Marmot Hydrogen Sleeping Bag Review
Marmot, an award-winning outdoor clothing and equipment
company based out of
Marmot’s sleeping bags are also renowned for their
excellent down filling. The
900-fill down of the Hydrogen, a rather high down fill rating, will provide
premium warmth capability, though it has the expected drawback of making the
Hydrogen rather more expensive than most other sleeping bags of a similar
class. The Hydrogen sports a
mummy bag design, which complements the down fill in keeping you at a proper
temperature during frigid nights.
The bag’s body fabric isn’t designed to be tossed around randomly on
cutting rocks and abrasive sand, and buyers would be wise to invest in a
cheap ground cloth on which to mount the Hydrogen to ensure that no tearing
occurs.
Other appreciated features of the Hydrogen include a
comfortable hood baffle to cover the face of the user during colder evenings
when the bag has to be sealed, a full zipper that allows you to convert the
bag into a down comforter on warmer nights, and a roomy fit, which is a
pleasant surprise for a normally claustrophobic mummy design.
The temperature rating of the Hydrogen is listed as
being able to handle a dip down to 30 degrees F and below, and ideally the
down fill should practically guarantee that rating, but many users have
complained about suffering in the cold even in temperatures that do not push
the Hydrogen to its advertised limits.
This is perhaps the biggest failing of the Hydrogen – it is not built
to provide optimum warmth, and is heavily dependent on both prevailing
environmental conditions and the user’s other measures to raise the sleeping
temperature, such as by wearing extra layers of clothing.
Built to be a sort of halfway selection between Marmot’s warm-climate
Atom and its winter-level offering, the Helium, it actually hews closer to
the Atom, and may not be the best choice for one expecting to run into a few
nights of bitter chill. Another
issue with the Hydrogen is that its fabric appears to be susceptible to
tearing. A number of
dissatisfied customers have complained of waking up in the morning to find
their surroundings littered with tiny feathers, and a couple of holes torn
through the lining or shell.
All in all, the Hydrogen is a sweet bag to own if your
primary concerns are weight and elegant comfort.
Just be wary of low temperatures, which the bag doesn’t handle as
well as most would like, and be careful with the damage that rugged terrain
may bring.
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