Feathered Friends Raven

I love this bag and would buy it again and again. I got my bag custom made extra long, filled with 800+ down and 2 ounces of overfill making it warmer than the advertised 10 degrees. With the dryloft shell I have stayed perfectly warm down to 5 degrees with no shelter and light winds. The dryloft keeps out the wind and snow while allowing me to vent moisture perfectly. Just shake of the snow in the morning and pack it up. I do find my bag frosted over somewhat in the morning, but with a little sun on the dark colored exterior the frost is gone in no time. When the heat is on in summer all one has to do is shake the down into the bottom side of the bag to have less loft over you. The stitching is exceptional and hidden from abrasion. No cold spots anywhere. Customer service is informative and they stand behind their products.

On the down side (no pun intended) the zipper rather likes to catch hold of the fabric and the dryloft it makes it hard to wash and dry. (It's hard to get water to penetrate the bag (good most of the time) and is equally hard to get it out again.) Feathered Friends recommends Thunderdown to wash your bag, and has their own "laundromat" if you would like them to wash your bag. Just send your bag to them. Use of a liner,though, makes washings few and far between. (Nice cliche huh.) Well, that's it for the bad.

Wait, wait, one more sort of bad.

The prices are high due in part to the customization one can get. Different lengths, widths, colors, fill powers (700+/800+), amount of overfill, optional collars, fabrics (dryloft/taffeta etc.),zipper options. Uhhmm, did I miss anything? Well, you get the idea. Basically you get what you pay for. A versatile, simplistic in design, technically superior bag. And the added bonus is that it's made in the good ol' U.S.A.

Buy one. Borrow one. Rent one. Use one.