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Description:
The
Sierra Designs Electra is a women's sleeping bag rated to
-20 degrees F (-29 C). The insulation is provided by baffled
800-fill goose down, and the shell is made of a breathable waterproof
material that Sierra Designs calls DriZone. The shell material is a
pleasingly bright blue and the interior material is a neutral grey.
It comes with a large yellow cotton stuff bag, as well as a
compression stuff sack for packing purposes. The companion
men's bag, the Echo, is identical in materials and design, but
the dimensions are slightly different to accommodate
the common body-shape differences between men and
women. The regular length Electra has a 59 inch (150 cm)
shoulder width, 58 inch (147 cm) hip width, 42 inch (107 cm)
foot box width, and is 72 inches (183 cm) long. By comparison,
the regular length Echo is 62 inches (157 cm), 57 inches (145 cm), 43
inches (109 cm), and 80 inches (203
cm) respectively. By comparing the numbers, it is
evident that the women's bag is narrower in the shoulders, has more room
in the hip, and is shorter in length.
The Electra is a mummy
shaped bag with a full length side zipper. The hood has a cinch
cord, and there is an interior draft collar that can also be cinched down
to prevent drafts. Lining the zipper on the interior
of the bag are two draft tubes, and toward the head end one of
the draft tubes has a sewn in fabric patch with detailed care
instructions, as seen in the left photo below. The zipper
is two-way, allowing for foot venting, and has a large glow
in the dark pull tab. On the bottom of the bag are two pad
straps which allow the bag to be strapped to a sleeping pad.
Personal Sleeping
Style:
I am almost always cold,
whether sleeping at home under several blankets or sleeping in a tent in
the Sierra. When backpacking, this means I usually carry more layers
and a heavier sleeping bag than my companions. The primary reason I
carry lightweight gear is so that I have extra space and weight allowance
to carry these extras that will keep me comfortable. I own and
regularly use three different sleeping bags. For nighttime
temperatures of 50 degrees F (10 C) and above, I will carry a 40 degree F
(4 C) bag. For anything from 30 to 50 (-1 to 10 C) I carry a 15
degree F (-9 C) bag. For anything below freezing I carry a 0
degree F (-18 C) bag. If the temperatures are supposed to get below
20 F (-7 C), I have to carry a liner and extra down layers to supplement
my 0 F (-18 C) bag. The colder it gets, the harder time I
have taking a sleeping bag to its comfort rating. Since I've found
this to be consistent across different high quality brand, bag, and
sleeping pad styles, this seems to be a personal issue
rather than brand- or bag-specific.
With that said, my
expectations of the Sierra Designs Electra can be put into context.
Since when in the snow I usually start to get cold in a bag when the
temperature gets within 20 degrees (-7 C) of its comfort rating I
would expect to be comfortable in the Electra above 0 degrees F (-18
C). Below this I would expect to have to supplement it with a
liner or extra layers. However, the Electra has some differences
from the bags I have used in the past, and I have been interested in
finding out how these differences affect my comfort in the bag.
Field Impressions:
The Electra
is different than other bags I have used in a few ways. First of
all, it is the first Sierra Designs bag I've tried. It is also
the first bag I have used with a women's specific cut. I have been
interested in trying these out since Sierra Designs introduced them a few
years ago, and so far I've found the differences to be beneficial to this
woman! It is the only bag I've used with a waterproof shell (instead of a
bivy) and it is also the warmest (temperature rating) bag I've ever slept
in.
I've slept in
the Electra for a total of four nights during the Field Test period.
The first night was in late November on the east side of the Sierra
Nevada, near Mammoth. On our way to Death Valley for the
Thanksgiving weekend, my husband and I pulled off the main highway
to the Glass Creek primitive campground at about 11 pm. On this
clear and frigid night the campground was deserted, so we pulled into
a spot and I threw a Tyvek groundsheet on the dirt, inflated my sleeping
pad, and set up the Electra for the first time. The forecast
was for temperatures in the teens with a crystal clear sky, so
I didn't bother setting up a tent. My body was having a
hard time adjusting to the cold air after getting out of the heated truck,
but after a few minutes I was able to crawl into the
bag. I didn't wear any clothing other than underwear and a tank
top, but since I didn't know how comfortable I would be I had fleece
layers next to me in case I got chilled.
When we
pulled into camp at 11 pm the temperature was 17 degrees F (-8 C).
In the morning, once the sun was up, the temperature was 22 degrees F (-6
C). Presumably it dropped into the low to mid teens overnight.
As is typical for me, I woke up a few times during the night, enjoyed the
starry view, and drifted back off to sleep. With the bag fully
zipped and cinched up around my face I was perfectly comfortable, although
my nose (which was the only part of me exposed) was a bit
chilly!
Since this
was my first night in the Electra I really noticed the shape.
