Owner Review Moonstone Stratus 3D Sleeping Bag

• Name: Jin Elkins
• Age: 27
• Gender: Male
• Height: 5'9" (1.753 m)
• Weight: 180 lb (81.65 kg)
• E-mail Address: JinE (at) Mindspring (d0t) com
• City, State, Country: Opelika, Alabama, U.S.A.
• Date: 20 Jan 2004

Backpacking Background: I started car camping with the family at a young age. Two or three car camping trips a year were the norm during my childhood. As I grew older and went off to college I continued the love for car camping and supplemented it with mountain biking and day hiking. After college I tried my hand at backpacking with my two Eagle Scout college buddies. I was instantly hooked. Over the past few years I have slowly evolved from attempting to use heavy car camping gear and trying to hike as cheap as possible, to trying to find the best mixture of price to weight, to money is no object get the lightest and highest performing gear I can get. I do not consider myself as an ultralight backpacker, but I strive to keep my pack weight as light as possible without sacrificing function. A mechanical engineer by education and mechanical designer by trade, I tend to select and analyze gear with a slant towards the highly technical/engineered products. I hike primarily in the South-East where it tends to be quite hot and humid, where one can get away with most people’s "three season" gear all year around.

Product Information:

Moonstone Stratus 3D Sleeping Bag

http://www.moonstone.com

Manufacturer’s Stated Product Features:

• Full length two-way zipper
• Anatomic footbox
• Variable thickness layering
• Contoured hood
• Ground level zippers and seams
• Insulated Draft Tube

Product Description:

• The Stratus 3D is Moonstone Mountain Equipment's attempt at making an ultralight and synthetic sleeping bag, two words not normally associated with each other. The Stratus 3D is incredibly light compared to other synthetic bags, almost 4-oz (113 g) lighter than any other synthetic 30 F (0 C) bag on the market. Moonstone achieves it's light weight in a number of ways. First off, the bag is cut much smaller than bags from other makers. The max user height of the regular length bag is listed as 5'9" (1.753 m), almost three inches smaller then regular sized bags from Kelty, The North Face, Marmot, Western Mountaineering, etc. The bag also has a narrow girth of only 59" (150 cm). The Status's footbox, unlike the rest of the bag, is quite roomy at 40 inches (102 cm), and the anatomic shape drapes itself nicely to the natural shape of the feet. Moonstone claims to use a varying thickness of insulation through the bag, adding more insulation on the torso and footbox portions and less through the thighs where it is not needed as much. My initial impression of the Stratus was how thin the insulation was throughout the bag. The bag looks like a deflated balloon when compared to my super-lofty 30 F (0 C) rated down filled Western Mountaineering Megalite. In fact, I would say the Moonstone has only half as much loft as my Megalite. The Status uses a very lightweight shell and liner material in the Pertex X-Ray 1.1oz/yard^2 (37 g/m^2) ripstop nylon. The shell material is so light you can see right through the material to the insulation, hence the X-ray name. The bag also lacks niceties found on many popular bags such as sleeping pad cord locks, and hook and loop closure at the top of the zipper. Though the Stratus lacks a few features in the name of lightweight, it's not lacking of several nice features and touches. The contoured hood is a wonderful design, cinching up around the face making a tight seal from the weather. During the summer months when the hood is not needed for warmth it's large and roomy enough to flip backwards and stuff it like a pillow pocket. The bag sports a tremendously handy full-length two-way zipper backed with a highly functional anti-snag zipper tape. To help keep me warm and cozy on the cold nights the Stratus features a full length insulated draft tube which does it's job quite well. The fit and finish of the bag is outstanding, which I have come to expect from gear made by Moonstone. To steal a line from Henry Ford, the Stratus comes in any color you want as long as you want it in white with blue accents. The white color of the bag is quite visually stunning and is often commented upon by the ladies. In fact, several times my significant other has voiced her preference for the look of the snow white Moonstone compared to the dark purple of my Western Mountaineering Megalite. The Moonstone comes with a very small 7" x 11" (18 cm x 28cm) stuff sack. It takes quite a bit of effort to get the sleeping bag stuffed into such a small stuff sack, more so then any other sleeping bag I have owned.

Field Report:

• Over the last 5 months I have been able to use the Moonstone Stratus 3D in a variety of weather conditions. Here in the South-East, where I do a majority of my hiking, the weather is normally very hot and very humid. The first month I owned the bag (August of '03) I spent most of my nights sleeping on top of the bag dreaming dreams of ice cream and air conditioning. The hot wet months of fall is when the Stratus really came into it’s own and started to shine as a lightweight synthetic bag. Though I am diligent at keeping my gear dry, not having to worry about my down bag absorbing humidity during the hard rains and 4 straight days steady rain and 100% humidity is nice. I've been fortunate enough to have only tested the short term water repellency of the X-ray fabric, but I can say the outer shell does a very good job at repelling spilled water and light drizzle keeping the insulation dry. The full length two way zipper made the bag very useful in a broad temperature range, keeping the bag comfortable from the warm summer nights to the brisk early Alabama winter chill. I have had a couple of opportunities to test the cold weather ability of the Stratus 3D. Wearing only a long sleeve Tee shirt, boxers, and socks, I was quite comfortable in the Moonstone during two nights of 40 F (4 C) weather in a two man dome tent. Born and raised in the south I'm acclimated to the brutally hot weather, so I am considered a cold sleeper. That being said, I wouldn't want to use the bag itself in temperatures below 40 degrees. In contrast I was uncomfortably cold in 42 degree (5 C) weather in my old TNF synthetic bag rated to 35 F (2 C) bag. I spent two nights in the Moonstone in weather below 40 F (4 C). Each instance I slept in a 100wt-fleece top and bottom, fleece hat, Coolmax socks, with a REI ultralight fleece mummy liner. Though I was comfortable enough to sleep soundly in the 34 F (1 C) weather and got a good night of rest, I found myself on the cool side wanting a little more heat when I awoke in the morning at 6am.

Summary

• The Moonstone Stratus 3D is a well laid out ultralight synthetic bag. The list of synthetic bags with such excellent fit and finish at such a light weight is very short. At 27oz (765g) and only 7" x 11" (18 cm x 28cm) when stuffed, the bag is light and small and takes up little room in my pack. Though lacking on some frills, it makes up for them with solid design and exceptional performance of the features the bag does have. A real working Anti-Snag tape, nice touches in the draft tube and excellent hood design, and roomy foot box makes the Moonstone a very easy bag to live with in warmer moist climates. I feel the 30-degree rating is a bit of a stretch, but as I have mentioned before I am a cold sleeper. I find the bag comfortable and warm by itself in temps down to 40 F (4 C), and have no problems using the bag to it’s 32-degree (0 C) rating with a little extra clothing and fleece liner bag. Personally I wouldn't want to use it in weather below 32, it would be too cold. Potential buyers of any of Moonstone's bag must be wary of the smaller then average sizing of the Moonstone bags. I'm 5'9" 180lbs (1.753 m and 81.65 kg) and there isn't much room to spare in my Stratus.

Things I Like

• Super light weight for a synthetic bag
• Tiny packed size
• Full length two way zipper makes for excellent warm weather use
• One of the best hoods and foot box designs I've used
• Nice feel of the liner material
• Visually Appealing
• High build quality
• The average height of a male is 5’9", it’s nice to see a bag that truly fits us regular guys for a change.

Things I do not Like

• Inaccurate Temperature Rating. The bag does not have enough loft to reach it’s 30 degree temp rating comfortably without help from either extra clothing or some type of liner bag..
• Narrow girth leaves little in the way of elbow room.