting

Questions Concerns

Test Plan

Personal Information:

Age: 31
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 7" (1.7 m)
Weight: 185 lb (79 kg)
Name: Brian Tannehill
Date: 11 Sept 06
Email: tannehillclan(at)gmail(dot)com
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Backpacking Background:

I am fairly new to backpacking, but I have hunted/fished/camped all my life in East Texas, Colorado, and California. My young kids (4, 10, 12) limit me to weekend overnight camping trips, or day hikes Geocaching. I am also an avid mountain biker. Currently I live in Colorado Springs, Co at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Pike National Forest surrounds me at 9000 - 14,110 feet (2743 m - 4301 m). Snow can happen 10 months out of the year and summer is the hottest reaching 65 deg F + (18 C), the other months average 45 deg F (7 C).

Product Information:

Manufacturer: Exped
Year of Manufacture: 2006
URL: http://www.exped.com/
MSRP: $ 238.00 USD
Weight: M:31 oz (890 g)
Packsack: 2 oz (50 g)

Field Locations:

The locations of my tests will mostly be in the Rocky Mountains of Pike National Forest just west of Colorado Springs. Elevations will be from 7000 feet (2134 m) at my house up to around 10,000 feet (3048 m) in the local mountains. Weather at this time of the year is fairly warm. Temperatures will range from a high of mid 80's (26 C) and a low of mid 50's (10 C) through the month of July to mid 60's (15 C) for a high to mid 30's ( -1 C) for the low in the month of October. The terrain is typical rocky mountain terrain for the Rockies with numerous trees to hang from.

Field Reporting:

Please read my Initial Report to see some of my initial concerns. Overall I'm starting to like this sleeping bag. I do still feel kind of funny wearing it around in the woods at camp. But overall I am getting used to it.

I noted in my IR that I felt the bag was too small. I did not send it back to the company as I am growing used to it. I've slept in it a few times both in and out of my hammock. The way my crazy creek hammock sets up, it actually constricts me more than the sleeping bag does. I've slept in the hammock with the wallcreeper sleeping bag down to about 50 F (10 C) a couple of times in the mountains behind my house. I also used my Therm-a-rest Z rest to sleep on during the test. The bag did great, even while compressing it in a hammock I never felt cold all night long. I've worn it around camp during the last little bit of daylight hours and it covered me pretty well down to about mid thigh. I did not feel constricted during any movement around camp. I even fly fished in it from the shore of the lake where we stayed.

Packed sized:
In my IR I noted that the bag could pack down to 9 in wide x 12 in tall (23 cm x 30 cm). In the documentation that came with the bag, it says that the bag can pack down to about the size of a one liter bottle. I recently tried this with a smaller stuff sack I have. I can get the bag packed down to 6 in wide x 13 in tall (15 cm x 33 cm).

This is good as now the bag is even smaller and will take up less room in my already crowded pack.

Hammock Testing
I have also used this bag in an experiment with my homemade hammock. The idea is that in a normal hammock, I will squish the material thin enough between me and the bottom of the hammock that it will not protect me from the cold. One of the ways to counter this is to wrap the sleeping bag around the whole hammock. As is on most sleeping bags, the footbox is closed and would need to be cut and re-sewn in order for this to work. With the design of the Wallcreeper sleeping bag and the drawstring footbox, this elimnates the need for me to cut a whole in a normal sleeping bag. I've only experimented with this set up on my back porch but so far the bag has perfomed really well. I've taken a few cat naps in it and it has been really comfortable. Its very easy to either slip the bag on the hammock during set up, or to unzip the bag fully and wrap it around me and the hammock. I then can draw the footbox closed and the sleeping bag will stay in place at the end of the hammock. Also with this set up, most sleeping bag hoods are deemed useless because they cannot wrap around your head. With the set up of this hood with the drawstrings in it, the hood stays in place very well when I tighten up the drawstrings. This allows the back of my shoulders and the back of my head to stay warmer than without any padding underneath.

Drafts and ventilation:
So far I have not had any problems with drafts in this bag. It has a few extra zippers for the arms and the foot box and all of them have a draft tube to help prevent drafts. If need be though I could use the foot box and the side zippers as a form of ventilation, but it has not been warm enough for that.

Temperature ratings:
The product hang tag with this sleeping bag says the temperature rating of this bag is measured with the EN13597-Norm and that the ratings for men are 38 F (3 C) to 66 F (19 C). I have primarily used this bag with temperatures at night hovering in the low 50's (10 C) to the upper 40's (9 C). At no time did I ever feel cold while sleeping in this bag. During the remaining test period though the temperature will start to fall into the 30 F(-1 C) to 40 F (9 C) range. So it will be interesting to see how cold I can take it in this bag.

Durability:
The construction of this bag is great. So far I have not seen any freys or tears in it. It does feel to me very fragile because of the material it is made out of. I have taken extra precautions with this bag to keep from tearing it. I stated in my IR that I think I could hike in it but I have changed my mind. I will just wear this bag around basecamp where it will have a life of luxury.

Some of my questions and concerns:

Some of the questions I still need to answer:

How well will the bag work as just a bag, in a hammock, and in a tent on the ground?
So far its worked great in the hammocks.

How well will the bag work in my experiments with wrapping it around the hammock?
I like using it to wrap myself in my hammock. More test to follow.

How well does the foot box draw string hold up? Will it wear out over time? Will it allow air into the bag?
The drawstring footbox has held up well and does not let in any drafts so far.

How well does the bag seal off? In the arm pits? In the foot box? Around the hood?
So far so good. Nothing to complain about here.

How accurate is the temperature range rated on the bag?
I've only had it down as stated above. The next two months will be the real test for the temperature rating.

How will it work as a vest? Is it to warm to hike in? Work in camp in?
Still in the works. I think it will be too hot to hike in, plus I dont want to damage it. So far working around camp it has been fine. I've filled water bottles, cooked dinner, and fly fished in it.

Test Plan:

I will continue to experiment with this bag both in hammocks and in my tent. I also want to try the sleeping bag out in my Gore-Tex bivy. My main stomping ground so far has been behind my house at an area called Stanley Reservoir. I will be wearing/using this bag between 7000 - 9500 feet (2134 m - 2896 m) in elevation. I am planning a lot of overnighters especially towards the end of this test series to see how accurate the temperature rating is.

Thanks to BGT and Exped for allowing me to participate in this test.

Brian

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