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Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > GoLite Feather Sleeping Bag > Heather Oakes > Long Term ReportLong Term Report GoLite Feather Sleeping Bag February 14, 2006 Tester Information:
Name: Heather Oakes Palmer Backpacking Background: I consider myself an intermediate hiker and beginning backpacker for over five years; my longest backpacking trip being only three nights. Day hiking and weekend backpacking comprise most of my weekend warrior experience averaging one backpacking trip per month and two day hikes per month averaging between 10-15 miles (16.1- 24.2 km) per day. I tend to backpack in warm, humid climates, with a good amount of hiking in the southern Appalachian Mountains and I have rarely hiked in below freezing or snowy conditions yet. I am a lightweight backpacker and buy my gear accordingly, often splitting various objects and amounts of weight with my husband. Product Information:
Manufacturer: GoLite Field Conditions: In October, I spent three nights in Arizona both car-camping and backpacking. The kinds of environments varied from a riparian canyon, sub-alpine forests, and middle Sonoran desert. The altitudes ranged from about 2600 – 6200+ ft (792- 1890 m) with night temperatures from the mid 30’s- low 50’s F (2- 10 C). I tested the bag in my backyard overnight with a rainless temperature of 44F (7 C) and humidity at about 68% according to NOAA. After October, I tested the bag primarily on overnight car camping and backpacking trips in the Georgia and North Carolina Mountains. The average elevations I encountered ranged from 2000 – 5500 ft (610-1676 m); with winter temperatures dropping to the low 20’s F (-6.6 C) overnight with day temperatures between 40- 70 F (4 - 21 C), and I did see plenty of rain, ice, and tiny snow flurries; all in one day on one occasion. Report: For further product information please read my initial report, and for further anecdotal information please read my field report.
Driving up a muddy Forest Service road in search of a campsite on New Years Eve seemed perfectly reasonable to my husband and I and some newlywed friends of ours with a similar outdoorsy, but vaguely anti-social bent. On New Years Eve most people I know would be wearing a booze-coat at 4am, instead I was camped out at 3840ft (1170 m) with a temperature of 26F (-3.3C) wearing about three fleece coats. Snuggled in the GoLite Feather inside the slightly warmer tent (37F/2.8C), I wore lightweight underwear and one pair of socks until I was so cold I needed the silk bag liner. Without the liner, hat, or gloves I had been able to sleep for a few hours fully zipped in the bag with the hood pulled tight around me making me look like a giant blue caterpillar. During a previous night I had been happy that I chose a medium girth giving me plenty of room in the bag, but on this night I was wishing I had a smaller girth bag so there would be less space for the cold air to come in. I still had not been able to test the Feather to its advertised comfort level of 20F (-6.6 C), so I was hoping that the weather would be as cold as predicted during my last night out with the bag. The weather was perfectly miserable; rain which dried up and became snow, and nasty chilly wind. Even during the day once I stopped moving around the wet and wind began to sink into me as the temperatures did not rise above freezing. Pitching our tent inside a three-walled shelter (we were apparently the only people dumb enough to be outside), we hoped to be protected from the wind and possibly stretch our three-season REI tent into a temporary four-season tent. Of course the wind was coming from the one direction that was not buffered by a shelter wall. Once the sun went down, the wind and snow picked up and the temperature dropped to 27F (-2.7 C) by the time we finished dinner and settled in early to sleep. Camped at 3760ft (1146 m) in the snow and wind, in addition to the 20F (-6.6 C) Feather bag I wore two pairs of socks, hat, liner gloves, four layers on my torso, two layers on my legs, and slept on a ¾ length ThermaRest Prolite4 . I have no snow/winter clothes; they are all pretty much silk/light/medium layers which all work just fine when I am moving around. I am a very cold sleeper and on this occasion I was cold particularly around my feet and lower legs (no insulation other than a rain jacket and pants under the bag), and I became chilled every time a gust of wind made its way through the tent netting and hit my body. I am not able to sleep with my face completely covered, and the bag could not completely encase every part of my body in down