Gear Review
Sea to Summit is a type of gear corporations I’ve all the time admired for his or her innovation in developing with options to little issues that niggle outdoorsy folks like us. It’s nearly as if they’ve acquired inside our heads and heard us once we think about:
“Geez, I wish there was a thing/widget/design for ‘x’ that just worked – a smart, elegant solution to an issue or challenge.”
Said all outdoorsy folks ever
Given that there are 47 totally different sleeping luggage and quilts of their vary (plus a few of the lightest sleeping pads/mats available on the market), it’s secure to say that they’ve one thing for everybody in the case of sleeping within the wild.
For this gear take a look at, I selected the kind of gear most suited to my bushwalking sleep candy spot – light-weight climbing gear, for a chilly, tall, again sleeper. Here’s what I discovered:
1. Sleeping Bag – Sea to Summit Flame FmIII Women’s (Long)
Call me cynical, however I’ve by no means actually been one for ‘women’s particular’ gear, however after 4 nights surrounded by the 850+ loft of the S2S Flame FmIII’s ULTRA-DRY down and its girls’s particular mummy contouring, I’m altering my thoughts.
Inside I discovered a beneficiant quantity of room across the torso inside vertical baffles, earlier than it tapered with horizontal ones that led all the way down to the foot field. This room inside offers scope for additional layering (I wore a single layer of thermals) if you wish to increase the score under it’s -4c consolation stage. I’m instructed I sleep like I’m in a coffin, in order a devoted again sleeper (with occasional forays to the edges), I appreciated this additional torso room for elbows*, which rested comfortably with out feeling contained or claustrophobic.
The hood form naturally hugged my head and wanted solely minimal cinching to attract it in round my face. It’s the one cinch level on this bag and doesn’t have a second cinch level across the shoulders.
The YKK flip zipper (proper aspect opening) provides an choice for cooling issues down on the foot field if issues warmth up and is hidden inside a draft tube to cease undesirable chills within the night time.
I by no means must marvel what goes on inside a down sleeping bag once more, because the translucent 10D shell cloth affords a novel view of the RDS (Responsible Down Standard) licensed filling.
At 850 grams (my scales), together with the Ultra-Sil Nano compression sack, this bag squeezed down to twenty-eight cm lengthy. An excellent bag certainly.
2. Sleeping Pad – Sea to Summit Etherlight XT WL (Women’s Long)
I’ve slept on many alternative mats over time, and the Etherlight XT felt just like the Rolls Royce… or is that Tesla today?
Shining a lightweight on the problem-solving nature of Sea to Summit merchandise, the very first thing I seen is that the Airstream Pump Sack is constructed into the stuff sack. Smart. Although this provides to the packed size of the mat (29 cm), it was straightforward to make use of, taking simply over 3 sacks of air to fill it up and removes the huff n’ puff of blowing up manually… to not point out the chance of mould rising inside.
The consolation of this mat is excellent and given that there’s a soft 10.1 cm of plump and tender air between my drained physique and the chilly, onerous floor of the Blue Mountains National Park, it is smart. The multi-function valve permits for changes to search out your Goldilocks stage of ‘just right’ firm-to-soft ratio and 30D/40D supplies and cushioned sample feels strong compared to different manufacturers. With noise being one of many widespread complaints with inflatable mats, this one is quieter than different fashions, however I discovered it did have a decrease ‘rubbing noise’ tone moderately than a excessive crinkley sound like different producers.
As per my most popular ‘corpse-pose’ yoga sleep place, the width of this mat was the actual stand-out for me; each *elbows rested comfortably on the mat, with room to maneuver. If you’re a aspect sleeper, you’ll love that 10cm top of hip-loving pleasure.
Being a tall lass (178cm) I went with the Women’s Long mat, which my scales known as in at 670 grams together with stuff sack. As a chilly sleeper, I examined this at temps all the way down to 2c and the heat (R3.2, ASTM customary examined) of the mat was wonderful. They use two various kinds of insulation that each displays your individual heat again to you and manages conductive warmth loss.
The solely enchancment I can consider can be to additional develop the stuff/pump sack so as to add a compression strap decreasing the general packed dimension and dealing to scale back the low farty-noise on sure surfaces.
3. Liner – Thermolite Reactor Compact Plus+ (quick)
This isn’t the primary time I’ve used a S2S Thermolite Reactor liner. I like the advantages of including heat to a sleeping bag, while additionally holding all my filth and sweat to myself, moderately than sharing it with my sleeping bag. Let’s face it, cleansing luggage is a ache (and might be costly if accomplished professionally) and a liner may help minimise the necessity for normal cleansing.
Thermolite – a cloth designed for light-weight heat – is made by the individuals behind different technical supplies akin to Lycra and Coolmax.
When it got here to entering into mattress, I found the advantage of utilizing a smaller liner with a bigger sleeping bag. With the shorter liner, I used to be ready to make use of its cinch wire to attract the bag over my shoulders, which felt like a heat hug. Nice.
4. Pillow – Aeros Premium Pillow (common)
Many outdoorsy folks look upon pillows as a luxurious non-compulsory merchandise. Sure, you possibly can stuff lumpy garments into your stuff sack to make an equally lumpy pillow, however like travelling enterprise class, when you’ve been there, you by no means need to return behind the scenes.
For a sliver of the worth of an airfare, 80 grams and concerning the dimension of a tennis ball, you will get the enterprise class of tenting pillows with the Aeros Premium. This lil’ man is ideal for squeezing down into the awkward little backside nook of your backpack and comes with the S2S Pillow Lock system. Which doesn’t imply a lot until you might have a S2S mat, which comes with the stick-on velcro-esque patches to carry your pillow in place all night time.
The 50D brushed polyester cowl cloth is tremendous comfortable in opposition to your cheek (or your face, you wacky tummy sleepers!) and the artificial filling (between the material and the TPU bladder) wicks sweat away on these sizzling summer season nights.
The top is well adjustable with the mini-valve, which doesn’t match the sleeping mat inflation sack, so that you’ll must puff into this one. A possible enchancment might be a detachable cowl for laundry.
A model of this text first appeared in Great Walks Magazine.
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