It has far less space than other bags I have used, but that is because the
other bags I have used have been unisex regular length (about 6 ft (1.8 m)
long). I definitely noticed the difference in length since my feet
actually touched the bottom of the bag (which is 5'6" long (1.68m)). Also,
when I moved the bag moved with me more than usual - I couldn't toss and
turn with as much space as I am used to. However, I warmed up much
faster in the Electra than I usually do in other bags, and I think that is
because I have much less space to warm up.
In the
morning, I found a fine layer of frost on the waterproof shell. I
was able to wipe it off easily and the bag felt perfectly
dry.
My second night in the bag was a few nights later in the Death
Valley National Park. We had met up with some friends down one of
the back roads where we planned on camping out overnight. Again, it
was a lovely clear evening and I didn't bother setting up a tent, instead
choosing to throw my Tyvek sheet on the ground and sleeping out under the
stars. The temperatures were not as cold this night as they had been
before, but I decided to see how warm it had to be before my cold body
needed to vent the bag. When we went to bed the temperatures were in
the low 40s (4 C), and I bundled up and watched Orion rise accompanied by
some shooting stars. I dozed off, and about two hours later woke up
to some wind rattling the tent near me. It wasn't bothering me - the
sky was still perfectly clear so I just put some more rocks on my Tyvek
and went back to sleep. At this point I realized I was
warm (very unusual for me when sleeping outside, no matter what the
temperature!) and unzipped the bag a ways. A short while later
the wind picked up and started gusting. Tents were getting blown
around, dust was flying through the air, and my pillow and
fleece jackets were being blown away. I had to bail to my
truck where I had a rather uncomfortable rest of the night sprawled
in my front seat.
Although I
was a bit too warm in the Electra this night, one thing impressed me quite
a bit. With the gusting, nasty wind blowing everything around, I
couldn't feel it at all through the sleeping bag's shell. It
cut out all of the wind and if the wind hadn't physically been
moving me across the Tyvek, I wouldn't have felt it at
all. It felt like I was sleeping in a sleeping bag inside a
bivy, not just a sleeping bag. When the wind picked up before I
vented the bag I noticed that there was wind coming in between gaps where
the different draft collar and tubes attach to each
other.
Night number
three was the following night, once again in Death Valley National
Park, but this time we were on the other side of the Valley and up at the
Wildrose Campground, just below Wildrose and Telescope Peaks. Since
the campground sits in the Panamint Mountain Range above the Valley,
the temperatures were a bit cooler than the previous night but the wind
was still gusting. This was the first time I used the bag inside a
tent, and we spent a lot of time in there. Since the wind was
relentless we bailed to the tent right after dinner and watched a movie on
my husband's laptop. The night was cool enough that I was
perfectly comfortable in a vented bag, but not too warm that I was
uncomfortable. In the morning I found no condensation on the
bag.
The last
night I spent in the bag was at Lake Winnemucca in the Molekumne
Wilderness south of Lake Tahoe. It was the Saturday night before Christmas
and there was a mild storm in the forecast. We were only expecting a
few inches of snow, and planned to get out long before the big snow was
scheduled to arrive Sunday night. Unfortunately, sometime Saturday
the system grew and moved in quicker than expected, dumping 2-3 feet
(0.6-0.9 m) of snow on our camp overnight. The snow was accompanied
by winds that gusted up to 100 mph according to measurements taken from a
weather station on the ridge just above our campsite. It was a
weekend that tested our gear and skills, and although the experience
wasn't what I would call 'fun' it was a valuable test of our skills and
limits.
Overnight,
the blowing and swirling snow got into our four season tent via
a poorly designed vent. My husband, who was in a zero degree
bag without a waterproof shell, ended up with a wet bag thanks to the
snow that settled on him throughout the night. At
one point in the middle of the night we were both awake and
discussing the storm. He sat up to knock snow off of the tent
and laughed as he glanced at me bundled up in
the Electra. The spindrift had settled on the Electra and
I had a 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) layer of snow on top of me. I was so
cozily wrapped up in the bag that none of my heat was escaping and my
body heat wasn't even able to melt the snow. He
gathered up the snow on top of me and made a snowball. I was
grateful to be in a warm and waterproof bag in the terrible weather
conditions - of all the things that went wrong that night, one of
the biggest positives was the performance of the Electra. And
even with the smaller women's cut, I still had enough space to bring
my down jacket and clothes into the bag with me so as to keep them dry and
out of the spindrift snow. Conclusion:
The Electra
has performed spectacularly so far. Although I haven't taken the bag
near its temperature rating, I was happy to find it more than comfortable
in the low teens (which I wouldn't be in a zero degree bag). I've
found the shell to be the most impressive part of the bag - the shell
material has been able to perform the functions of a bivy by blocking wind
and snow. I look forward to taking the Electra out on many more
snow camping trips this spring. Hopefully the weather will
be a bit better than my last trip!
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