Mountain Hardwear Ultralamina 15 Sleeping Bag
August 7, 2008
Warm. Dependable. Cuddly. Compressible. No, it’s not a list of things I’m looking for in a man, it’s a list of attributes brought to the table by the Ultralamina 15 degree synthetic-fill bag. I understand your confusion, though – if you’ve ever been disappointed by a date, you might think “compressible” is a reasonable thing to look for. But anyway, other things the Ultralamina possesses that don’t apply to significant others are the super clever dual-zipper system, which eliminates left-zip vs. right-zip frustration; the pillow pocket in the hood; the super soft outer material; and the nice, perfectly sized, ultralight stuff sack that for once actually COMES WITH the bag. The zipper system is by far my favorite – I hate ending up with a left zip bag and, as a left-side sleeper, having to sleep with the zipper under my hip and shoulder. The Ultralamina has two 1/2 length zippers that are located on the top of the bag, rather than the sides, so it doesn’t matter which side you sleep on – there won’t be a zipper in your way. The 1/2 length zippers also contribute to the warmth of the bag since there’s no way for the air in the bottom half of the bag to leak out the zipper. If your feet tend to be fragrant, your tent mate might also appreciate that feature.
I am a cold sleeper so I need a warm bag, and I’m into airflow and don’t like to have to completely entomb myself in a sleeping bag, so I took this 15 degree bag on a kayak trip in fifty-something degree weather. Because of our extended swath of cold summer weather this year, I expected the trip to be rainy and chilly and I wasn’t disappointed on that front. While I didn’t quite need a 15 degree bag, it was really nice to be able to warm up quickly after each day out on the water in the rain. The excellent performance of this bag left me confident that this bag would be sufficient even in below-freezing temperatures (high praise indeed from the Queen of Cold Feet).
The material is not your run-of-the-mill sleeping bag nylon. It’s soft and silky, quite luxurious really. It wasn’t cold and clammy to crawl into and it didn’t retain moisture from a night in the tent (ever have that slimy-sleeping-bag-on-the-face feeling? Not a nice thing to have in the morning). The side pocket was really handy for my watch and headlamp, and the bag was nice and fluffy, kind of like sleeping on a feather bed. It’s the kind of bag that makes you look forward to crawling in bed with at night. And that IS something I’d look for in a significant other – so, Ultralamina…’til death do us part. Well, death or colder weather, of course.
