Sleeping bag plans
We are making some changes to our range of sleeping bags, here hopefully is an explanation of why, what, how and when.
At the moment we have the AlpineDream 500, 700, 900 and the PipeDream 400 and 600. The AlpineDream is neither a budget down bag or a top, top end mountain bag and as such gets a little bit of a hard time when people talk about it. It’s a good bag, and one of the best value down bags on the market. But as some of the top brands start to push their budget bags to compete with us on price then there are some unfair comparisons. So we are introducing the SkyeHigh range. This uses 650 fillpower down and more sophisticated 4 panel construction to get the best out of the down.
SkyeHigh
The range will comprise of 400g, 600g, 800g, 1000g bags which should equate to 0c, -5c, -10c and -15c. As normal we will be testing the shipment at Leeds University when production arrives and not using the super fluffy samples. These should get to us some time in November in a range of colors and some really great prices. They are getting shipped not compressed and will come with a quality cotton storage bag and compression bag. The idea is that it will be a quality bag for serious use for those on a budget (we all know what that’s like) and for those of us who have better things to spend our money on.
PipeDream
The PipeDream will soon be back in stock and is now being made from a lwt Toray fabric. For those of you that don’t know, Toray is one of the leading fabric manufactures in the world. We would of loved to continue using Pertex however the branded fabric market can be a very complicated so they have decided not to supply us. The emphasis remains and we still have a lwt high performance sleeping bag, trim fit (but now not to trim), low weight and highly packable. If we had to chose one bag for a range of activities such as traveling, alpinism and backpacking, then this would be it. This comes in 400g and 600g weights with a new lighter version coming in next year.
AlpineDream
A lot of our customers are taking our kit to some very cold climates and we want to offer them something better. The AlpineDreams will be back next year as a top end serious mountain bag.
Synthetic bag
We have few samples kicking around and so far despite our love of down, they are starting to win us over. We would like to get these out some time in spring, but so far so good.... packable, lwt and soft. You should expect a XL version that you will be able to pair up with down bag.
The weird and the wacky
When we read all our old mountain articles and look back through old catalogues sometimes we think there is nothing new. Soft shell, new...pah....two words: Rohan superstriders. The ‘Pied d’Elephant’ is another such thing. Basically the elephants foot is a half bag and if it’s half a bag then it’s half the weight. The rationale being if it is half the weight we can all climb, bike and hike that little bit better. It’s not going to be everyone cup of tea but as a company we are committed to bring out some odd ball stuff that may or may not work.
‘Pied d’Elephant’ sounds interesting. Will this be a down or synthetic half bag? If it’s down I would suggest using groundsheet material on the underside to help avoid damp creeping into the down. Alternatively, if it’s synthetic, it might be worth making it spacious enough to slip a down bag inside for extra season versatility (may need some compression straps for making it snug sans extra bag).
Will the use of less fill also bring down the cost?