Filled with Q.Shield DOWN 650-fill insulation, treated to resist water and retain loft and warmth even when wet, the Mountain Hardwear Ratio and Heratio 15 Degree sleeping bags are a premium choice for three-season backpacking and camping.
We are taking a closer look at the men’s Ratio and women’s Heratio 15 degree sleeping bags. These are mummy style bags that are filled with 650 fill Q shield down. What is so important about Q shield down is that each plume is coated with a water resistant finish so if these bags, you know, are subject to rain or moisture in any way, they are going to hold up better than traditional down. With traditional down you lose all your thermal efficiency if the sleeping bag becomes wet, so these are going to dry out faster if they become wet. They are going to stay drier longer and they are ultimately going to keep you warmer in wet conditions.
The first thing that struck me about these sleeping bags is the baffle design. So you have kind of a diamond pattern as opposed to traditional sleeping bags that would have baffles that go horizontally across the bag. This is Mountain Hardwear’s thermal trap design, which basically has the down in smaller chambers throughout the bag so you have a much more consistent warmth.
This is a traditional mummy style sleeping bag so you have got a hood and the bag tapers down into the feet just to keep that thermal efficiency with the bag.
Going up to the hood you have a fully baffled really comfortable hood. The fabric on the inside is really soft, really comfortable and you have got a just single draw cord here so you can cinch down that hood on cold nights. The Velcro tab, that just keeps the zipper there and if you need to unzip the bag or want this tab to just be out of your way you can fold that back and a full length zipper for a mummy sleeping bag. Now the zipper doesn’t go all the way down to the bottom of the foot box, but to keep that thermal efficiency it goes almost all the way down. So full length zipper. Behind the zipper you have a nice draft tube and you also have a more durable fabric behind the zipper that is an anti snag design. So you can really not worry about snagging your sleeping bag.
Down at the bottom the zipper is a two way zipper. So if you just need to vent the bag from the bottom or venting the bag from the top and bottom you can have the zipper go both ways. And the foot box is definitely a box design. So they didn’t just take the top and bottom of the sleeping bag and sew them together. There is a really nice box, better for thermal efficiency and it is much more comfortable for your feet to have that sort of design there. So that is a great feature as well.
The 650 fill down is really compressible, so they include a stuff sack and also just a storage sack, a mess storage sack so to store it at home. Just to show you how compressible that is. As you can see, I can even compress that down to be a little bit smaller than the included stuff sack, so if you purchase your own compression sack you can even get that down to be a little bit smaller, but for a 15 degree sleeping bag, this compresses down to be pretty small, perfect for backpacking.
With the compressible 650 fill down and with Mountain Hardwear’s Q shield down you can be confident of a good night’s sleep on your next backpacking adventure. It is the men’s Ratio and women’s Heratio sleeping bags by Mountain Hardwear.
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