Backside Blue Ice Sleeping Bag Review
After you’ve gone through backpacking and camping in
the spring, summer, and fall seasons, you might want to try taking that
extra next step, and go outdoors in the winter, or to go even further, and
find yourself tens of thousands of feet above sea level on a freezing
mountainside. This can be a little
more dangerous though, as the possibility of Mother Nature turning you into
an ice cube is quite high. It’s a
good thing The Backside created the Blue Ice sleeping bag. With a whopping
-50 degree F rating, this mummy bag will keep you toasty on most winter
nights.
Quite a bit of research and development went into the
Blue Ice. It’s a good thing too,
because this product isn’t exactly cheap. For
one, the bag is very durable. Its
Diamondtech down-proof microfiber shell really gives it that extra tough
appeal. You can be sure this bag will
last you a very long time. It’s also
got 100 percent wind proof and water proof protection.
The latter part is very important, as
getting wet in the cold is your one way ticket to hypothermia and frostbite.
What good is a tough sleeping bag though, if it can’t
keep you warm? The Blue Ice’s -50
rating is the very reason why you will want to buy this bag, and for the
most part, it delivers. This mummy
bag uses 750 premium fill goose down., which allows for maximum
compressibility and lightness. No
kidding, this toasty bag weighs only five pounds, which, while not the most
lightweight in its class, won’t be unduly cumbersome, either.
The only downside to a down bag is it
gets nullified if it becomes wet, but the Blue Ice’s shell is waterproof, so
this complication can be avoided.
Another reason why this bag keeps you so warm is that
the zippers have a locking mechanism that prevents them from unzipping while
you sleep. They can get a little
stuck sometimes, but that’s really a relatively minor problem.
Also, its thick draft tubes around
the zipper and collar areas help keep warm air circulating inside the bag.
As mentioned, the price of the bag isn’t cheap.
But at US$300, it’s actually a little
cheaper than its competitors. There
aren’t a lot of sleeping bags that perform just as efficiently at this
price. Other than the price,
another deterrent might be its size. This
mummy bag might be too roomy for some, but smaller individuals have tried
the bag and report that the roominess doesn’t affect the temperature inside.
It’s been
recommended that one break in the Blue Ice bag first, as it can be very
fluffy and difficult to compress. Another
recommendation is that any temperature rating should not be followed to the
letter. Even the most expensive -50
degree Fbags won’t completely keep
the cold from coming in at that horrifically low temperature.
All in all, The Backside Blue Ice mummy bag is a
reasonably priced and effective addition to one’s camping gear.
It is light enough not to seriously
bog down any hiker, and warm enough down to at least negative -30 F.
You can buy it online here.
Return to Sleeping Bags Guide Home Page