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Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Valandre La Fayette > Coy Starnes > Field ReportValandre
La Fayette sleeping bag
Field Report February 02, 2006  Author catching a few Z's in the La Fayette
Tester Bio I live in Northeast Alabama. I enjoy hunting, fishing, canoeing, and most other outdoor activities but backpacking is my favorite pastime. I enjoy hiking with friends and family or solo. I hike throughout the year and actually hike the least in the hot humid months of summer. My style is slow and steady and my gear is light. However I will sacrifice weight for comfort and durability. A typical 3-season load for me is around 20 lb (9 kg) not counting food or water. I usually sleep in a hammock and cook with an alcohol stove. My backpacking trips are usually 2, 3 or 4 days in length. Product Information
Specifications
Note: My bag is the Large and a little over the weight given on the website. Most manufactures list weight etc based on the Regular size. Product Description This bag is a mummy bag. But first, my bag says it is a Large on the hang tag and I am assuming it is the same as the 200 cm (6 ft 6 in) listed as available in the sizes. The bag uses 850+ down which the hag tag says is grey goose down. From the website "85 individual parts in all, we have introduced pre-cut and circular shaped baffles throughout the bag, a truly 3-dimensional collar that follows your neckline as close as the headpiece of a guillotine - hence the name "Marie Antoinette styled collar". High-density knee protection system also keeps the down in place no matter how you twist and turn during the night. Internal semi elasticized waist adjustment system and static drawcord in the preformed differential cut hood. The zipper is centered and only goes 1/3 of the length. The self lockable slider stays in place which is a great help when you sit up in your sleeping back while preparing meals etc" There are many neat features on the La Fayette. Please see my Initial Report for a much more detailed description. Field Testing Locations and Conditions During the past few months I used the La Fayette on a 3-day hike as well as several more overnight hikes, both here in Northeast Alabama and Southern Tennessee. Temperatures have ranged from around 70 F (21 C) to a cool 17 F (-8 C) but overnight temperatures have all been a lot cooler then the highs experience while hiking. I experienced an all night rain once. Field Test Results So far I have spent 6 nights in the La Fayette in three different shelters. I should mention that I always tried to use the shelter in a way which maximized the exposure I got. In other words, when in my hammocks I left the tarp off unless I knew it would rain. In my tent I left the door open so that the night air could get in easily. I also used five different pads (2 at once one time. so, in a way only four) and as I mentioned in my Initial Report, a light summer bag suspended under me. The important thing to remember is that the bag did its job. The one time I got cold in the bag was a direct result of the pads I was using. The following is a brief description of each night’s performance, highlighting which shelter and pad I used as well as the temperatures and other conditions that were relevant to the warmth of the bag. I covered night 1 in Initial Report but here is a brief recap. I set up camp in the woods here close to home. My shelter was my homemade hammock set up without a tarp. My pad was not a pad but rather a 30 F (-1 C) summer sleeping bag suspended under the hammock. The overnight low was 36 F (2 C). The result was a warm night in which I learned how to adjust the Marie Antoinette collar. I also learned that the bag is pretty roomy from the waist up but a little constricting for my legs and feet, which is to be expected in a mummy bag. In other words, the roominess up top is a bonus. Don't read about night 2 unless you plan to read night 3. It would be like reading about a cars performance with water in the gas tank only to find out later it did much better. Night 2 was on a 12 mile (19 km) overnight hike at Savage Gulf in Tennessee. My shelter was the same homemade  hammock. The temperature at bedtime was in the low
