I was thinking of a new sleeping bag for lightweight 2-3 season camping as mine are 20+yrs old and not the lightest.

Tisos round the corner have a Vango 750gm down one for £70 IIRC, is this a good deal? (seems so from some intertube research) Am I likely to get something similar synthetic? (for ease of care)

Down is lovely and warm and very comfy. Excellent in every respect until it gets wet, then a PITA to dry.

You’ll get something synthetic which is as warm for less money but it certainly won’t be as light or compact. If you do fancy synthetic have a search for Nanok stuff, it’s good quality at the right price … a few places had offers on around Christmas.

Have a look for some Mountain Equipment bags – a bunch of shops were doing half price or better in the autumn from a deal with ME. We bought 50 at work, and for £40 they are superb. I used one down to nearly freezing, and was only just feeling the chill at dawn.
Stick to big brands and you cannot go wrong IMO.

Alpkit

I have 2 snugpaks – light and heavy – both are excellent and synthetic

*bumps*

i got a bag from tiso – under a kilo and £35 and 3 season and synthetic – vango ultralite 200

can’t wait to try it out! 🙂

i got it instore in the rose street branch a few weeks back. the website doesn’t list it now…

When they say “3 seasons” find out which 3 they mean. Have made that mistake before…

summer 2011, summer 2012 and summer 2013

Aye the one I’ve seen isnae on the website. Am wondering if it was a figment of my imagination…will have to check at lunchtime.

I’d only save 500gm over my current bag but I think/hope some lighter-weight kit would inspire me to go bivvying in the summer.

Snugpak softie 9 fits the bill

yeah, it says -4 as extreme, which maybe isn’t that low. but no bother, i’m not afraid of a few nippy evenings!

Snugpak softie 9 is twice the weight.

I bought a mountain hardwear lamina 35, which is a cracking bag, though I’m dubious of the 1C rating, but I am skinny. Tisos had them, but not in a long and their usual apathetic “well I guess we could order one in, might be next thursday though” led me to Outdoor Kit, who had it on my door the next morning for less £££’s.

750 grams of down will be far too warm for 2-3 season use.
My 2-3 season bag is an alpkit sky high 400 (400 grams of down).

Down is great if you are prepared to look after it and you know what it’s limitations are. It doesn’t like getting wet and needs to be stored uncompressed.

A synthetic bag is more robust, “better” when wet and cheaper. It is heavier than the equivelant down bag though.

Really comes down to what you want the bag for?

Think of synthetic as a cheap steel hardtail and down as a top end full suss! 🙂

Ah , never weighed it but it feels light enough for me

al it’s not just the weight to consider, but also how small the bag packs down to. I used to do alot of alpine climbing bivis and winter wild camping. The best and most practical lightweight solution I found was a high quality lightweight down bag with, clean, dry baselayers and lightweight down gillet or jacket, but it costs money for high quality lightweight down stuff. Alpkit is probably your best bet for quality on a budget. For summer bivi stuff I’d look at their lightest down bag and lightest down gillet or jacket as a combo. If you’ve got the money, then PHD use super high quality Hungarian warbling goose down 900+fill (that’s not a rating of warmth, but a rating of the quality of the down) and are probably the best. As a comparison, the alpkit pipedreams are filled with 750fill. In the past I’ve had a Marmot Helium and a Mountain Equipment Dewline(not made anymore), both very good, light and packed down to the size of a 2pint milk container.
Where I probably wouldn’t want a down bag is if I had to sleep out for more than a few nights in the UK, unless the weather was particularly settled.

Thanls all, I think I need synthetic as I’d like to bivvy in the UK, and am told condensation will be an issue.

Tisos have the 900gm Vango Ultralite 200 for £35 and a 780gm Deuter one at £50 which is a bit lighter and less warm – think it’s between these 2, I looked around online and can’t find much else as light.