Big, Heavy, but great and well designed...

By Andre Shoumatoff Ranked #3 - Sleeping Bags April 29, 2008

I just wrote the review for the previous model, which is the polarguard model that is currently on sale, but it looks like nothing had particularly changed with the Dark Star other than the brand of filler. It is a very large, slightly heavy, but particularly bulky bag. Even with the compression stuff sac it still comes in at about 2.5" long by about 12-14" wide... So it takes up a lot of space... Stuffing doesn't quite take 15 minutes, but it is a little tough to get it in the sac and sinched up. It is a great basecamp or living quarters bag for expeditioning, but there are better bags to get. But with anything, you get what you pay for and the Dark Star is a particularly good deal IMO. I use it for all sorts of camping, anytime my 20 bag won't cut it including fall/spring and southern Utah in the winter, times where it rarely gets below 10F or 0 so the bag is complete overkill. It manages this very well of course, I manage the excess heat by simply venting the bag (aka having the zipper open in places) which works great. The bag (even though made in China or whatever) is still North Face quality, excellent design, good neck collars, etc...

View Details: The North Face Dark Star Sleeping Bag: -40 Degree Climashield Neo

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