Display
Just before the descent we had a real sleeping bag marathon. We have ordered and tried out countless models from fahrrad.de. Down or synthetic fibre, which temperature range, coupleable yes/no, heat collar and of course the size that still needs to fit… there are more criteria and differences than you can imagine at first.
The difference between down and synthetic fibre alone was somehow more surprising than thought. Until now, we only had NoName synthetic fiber sleeping bags with the standard cotton filling. A sleeping bag filled with down has some other haptic properties. First, the pack size: incredibly small. When you see the built-up sleeping bag, you can hardly assume that it would fit in such a small shell. After getting out a few times shaken up, you have a fluffy cocoon in front of you, which will keep you wonderfully warm at night. The sleeping bag feels very soft and also has a very practical heat collar, which can be closed twice and whose cord stopper can be connected. An exclusion criterion for some other sleeping bags was above all that you can either not pull the heat collar tightly enough or then press it so unpleasantly on the neck that one prefers not to close it at all. If a sleeping bag is to warm properly, it must also be cut properly…. not too far and not too narrow, so that you can still feel comfortable in it. And the length must be right. Many sleeping bag manufacturers only offer two different models, which didn’t even fit our (normal) body sizes… Funnily enough. The feet should not have too much air in the sleeping bag, nor touch the shell at the bottom.
After finally testing tons of sleeping bags, we got stuck with a brand: Valandré. From this manufacturer the size, feel, coupling and temperature range fit best, which is why we ordered two models (Swing 500 and the Swing 700) for comparison. We thought that by having inlets, we could also quietly take the one with the lower (i.e. warmer) temperature limit. But in comparison, the Swing 500 was a lot thinner, which is why we stayed with the original favorite, the Swing 700, and now cycle with a clear conscience to the Himalayas and no longer fear cold temperatures.
The first nights in the sleeping bag were wonderful. Now that it is so warm outside, you can simply use the sleeping bag as a light duvet. After getting up, ventilate briefly (see photo ;)) and then back into the small packing bag. Every day we look forward to slipping into our cocoons to calmly eat away. Ok, the first night was rather sleepless for Anja. But this is a different story and is not related to the sleeping bags…
We would like to thank Nadine and fahrrad.de for the support and friendly customer service, so that we were able to hold the sleeping bags in our hands in good time before departure, despite the short-term change and new order 🙂
