Long Term Report

Long Term Report
Sierra Designs Wicked Fast Sleeping Bag

November 21, 2006

Tester: Colleen Porter
Age: 31
Gender: F
Height: 5' 8" (1.73 m)
Weight: 137 lb (62 kg)
Email: tarbubble at yahoo dot com
City, State: Irvine, California
Biography: I've been backpacking for 11 years, usually with my husband. We used to be heavyweights, but having children forced us to go lighter, and now on my own my 3-season base weight (without food, water or fuel) hovers around 13 lb/6 kg, and is getting lower. On family trips the weight usually doubles. I make some of our gear. My typical haunts are the mountains of southern California, the Sierra Nevada, the Grand Canyon, plus the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Yup, gotta carry a lot of water.

Product Information
Manufacturer: Sierra Designs
URL: http://www.sierradesigns.com/
Listed Weight: 1 lb 7 oz/652 g on the website, 1 lb 8 oz/680 g on the hang tag
Tested Weight: 1 lb 8 oz/680 g with the Pad Locks on. The Pad Locks weigh 0.4 oz/ 11.3 g and the stuff sack weighs 0.6 oz/17 g.
MSRP: $239.95 US

Product Description: A sleeping bag rated to 30 degrees F/-1 C. It is constructed with 20-denier polyester on the exterior, and 15-denier polyester on the interior of the bag. The insulative material is 800-fill goose down. It is a bit of a riot of orange and grey - the outside of the bag changes from light grey, to a rather nuclear orange, then to a darker grey for the bottom. The interior is a rust orange. The zipper runs half the length of the bag, and in the footbox there is a zippered vent. It features a "jacket hood" (Sierra Designs' term) that is more fitted than other hoods I have seen. The baffles are continuous from top to bottom. For a more detailed description of the bag, plus pictures, please see my Initial Report.

Field Conditions: I have used the Wicked Fast a total of ten nights. I've used it in the San Gabriel and Santa Ana Mountains of southern California, the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California, the Mojave Desert, and on the shore of Flathead Lake in Montana. Elevations have ranged from 2900 f/884 m to 9,990 f/3045m. Overnight temperatures have ranged from a few degrees under 40 F/4.5 C (my best guess) to 68 F/20 C (confirmed). Weather has been mostly dry and clear, but the coldest night of testing was also somewhat damp. I have used the Wicked Fast in a siliconized nylon tipi tent, under the open sky, and in a Tarptent Squall 2. Most of the testing took place in the TarpTent.

Field Performance: Very little of my opinion has changed since I filed my Field Report. The Wicked Fast is a high-quality, well-made sleeping bag, but the mixture of features leaves me feeling rather ambivalent about the bag as a whole.

The hood is excellent, easily the best-made hood I've ever had the pleasure of using. It's nicely fitted, stuffed fat with down, and is easy to cinch down to whatever configuration I want.

The zippers are something of a trade-off. While the half-zipper certainly saves a couple of ounces in weight, I think the loss of versatility for temperature regulation is not really compensated for by the zippered foot vent. The foot vent itself is a feature I'm not sure about. I've mentioned in my other reports that the zipper should be able to be un-zipped from the inside. The opening is also not large enough to put one's feet through with any degree of comfort. If the point of the vent is simply to allow for bellows-style venting of excess heat, then the same effect could be achieved, for less weight, by sewing an overlapping shingle-style vent in the footbox instead. The venting could then be achieved by simply slipping one's foot through the opening, thus preventing one from having to unzip the bag, sit up, unzip the footbox, then lay down and re-zip the bag.

There is no draft tube, despite the product literature listing one as a feature of the bag. Sierra Designs' product webpage also claims there is a draft tube. The lack of a draft tube is, for me, a serious problem. On a cold night (under 40 F/4.5 C) the draft coming through the zipper was obvious. I compensated for this by using my clothing as an improvised draft tube.

The Pad Locks are a great feature, but only work in certain situations. They must be used with a wide enough pad (the standard 20 in/51 cm width), and I don't recommend using them on a sloped site where nighttime slippage is likely to occur. With a narrow pad (common among ultralighters), the Pad Locks cannot effectively grip the pad, and on a sloped site where the sleeper is likely to slide at night, the bag ends up hanging on to the pad in a most uncomfortable manner, even as the sleeper slides downhill (yes, this happened to me). The fact that they are removable makes me like them a great deal. I can use them when I have the ideal conditions and remove them for trips when I'll be carrying a tiny sleeping pad.

The bag has held up very well and still lofts beautifully despite having been treated with some carelessness over the summer. The inner fabric is soft and silky and a pleasure to sleep inside of.

Conclusions: The Wicked Fast is a bag of excellent quality and has a fantastic hood. However, the lack of a draft tube is a serious drawback. I think the foot vent could either be improved upon or could be eliminated by choosing to switch back to a full-length zipper. The half-zip limits the versatility of the bag, but also cuts weight. Ultralight sleeping bags typically involve making tradeoffs, and the Wicked Fast is no exception.

Thanks to Sierra Designs and BackpackGearTest.org for the opportunity to test the Wicked Fast.

Read more reviews of Sierra Designs gear
Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter

Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Sierra Designs Wicked Fast > Colleen Porter > Long Term Report

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