Stephenson Sleeping Bags

This was contributed by Jeff Deifik
jdeifik@weasel.com

Goretex is useful under very limited conditions. First I know of no bag that is seam sealed. So water can leak in at the seams. Second, goretex will only let water vapor go from a high humidity place to a low humidity place. If you perspire, or the bag gets wet, and it is raining outside, no humidity will get out of the bag.

It is very down-proof, and it does stop wind very well however.

I would ignore the new synthetics. At best they are as compressible as 550 down, cheaper, and last less long.

The best bag is made by Stephenson Warmlite Equipment Inc. in Gilford, NH.

I have one. It is completely unlike any bag you have seen.

Let me describe it. There are two tops, a thick one, and a thin one. They can be used together or separately. The thin one is good down to about 30F. The thick one is good down to about -10F. Both are good down to between -40F and -80F.

There are three zippers. One for each side, and one for the feet. There are two separate tracks for zippers. The thick top has two tracks of zippers. The thin top has one track, and uses the inner tracks. If you use both tops, the thin top goes on the outside, using the outer tracks, and the thick one goes on the inside, using the inner tracks.

The bottom has a built in down-air-mattress (DAM), or a 2 inch thick piece of open cell foam. I have both. The DAM is very light, compressible, and warm. In a conventional bag, the insulation on the bottom is compressed by body weight, and next-to-useless.

With the DAM, you get useful insulation. With a conventional bag, you can roll around in it, which makes the bag roll around. With an integrated mattress, the top stays on the top.

The North Face (TNF) has a slip for a thermarest in some of their bags.

Rolling around on down turns it into little pieces of expensive string. It damages the down severely.

The Stephenson bag has a built in vapor barrier liner (VBL). This keeps your insensible sweat from soaking the insulation of the bag. It also keeps you much warmer, because you don't sweat. I was wondering how well this worked, and so I asked a friend of mine.

He said 'good for below freezing, uncomfortable otherwise.' I decided to make a VBL out of Stephenson fabric to test the idea. Their fabric is called 'fuzzy stuff'. It is a knit nylon laminated to a plastic film. I made the VBL and placed it inside one of my normal sleeping bags.

It worked very well. No comfort problem, except that it would get twisted up as I rolled over. I was warmer, the insulation was dry. So I bought a Stephenson bag.

The bag is available with several options. Any color, or colors you want, any girth (with 5 inch quantization). Any length. They charge by girth, length, and other options. Stephenson uses the best down available.

Unweighted it has a loft over 1000 ci/oz. Weighted it is 825 ci/oz (as I recall). The bag is made with 1.1 oz ripstop nylon, and sewn with nylon thread. Nylon thread is the best stuff around for sewing nylon fabric. They have a catalog for $1, and a video tape for $10. There are two versions of the tape, the naturalist version, and the censored version.

I have been cold in normal bags that were rated for very low temperatures. I have never been cold in the Stephenson bag. I used to soak bags insulation with my sweat. The Stephenson bag has stayed dry. I use it about 30 times a year.

Now the bad news. It is expensive. Mine was $685. That was for a 70 inch girth bag, 6 feet long. But they do last a long time. I have a friend that uses his more than I do, and he has two bags and two tents from Stephenson that are over 35 years old, going strong.

Weight: 70 inch girth bag, 6'9" long thin top 21 oz, thick top 34 oz, bottom with air mattress 60 oz. add 7 oz for the vap-r-soft inside of the tops, so the total weight is 127 oz, which is 7 lbs 10 oz.

The bag also fits in a stuff sack 10 inches diameter, 24 inch long. This is with both tops. With only one top, it is more compressible. You can compress it a bit, but Stephenson says for maximum down life, roll the bag, then put it in the sack. This will equalize the compression of the down. The amount of space is less than a winter bag and pad. The bag is also very roomy inside. Much more than any other bag that I have used.