Outdoor Retailer: Brooks-Range Cloak

For every camper and backpacker who start off fully zipped in their sleeping bag, only to wrestle half your body out an hour after you fall asleep because you’re just too damn hot, Brooks-Range hears your struggles. Their Cloak—hitting markets in spring 2013—is a smart hybrid of a sleeping bag and a down blanket. A generous pocket at the feet lets you slide in your sleeping pad (your feet and body weight keep it in place). Then you just pull the rest of the Cloak over you, much like a blanket. An extra baffle at the neck keeps things snug and your sleeping pad will keep you sheltered from the cold, cold ground. The pack is insulated with 850-fill waterproof Down-Tek (the same tech as DryDown), and comes rated at 15, 30, and 45 degrees. The 30-degree pack weighs 16 ounces and will retail for $300.

Brooks-Range will also be introducing a full line of insulated jackets this fall utilizing Down-Tek. Stay tuned this autumn for from-the-field reports.

$300

Search for Product on Backcountry.com

Sierra Design Revolutionizes Down Insulation

DriDown in Action, floating where normal down drowns.

We’ve always loved down. From jackets and vests to sleeping bags, those soft little feathers are the insulation elite for good reason. Warmth without weight, excellent breathability, and plush, comfy loft—except when down gets wet. Then it loses its capacity to keep you warm, and takes forever to dry. Previous solutions to this problem mainly include wrapping down in various waterproof/breathable shell fabrics. But that adds extra weight, stiffer material, extra cost, and greatly reduced breathability.

That’s all changed now, thanks to Sierra Design’s new DriDown. Introduced in this summer’s sleeping bags, this new technique makes the actual feathers water-resistant. And when they do get wet, they keep their loft and dry much faster than their less-enhanced relatives. This miracle cure occurs during the down finishing process (some time after it leaves the duck or goose and before it becomes insulation), when a molecular-level polymer is applied to each individual feather. This hydrophobic (water-hating) finish keeps the feathers dryer longer (manufacturer’s tests indicate five- to seven-times longer). The treated down maintains its loft in humid conditions (which can pancake non-treated feathers) and dries noticeably quicker when it does eventually get damp. Sierra Designs will start unveiling the apparel with DriDown this August.

DownTek (made by Down Décor, a supplier of down since the 1990s) is also entering the game, supplying hydrophobic, quick-drying down to outdoor gear and apparel manufacturers including Big Agnes, LL Bean, Mountain Hardwear, and Brooks-Range, who will be rolling out their version of waterproof down in sleeping bags and apparel throughout this summer and the fall/winter seasons ahead. Which one works best? We’re testing now. Stay tuned.

Starting at $200

Search for Product on Backcountry.com

Feathered Friends Spoonbill Sleeping Bag

www.featheredfriends.com, 2 pounds, 11 ounces
Everyone knows that sleeping double keeps you warmer at night, but it also makes the great outdoors a little less scary. With 23-ounces of high-quality 850-fill down, this is our family camping bag of choice. The lux sleeper, with five inches of cushy loft, is ideal for couples who yearn for closeness, as but its real glory comes when traveling with toddlers. Mommy and Daddy can enjoy their own separate, adjustable hood (each with its own draft collar) with little Tommy cozily tucked in between. Each side can be easily opened or vented via a snag-free two-way zipper (that, even after many nights on the road, never snagged. The shell is a durable, stretchy Schoeller Nanosphere fabric that allows the bag to breathe (whether it’s filled with little or big, sweaty bodies) and repels stains. At under three pounds, this bag is lighter (and way more convenient) than most zip-together option.

$700

Search for Product on Backcountry.com

Mountain Hardwear Expedition Down Banshee SL Sleeping Bag

www.mountainhardwear.com; 3 pounds, 6 ounces
Camping sounds exotic and romantic—until you stretch out to sleep on the rocky surface of the earth. While choosing the ideal sleeping bag can be as confusing as calculus, our experience leads us to conclude that a down-filled bag with a waterproof breathable shell provides the best bang for your buck. The Banshee SL, with its seven inches of 800-fill down loft (we measured it after six months of hard use and it hadn’t lost much poof), is as pillowy as a pricey B&B feather bed. The welded waterproof/breathable shell has been hot glued and thus has no pesky needle holes to let in moisture seep (or allow feather escapage). Even in sub-freezing summer conditions at 10,000 feet on Mt. Rainier, when paired with a sleeping pad and double-walled tent, it was plenty warm—despite the -10 wind chill. But warm summer nights on Mt. Hood were comfortable as well, thanks to the two-way zipper vents at the footbox. We love the generous 62 inches of shoulder girth (58 at the hip)—despite a “mummy” cut, there’s plenty of room to thrash around without feeling claustrophobic. The fluffy two-piece neck collar and five-piece hood are luxe extras when the bag’s unzipped in warm weather—and in cold conditions, they work to keep drafts out and body heat in. Tradeoff: Because of its not inconsiderable loft, the bag only stuffs down into a basket ball-sized bundle. So you’ll need a pack with a decent-capacity pack(3,500 cubic inches at least) to bring it along on a multi-day backpacking trip.
Comes in both regular and long

$520

Search for Product on Backcountry.com