Winter 201358 Irish Mountain Log

If you ever spend a night shivering in a thin sleeping bag whileyour tent-mate slumbers peacefully in a much warmer one, youwill vow never to repeat the experience again. Even though it’snearly 20 years ago, I still remember the night-camp of my ML2,as the temp dropped to -8°C and I had only brought a light,3-season bag. Moral of the story, pack a warmer bag than youthink you’ll need; you can always vent heat, but that heat isalmost impossible to gain.

Sleeping warm

����

■ Thermarest Altair Sleeping Bag

■ Neo Air All Season Mattress

Pros❚ It works. Linked, the bag and mattresswork beautifully. If you’ve ever slid offyour mattress in the middle of the nightand woken up lying face-down on adamp tent floor, then this will ensurethat doesn’t happen again.

❚ Comfort. If you have yet to try a NeoAir mattress, then you’re missing out ona night of dreamless slumber. It’s themost comfortable mat by far I’ve everused, and for the previous fifteen yearsI’d been using a standard Thermarest.

❚ The Altair has a great shape, enablingone to move inside the bag withoutfeeling like you’re having to heat up toomuch space. The bag/mat link alsomeans you could prop yourself up on arock (assuming you’re campingsomewhere sunny and dry!) while havinga mattress under and behind you.

www.thermarest.com�420 (Altair -18°C Bag)�160 (Neo Air Mattress)Thermarest properly entered the sleeping bag market earlier thisyear, having had their link systems (mattress plus down/syntheticblanket) on shelves for a few years. The new bags are designed towork with their mattresses, using two stretchy bands on the baseof the sleeping bags. The main idea behind the link is toredistribute the down from the bottom of the bag (where it’shabitually compressed when we lie down) to the top and sides(70%, 30%, respectively).

Cons❚ Even though I was testing a pre-productionsample, I felt the Altair was missing a neckbaffle – very important on a -18°C bag. Thisissue has been rectified on the productionmodel.

❚ Temp rating. I didn’t think the Altair waswarm enough for the -18°C tag. When I lookedinside the bag, I noticed the EN comfort andlimit ratings were -5°C and -11°C respectively,a much better reflection of performance.

€160

€420

OpenHead endzippedshut

Underside viewof mattresslinked tosleeping bagwith twostretchy bandsattached tobase of bag