so sometimes the wind would sneak its way into the bag through my head. I was shivering so much that my husband couldn’t sleep either, and made me pack up and leave. I would like to think that if the wind hadn’t blown into our tent and into my bag, if I had winter clothes, a winter tent, or wasn’t such a wuss in general; maybe I would have made it through the night. The snow started accumulating on the ground but only about an inch or two (2.5-8 cm) as we packed up and the digital thermometer stopped outside but the last reading inside the tent was 24F (-4.4C). I could not find any accurate past weather data for the area I camped in as the nearest town is a little less than 2000ft (609 m) lower, but the wind recorded there that night was between 11-18 mph (17.7- 28.9 kmph). Using an online wind chill conversion calculator and the numbers from above, I possibly felt temperatures from 13.2F/-10.4C through 10.2F/-12.1C. These numbers could vary from the actual conditions as we were camped higher in elevation, I have no idea at what time/elevation the wind recordings were taken, and the thermometer did not display at the time we packed up the tent and left. Luckily, we camped less than a mile from the car because I feared I would wimp out, so we made it to the car easily enough but had trouble getting home as the mountain roads began to ice up and close. At no time during the testing phases did the bag ever get wet in the field; the rain and snow didn’t penetrate the pack cover or the garbage bag I keep my dry stuff in, and there was never any tent condensation to dampen the bag overnight. Running a couple of home water experiments I discovered that the silnylon sack was water resistant; a few splashes of water beaded up on the fabric and were wiped off easily when sprayed. The outside of the bag was also sprayed with a small amount of water from a squirt bottle, again most of the water beaded up with some sinking slightly into the fabric. Running my hand inside the bag under the sprayed area I did not feel dampness, and the outside of the bag dried out in less than an hour indoors around 60F (15.5 C). One average, I lost two feathers from the bag when I packed it up after a night out. They hid themselves in the netting of tent and I usually discovered them once I pitched the tent on our balcony to air it out. The Feather's seams all still appear tight and there is no fraying I can see or pilling of the fabric anywhere. The seams around the foot vent and hood are all still holding up well. My feet have been cold when sleeping in the bag but I am not sure if that is because my socks are not thick enough, or because my sleeping pad is ¾ length. I’m still not clear on how to use the hood exactly as the drawstring and pull don’t seem to line up with the cord itself, I have to wiggle the cord around in the seam or else the hood tightens on only one side. Plus the plastic pull itself seems to only bring in one side of the cord, again unless I move the cord around in the seam itself. For all its trouble, the hood is pretty comfortable and sealed off my head from cold quite nicely. The silnylon sack has some tiny strings hanging off the outside seam and the bottom handle has stood up to my yanking on it, but it was very easy for me to not be paying attention and yank the cord eschew or completely out of the plastic pull necessitating a reorganization of the drawstring. Summary: Of course the big plus for this bag is the weight and size. It packs down easily; I just fold it lengthwise, lay down to get the air out, and then push it easily into the sack. The Feather also fluffs up well after time spent compressed in the sack and it quickly warms up once I get in fitting my body closely. The fabric feels soft and slick, it is very comfortable to sink into at night. The bag is well-made, comfy, warm for the weather I usually sleep in, light, is so small it gives me lots of pack space, and is overall just so cool I break it out and show-off to other backpackers whenever I can. I wish I could say I slept comfortably in 20F (-6.6 C) weather, but given different conditions outside of the bag or if I wasn’t such a cold sleeper maybe it would easily be possible with the Feather. Perhaps I’ll gain thicker blood, become cold-resistant, think warm, or just get used to it. After all, now that I’ve seen snow falling and actually staying on the ground once maybe I won’t think it’s a blizzard next time.
I would like to thank Backpackgeartest.org and GoLite for letting me test this great bag!
Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > GoLite Feather Sleeping Bag > Heather Oakes > Long Term Report | |||