20's F (-6 C) and it went down to 17 F (18 C). This is pretty
cold for this far south and compounded by the fact that this was the
first really bout of cold weather all winter so I was not yet
acclimatized to cold weather. I was using a combination of pads
but they were not really suited for the conditions. On the bottom
I had my Target closed cell foam pad which measures only 3/8 in (10 mm)
thick and added a 1/4 (6 mm)in thick yoga mat on top of that. I
make special cuts in my CCF pads to help them lay in the hammock better
(see photo on the left). In the past I have used 2 identical
Target pads but my dogs have claimed the spare, thus the quickie
solution of the yoga mat.I turned in as soon as I finished supper because I did not have enough clothes with me to stay warm otherwise. It was only 6 PM and not even good dark yet which made for a long night. I wore a thin set of thermal underwear and the same socks I had hiked in with to bed. I was tired enough from the 6 mile (10 km) hike in that I went to sleep fairly easily. I felt warm so it was too bad that I awoke a few hours later needing to pee. After this unpleasant exposure to the bitterly cold air I hopped back in the bag but felt cool. I kept noticing that I was not getting a tight seal all the way up and down the hook and loop closure and that when I fixed it but later moved a little a new leak developed. I also noticed that while the bag developed a good layer of frost from the waist down, it was damp from the zippered section up. I waited about an hour before deciding to add my Sealskin chill blocker socks and gloves, a bomber hat and a wool shirt. By the time I got back in the bag I was cramping from the cold. However, I was soon warm enough to go back to sleep. I woke up again at around 11 PM feeling a little cool again, especially on my back side. The pads were just not up to the job and as a result I had a negative experience all around. I decided to try one more thing. I had brought along my summer weight sleeping bag and another homemade hammock so that I could experiment some with it if needed. I quickly rigged the second hammock under me because I failed to do this when I initially set up camp. It was too cold to do much fiddling then and absolutely by now. Anyways, I dug out a snack and jumped back in the bag to eat it. I went back to sleep and the bag under me did help with the cold back. Still my shoulders were not well insulated and any weak point made the whole setup seem inadequate. I managed to sleep some more but awoke at around 2 AM feeling pretty cold all over. On the plus side, I was not in any danger from the cold, just not warm and cozy like I like. I decided to do a little night hiking and go find a hot cup of coffee at an all night restaurant I remembered from the drive up. Night 3 was back at the woods close to home with cold weather predicted. I set up my Eureka Zeus 2 EXO and placed my Big Agnes REM Hinman pad inside.  This pad is a self-inflating number, measuring a full
2.5 in (64 mm) thick, and would determine if the previous negative
experience was due to the pads I used. In fact I only wore a pair
of gym shorts to bed. It was 26 F (-3 C) when I went to bed at
8:30 PM. I tried to read awhile before drifting off to sleep,
only it was difficult to read laying on my stomach and when flat on my
back and my hands and arms did not like being exposed to the night
air. I gave up and instead listened to some music on my MP3
player for a few hours until I got sleepy. I was able to better
adjust the Marie Antoinette styled collar than when in my hammock but I
was not near as comfortable. However, I slept pretty well all
night except for one pee break and woke up a few times from the wind
making noises. I did notice that I did not seem to cause the hook
and loop closure to work open near as much as I did when in a
hammock. Perhaps the flatter position was a factor. My neck
was sore the next morning but that's not any fault of the bag. It
dropped to 19 F (-7 C) 2 degrees (1 C) shy of the predicted low.
