TL;DR - I liked this sleeping bag more than I thought I would and I'm glad I shelled out for it.
Lightweight *and* roomy? Nice!
Lightweight *and* roomy? Nice!
I was wary about buying the Western Mountaineering Alder MF because I'm not generally a fan of sleeping bags - I'm not claustrophobic, but I feel confined when I'm in one - and this one was expensive.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Pros
- This thing is light. At 31oz. total weight, it was so much lighter than any bag I've ever had that it blew my mind.
- It was so airy. Sure, it's new, so it's going to have full 850+ fill power on display, but it was so light and warm. I loved it.
- I was really glad that I got the "long" (6' 6") version. I'm only 5' 9", but having the long bag meant that my feet had plenty of room - one of the main reasons I always hate mummy bags - and I could snuggle down with my pillow inside.
- The more rectangular - as opposed to mummy - shape was great. Not totally a rectangle, there's still some taper in order to save weight, but enough width in the legs to allow me to bend my legs inside the bag. Perfect.
- It packs down into a tiny stuff sack. The sack is nearly the size of a 2L bottle of soda, perhaps a little shorter and a little wider. Fit very nicely when turned sideways in the middle of my pack.
- The zipper worked great and made it easy to control my temperature. On warm nights, I could start with the zipper mostly unzipped, using the bag almost like a blanket. Then, as temperatures dropped overnight, I could quickly and easily pull up the zipper for a little more warmth.
Cons
- The inside feels a bit plasticky. The bag is sold as "MF" (for Micro-Fiber), and I thought this meant that the inside would be like those microfiber towels that are used to clean glass, camera gear, etc. Sort of like t-shirt material. Nope. I guess I'm not surprised, in order to make this bag weigh almost nothing, they need to use fabrics that are much thinner and also weigh nothing. It wasn't uncomfortable since I was wearing clothes, but it wasn't what I hoped.
- It's a little noisy. The higher end (non-cotton/flannel) bags have always been noisy, so I excpected this. Doesn't mean I liked it.
- It's hard to get it stuffed into the stuff sack. The size of the resulting sack is great (see above), but boy, it's a chore getting it in there. I wouldn't really want to change that, though.
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