Kelty Light Year Sleeping Bag: 20 Degree Down - 2008 BCS

I purchased this bag recently and was a little worried that the quality wouldn't be amazing due to the price. I have been pleasantly surprised.

I'll start with the PROS:
-The draft collar is well placed and down filled.
-The zippers are smooth (not catch proof, but this problem exists even on more expensive bags).
-The bag comes with a compression sack and a storage sack, which is a huge advantage over bags that come with a storage sack and then a rather large non-compressible stuff sack
-The hood has a smooth locking draw cord, which doesn't give any discomfort to the face
-The bag lofts up just as well as other bags using a 650 fill.
-The bag uses the EN13573 temperature standard (The same European Standard used by Marmot, Mountain Hardware, and other high quality sleeping bag manufacturers)
-Low feather leakage, It still leaks a bit, but I've seen a lot worse from more expensive bags.

CONS:
-No small pocket like most other bags I have had. I like being able to put chapstick or a small headlamp in a pocket directly on the bag for easy access at night.
-Compression Sack Durability. I have had no problems with it yet, but it doesn't seem like it would be nearly as durable as my granite gear rock solid.

Overall: Great Buy, Great Value. Not having to buy an additional compression sack easily saves you an additional 20-40 dollars on a bag that is already priced well below most other down sleeping bags.

Bought this bag about a month ago in preperation for a trip to the Big Bend National Park area of Texas for a week at the end of March. The bag performed well in the desert when it got cold at night! We had temperatures in the basin of the Chisos Mountains down around 20-30 degrees at night. Slept in just my boxers and managed to stay extremely warm, I did have to wear a winter hat though to keep my ears warm.
I bought the "Long" sized bag and I am 6'2" and 225lbs and the bag had plenty of extra room in it. The foot zipper in the bag is great if you don't like your feet to be too warm when you sleep. If you open it and it is cold outside your body still stays warm.
Driving back we stayed in a camp just outside Little Rock, Arkanas and once again were sleeping on the ground with no tent or bivys, just our pads, and it got cold out and rained. I managed to stay dry and warm inside the bag (it wasn't a downpour but the outer layers of the down bag were pretty soaked by 3am).
I recomment this bag to anyone looking for a good quality warm bag, I have nothing bad to say about it and will be taking it back down to Texas/New Mexico in a month, out to Lassen Volcanic National Park in August, and anywhere else I end up.
Also, even though the bag is rated down to 20 degrees, the bag is comfortable on warmer nights around 50 or 60 degrees!

You can't beat this bag for the price. Very light, packs small, warm. Got it on sale at bc.com. Good for all around 3 season use. Recently tested warmth on single digit night with 1.5 in Thermarest and silk liner and stayed warm through the night, but would recommend warmer bag for winter camping.

This is a great bag the staff bag is cool because it can be compacted down so it will fit well in to your pack on a long back packing trip

I have had mine for 3 years. It's nice and light, comfy and packs small. HOWEVER- I found that it needs some zipper work.. broke right outta the gate. Being a half zip I use it for backpacking still. It tore at the zipper and now I have RED DUCT tape holding it together! It looked like two ducks went 9 rounds in my tent.. BUT all is well tape does work! KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!

Hiked AT thru the Great Smoky Mountain National Park April 6-10. Rained one day up until 10:00pm and a cold front came in behind the rain. Temperature dropped to 23 degress during the night. Wasn't aware of the cold as I was warm and toasty in my Kelty bag. Hiking boots were frozen the next morning but I didn't care as I had a great nights sleep. I would highly recommend this bag.

very light. I used it when it was around 30 degrees. It was very warm and very comfortable. The zipper does snag, but this is my first sleeping bag so im not sure how it compares to others, but i am very satisfied with how much i paid and the quality of bag.

I recently returned from a trip where the temps were in the teens and probably in the 20's inside the tent. I used this bag as well as the Kelty fleece liner which fits nicely inside the bag. I was warm and toasty. I considered removing the liner. I was only wearing my undies and a beanie. It was also very comfortable and fit nice and snug around my head. My last bag was a North Face Cats Meow(20 degree) and I almost always had problems staying warm. So I decided to give a down bag a try. I didn't know if would make that big of a difference. I am very impressed with this bag.

warm light and comfortable.

Very light. Nice and warm. Packs almost to the size of a Nalgene. Perfect three season backpacking bag.

I'm giving this sleeping bag 5 stars while taking the price into consideration. It's no Valandre or Western Mountaineering but it's also about half the price and it will keep you warm down to its temp rating. An ex-girlfriend wanted to borrow one of my high end bags and I just knew it would come back effed so I recommended her buying a Kelty Light Year. (if she were a current g/f, I'd likely be less dick-like) After taking care of ordering it for her, I was really surprised to see how well made it was. I still consider it somewhat light in spite of having another 20 degree bag that weighs 19 oz less than this one. In fact, my most used 3 season bag only weighs 15 oz total but none of my bags have any extra features, like, say pockets or foot vents. The Light Year is comfortable... love the hood. The lining feels like it belongs to a much more expensive bag. I can't comment on the DWR or whether the zipper snags but I do have experience with high dollar equipment to compare it with and this one is impressive. If I weren't concerned about weight, this would be my choice, as a bit of extra weight seems to be the only negative.

And a final word about stuff sacks, compression and otherwise: Why? Unless you're bringing an unreasonable amount of junk, you should be able to easily put your fabric items loosely in the pack and put any hard gear in the center for protection. (from scrapes against rock) Plus, your puffy items will retain their loft far longer. It may seem cool to have such a lofty item compress down to the size of baby's head but it'll definitely shorten it's life.

Just my opinion, but I'm as over the stuff sack as I am the ubiquitous Nalgene. If you want to look "outdoorsy", just grow a beard. Or leg hair, if you're a chick. (or a roadie) ;-)

sweet bag! packs so small and is light. Perfect for 3 seasons. recommend taking this with this pad- Big Agnes Insulated Air Core Sleeping Pad - Rectangular. very light package, good for the warmer months of backpacking!

I am very impressed with how much you can compress this bag. I have a stuff sack that I normally have to really work at getting my 20 degree synthetic bag into. I stuffed this bag into that same stuff sac and it only took up half of the sack. I was able to put all of my clothes in there as well and compress it down to about a basketball size. This bag kept me very warm when temperatures got down to the mid 20's and I stayed cool when temps rose to the low 50's. My feet did get pretty cold when the temps got low, but I just wrapped some clothes around the bottom of the bag and it took care of that.

light and warm perfect for 3 seasons . would have loved more cushioning around the head rest though