I certainly stayed warmer in the bag but to be honest I never felt as
cold when out of the bag as I did on the previous outing. This tells me
that even with the door open a tent is most likely less exposed than a
hammock. It also tells me that a pad and perhaps the sleeping
position is real important in my bags performance. Night 4 was here close to home again but this time I used my Hennessy Hammock and a new pad more suited for backpacking than the Big Agnes REM Hinman pad and better at insulating my back side than the pad combination from night 2. The pad is self-inflating and measures 1.5 in (38 mm) thick. The overnight low was only 24 F (-4 C) and everything performed OK. I found out it was a little harder to get situated in the La Fayette in the Hennessy than in my open top homemade hammocks but not impossible. Night 5 was the first night on a 22 mile (35 km) hike back at Savage Gulf; only it was a lot warmer this time. I brought along the new pad but my friend brought a Stephenson’s DAM (down air mattress) for me to try out. It fit in my pack much better than the pad I brought so I swapped pads at the trail-head. At camp, I first set up my homemade hammock. However, it felt really tipsy with the DAM so I set up my Hennessy (yes I carried both hammocks) but left the tarp off. It only dropped to 41 F (5 C) overnight but it was really windy. In fact we were worried about dead trees possibly falling and it took awhile to find suitable hanging spots. I wore gym shorts to bed and stayed very warm all night. I woke up at 4AM and decided to give the homemade hammock another shot. I moved my pad and bag back over to it and gingerly got in and situated. I slept another hour and then spent another hour waiting for daylight. On of my hiking partners got up just as the day was breaking so I asked him to get a photo of me still in my bag. It is the photo at the top of this report. The photo is nothing special but it shows that either I am very fat or the La Fayette is one seriously lofty sleeping bag. I like to think it is less of the first and more of the second. Truth is it is some of both. Night 6 was the second night on this hike. It was 55 F (13 C) when we turned in. I used the same Hennesy and DAM pad but put up my tarp for the expected rain. I decided to not get inside the bag because I figured it would be to hot. I also wanted to try the bag out as a quilt like I have done with other bags. It worked better than I expected considering the zipper is so short. I found I needed to get a little of the bag up under my hips to get adequate coverage up top. Of course the first thing I noticed was that this put the zipper tab under my hips and directly on top of an expensive air mattress (borrowed at that). I compensated by moving the bag off center a little, just enough to get the zipper from under me and turning on my side slightly. This put the zipper at my belly, the collar just over my left shoulder and the hood over my head with me peaking out under the side. While not perfect, it worked really well and it was easy to swap sides when I decided to give one side a break, though I had to be careful about pressing the zipper pull into the DAM when swapping sides. I slept well all night, waking occasionally to listen to the rain before nodding back off to sleep. It only dropped to 51 F (11 C) overnight which happens to be the warmest night in the bag so far. Summary of Testing Thus Far The Valandre La Fayette is certainly a good winter bag for me and the normal winter temperatures in my hiking area. I found that when I did thing right it would keep me warm down to at least 19 F (-7 C). I really liked the location of the zipper down the center of the chest area. It made getting in and out of the bag much easier from the confines of a hammock. The fact that the metal zipper pulls ended up at my chin did cause me a little concern but I actually never noticed it that much after I got used to it. Even in cold weather it never bothered me. It would be a little friendlier if it were a lighter pull and made of plastic or even covered with fabric. I found the stuff sack worked great. It is not undersized like some of my other stuff sacks. I also found a few things that while they work, did not suite my personal preferences. Number one on that list would be to use a draft tube in place of the hook and loop closure, which I found would come loose during my tossing and turning. I would wake up feeling the cold air penetrating my space. The hook and loop also felt rough on my skin when I was shirtless and would stick to my shirt when I had one on. I also found the drawcord down at the waist area did not do much for me. I did not use it at all in my hammocks and when on the ground I can not sit up for more than a few minutes before my back starts screaming. I just left it at the maximum open position but still felt like it was restricting me when I moved around in the bag. I think that all bag manufactures need to consider hammock campers more as they design gear. In that regard, I would prefer that the center zipper went about a foot lower down toward the foot end. This would make the bag a little less efficient but make using it as a quilt in my hammock a lot easier. Having a bag that would easily go from a tent or other ground shelter to a hammock would be a big plus in my opinion. Continued Testing I will continue using the Valandre La Fayette sleeping bag, hopefully at even colder temperatures than I have so far. February is typically the coldest time of year in these parts and I plan to be out for more overnight trips and perhaps another multi day trip. I will record all trip locations, weather conditions and anything else, which has a direct bearing on the test or would be beneficial for understanding the way the La Fayette was used. Stay tuned for my Long Term Report. Read more reviews of Valandre gear Read more gear reviews by Coy Ray Starnes Reviews > Sleep Gear > Sleeping Bags > Valandre La Fayette > Coy Starnes > Field Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||