Sleeping Bag on eBothy Blog

rab quantum 250 endurance the story so far

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A few months ago I took the plunge and replaced my old trusty Buffalo Bag with a Rab Quantum 250 Endurance. Lots of bloggers helped me with information so I thought I’d reciprocate with a small review of how it’s performed so far. I’ve used it at around 750m in the Mamores, at the top of the Glenshee road, next to the Kingshouse high on Rannoch Moor and on my mum’s floor! And the overall impression? It’s a very warm bag. Too warm for me in summer I think. In the Mamores I almost sweated to nothing in the night, despite a gale force wind hammering the tent all night but the bag started to work for me at Glenshee, as autumn approached. The night at the Kingie I was toasty warm even though I woke to the hardest frost of the season in the morning. It was a real scrape to get the car clear and the tent folded like cardboard but I slept warm all night with a silk liner.

the bag a decision

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I Googled, read, cogitated, read lots more, saught advice from the outdoors bloggers, cogitated even more and late last night came to a decision and ordered one online. I’ve often ranted about blogs that just blog about gear but my attitude has changed somewhat now that I’ve used those blogs quite a lot to garner opinion. In fact I garnered so much opinion from the likes of PTC, Alan, Andy, Robin, Darren, Duncan, John, Marcus, Chris Townsend and some others that, really, the name’s Garner, James Garner! Perhaps I should do a bag review to give something back to the blogoshphere.

bag quandary rab or cumulus

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

So after much deliberation, it’s come down to two choices. Cumulus Quantum 200 or Rab Quantum 250. Side by side they are:

Bag	Weight	Weight of down	Fill power	Fill volume	Temp	Price
Cumulus	495g	200g	870	5800	0	180-190
Rab	650g	250g	750+	6250	0, -2	190

The fill volume is a measure of how much the down lofts, which gives it its insulating power and is calculated thus:

(weight of down / 30) x fill power

replacing the buffalo bag

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t often blog about gear but it’s time to replace my old and trusty Buffalo Bag. The zip has been a problem for a while now, being replaced a few times. I’ll prolly send it off to Scottish Mountain Gear for a good repair but I think it’s time for a new bag and it’s come down to a few options (weight, down ratio, fill power, temp rating, price):

Alpkit PipeDream 400 750g 95:5 750+ -3 130
Cumulus Quantum 200 495g 96:4 870 0 185
PHD Minumus 390g 900 NA 5 234*
Mountain Equipment Dewline 670g 93:7 700 -5 180
Rab Quantum 250 690g 96:4 750+ 0 200
Mountain Equipment Xero 350 800g 93:7 700 0-5 176

* with 900 down (+14), Drishell (+22) and full zip on left (+24). Thanks to John Hee for the Rab and ME info.