Marmot Pounder Sleeping Bag: 40 Degree Synthetic - 2008 BCS

This bag packs really small. You can fit the regular in a nalgene bottle. It is great for summer camping and can keep you warm on a chilly summer night. I love the primaloft, it awesome.

I climb on glaciers in the North Cascades, WA. This bag would not keep me warm enough at 5,000-6,000 on the warmest nights in August, where the snow was soft enough all night long that cramp-ons were not required. If not for my girlfriend spooning me, it would have been an uncomfortable night.

Not saying it's a bad bag - it's a great bag, packs super small and weighs nothing - just wasn't suitable for me at higher elevations on clear nights.

I have had this bag for three years now. I love it for summer backpacking, but it's really only a one season bag in the North. I can use in late spring and early fall in the South, but you'd be foolish to expect anything more out of it. It keeps me toasty warm down to 50 at night, but don't expect any more out of it than that.

Still, for a summer trip in Acadia or an early fall trip in the Smokies or the Everglades, why carry a heavier bag if you don't need it? There's no such thing as one bag for every season, so I just hit the extremes with this bag for the heat and a -30 bag for the cold.

Light, compact, hassle free bag, just don't try to sleep in 40 degrees in it. I used it for a couple months in the tropics and was mostly comfortable. In some places it probably got down into the 50s at night, and I was comfortable sleeping on a thermarest prolite 3 with a fleece and pants on. According to the marmot website this bag has the following EN rating: Comfort: 57.7F / 14.3C Lower Limit: 51.4F / 10.8CExtreme: 29.5F / -1.4C Basically saying you'll be comfortable in and around 57 degrees, but you'll probably survive a 29 degree night. I'm a bit puzzled how they decide to call it a 40 degree bag, but I guess that's standardized so I won't worry about it. If you're trying to go ultralight and possibly in wet/humid environments, this synthetic bag fits the bill. Still, I'm not tempted to take it on any trips anywhere cold, even during the summer.

I have to qualify this by saying that I am a pretty cold sleeper. That said, I don't think temperatures were anywhere near the rating on this bag and I still froze my @ss off even wearing all my clothes on the past 3 trips I've used it on. I love it when I'm carrying it in my pack but not so much when I'm shivering at 2am. Definitely try it out in the back yard before counting on it on a serious trip unless you are way more hardcore than me :)