One thing that never ceases to astonish us is the sheer number of
brands we’ve never heard of but are plainly producing excellent quality
kit and now there’s another one, Yeti,
which specialises in down
sleeping bags and sleeping mats.

The background of the company is in the Far East where it’s been around
for decades, but it was recently bought by Nordisk. The bags are now
handmade in Germany and fill power ratings are European.

The brand’s now being imported into the UK by the people behind OMM
and Vasque
in this country – we had a sneak preview of some of their bags the
other week and were very impressed. In particular, we were bowled over
by the super lightweight, reddot design award-winning Passion One bag.

It’s a beautifully-made bit of kit using 100 grammes of 900 fill-power,
hypoallergenic, harvested 97/3 Crystal
Down. The total filling of 125g
is housed in a shell made from super-lightweight Toray LightyGram
fabric – very light, silly name – and weighs a total of 265 grammes in
medium and 320g in large size. Pack size, as you can see, is tiny.
That’s a standard cycling water bottle next to it.

The bag is comfort rated at +15˚C, has a Limit value of +12˚C and an
extreme rating of -1˚C, in other words, ideal for lightweight summer
racing and lightpacking. The bag is insanely light but still useably
warm. Unsuprisingly construction is minimalist with stitch-through
baffles and no zipper baffle, but it’s very much a top-end, specialist
tool, built for a purpose. It’s available now and retails for £280.

Still Light, But More Of
A Generalist…

Much more of an all-rounder is the VIB
250. It’s still a lightweight bag, but far less
minimalist. Rated at -9˚C for extreme, +5˚C for limit and +9˚C for
comfort. It uses 800+ fill power, 95/5 fill power Crystal Down, some
250 grammes of it, and the total weight is given at 630 grammes.

A good option if you’re tall too, with 175cm, 195cm and 205cm length
options. The baffles are computer filled to give an optimised
differential down distribution and maximise warmth and the zip has a
baffle.  Finally the bag has a waterproof base and toe to
increase resilience in condensation-prone tents. Again it looks like a
really good bit of kit, retail in the UK £230.

One For The Gurlz

Last but not least, the Sunrizer 600 Women has
a couple of neat, women’s-specific features that are likely to cause a
bit of gender envy in many a cold tent. The bag has double-filled toe
and hip areas, an integral down pillow and, for ultimate luxury, a
luxurious, fleece-lined toe section – below.

The bag is cut smaller for women generally, uses 600g of 600+ fill
power Crystal Down and weighs in at 1145g. Comfort is +1˚C, Limit is
-5˚C and Extreme rating -21˚C. Looks like a comfy and ingenious
all-rounder with a price tag of £250.

Like Western Mountaineering, Yeti appears to be right up there in terms
of quality and definitely worth looking at if you’re in the market for
a high-spec sleeping bag.

More information at www.yetiworld.com