Sierra Designs Cloud 800F 20° Sleeping Bag

Product Information

Sleeping pad sleeve keeps pad under you for comfort and warmth and replaces unnecessary bottom insulation

There's very little moisture resistance on the bag itself but the down in the bag is a DriDown so it's treated with a waterproof barrier that repels water if it does get wet. The Sierra Designs Cloud 800 35's generous comforter and zipperless design allows for a roomy fit around the shoulders.Disclosure : Trailspace received a sample of this product from the brand for field testing and review. The product was assigned by Trailspace to this volunteer Review Corps member.

To help you on your quest for a light load with gear that still works and doesn’t require a trust fund, Sierra Designs brings us the Cloud 20. This bag seems to do a good job of fixing a few common sleeping bag complaints. Ultralight sleeping bags generally weigh about two pounds and compress into small sizes to occupy as little space as possible. The low weight of these sleeping bags generally correlates with the cost, so if you’re not looking to spend a few hundred dollars on a new bag, opt for a slightly heavier one to save money. There’s nothing else on the market that uses the ‘zipperless bag’ approach of the Cloud 800 – though Big Agnes’ Sidewinder SL20 is another bag specifically designed with side sleepers in mind. Temperature Mapping System – This sleeping bag features a sleeping pad sleeve that keeps pad under you, for comfort and warmth and replaces unnecessary bottom insulation In the mountains you need your gear to be as light as possible and still able to do its job. Being light reduces fatigue and lets you move through hazard zones faster thereby reducing your exposure to risk. In short, light is right.We paired this bag with one of Sierra Designs’ Granby Insulated Air Mats, which has an R-value of 2.1. This ensured that the bag was plenty warm enough for late spring, summer and early autumn camps. The high-quality 800FP moisture-resistant down lofts well, being housed in chunky box-wall baffles. The quilted flap can also be pulled right up to the chin, ensuring we experience minimal heat loss. If you don’t want the restriction imposed by a zipped bag and don’t fancy a quilt because you move around too much at night then the Cloud 800 bags deliver unrestricted rest when you want it and warmth when you need it.

Comfort Limit Rating: This is the lowest temperature at which an average male should experience a comfortable night’s sleep whilst laid down in a curled up position. We always recommend that you choose your bag according to the coldest conditions you will experience; you can always unzip a bag if it is too warm, but trying to sleep when you’re too cold is just miserable. Bear in mind that we are all individuals, so we all feel the cold differently and that our own resistance will fluctuate depending on a whole load of factors, including how much we have eaten, whether we have consumed alcohol, whether we need a wee or what kind of mood we are in!I finally got to try this bag out this past weekend on the Buffalo River Trail in Arkansas. The temperatures at night ranged from around 45-55° so I wasn't truly able to test the warmth of the bag. I found no drafts in the bag, except if you don't put your feet in the right way, they slide out of the footbox in the slot. Easy to use and regulate temperature. Most comfortable sleeping bag experience yet. Temp rating seems accurate and materials are top quality. Design pros and cons: The sleeping bag is much more comfortable than a conventional mummy bag, the comforter does act like a blanket giving versatility to your sleeping positions. But side sleeping is comfortable only on your left side where you can move the comforter out of your nose and mouth; on the right side this is not possible, so you must sleep with your head over the hood. Getting in and out of the bag is super easy since there's no zipper to fiddle with! I also found that the part of the bag that folds over you like a blanket stays nicely in place and is easy enough to throw off if you get too warm.

When it comes to specs, the bag is filled with 419g of 800-fill power moisture-resistant DriDown. The downfill is zoned, by which we mean it is strategically placed on the top and sides of the bag. Conversely, the underside of the bag has no fill at all. The brand’s rationale is that placing down fill here is of limited value since it is compressed by the user’s own body weight, negating its loft and, therefore, its insulating power. The construction is well made although the fabric is lightweight so you'll have to be a bit carefully with handling. Unless you are really rough on your gear there's no reason this bag won't last for years to come. The Sierra Designs Cloud 20 is an innovative 800 FP Dri-Down filled sleeping bag that weighs around 800 g. It shifts from the conventional mummy shape by losing the zipper (that always get snagged) and having a comforter instead. I chose it for its design (had enough of snagged zippers), weight-to-warmth ratio, and its price point, being on the cheaper end of down sleeping bags. So, instead, there’s a rear sleeve to accommodate your sleeping mat. This makes it impractical to twist the bag around, so it may not suit side sleepers – though the roomy fit makes it relatively easy to move around inside the bag itself. It does, however, mean that you really need a well-insulated sleeping mat underneath you to guarantee you stay warm.

The hood is fitting ok, but not great, meaning it’s too wide and sometimes hard to find the right position to have your head covered. Another headache in sleeping bags in that your warm, cozy feather cocoon becomes stuffy and unbearable on those nights that AREN’T really cold, making you either unzip in the middle of the night (that zipper again) or have to own a quiver of bags for each temp range. Sierra Designs seeks to partially alleviate this with a flap closure and foot vent that allows you to easily bleed-off heat at night without dealing with a zipper. In colder conditions, when overnight temperatures started to approach freezing, we did start to get cold – but here, the mat was the culprit, not the bag. Upgrading to a warmer mat (in our case, a NEMO Tensor Insulated pad, with an R-value of 4.2) hugely extended the viable temperature range of the Cloud 800 20F. I used it on several multi-day hikes at temps between 2-10 Celsius, with a Therm-A-Rest Neoair Xlite pad and inside a tent. This womens version has 419g of 800 Fill Power DriDown that has a -3°C Comfort Limit so its good for two to three season use, particularly if you're a warm sleeper. The fabrics used are 15D so they are lightweight but also more than many of the lightest bags out there. The dimensions of the bag are generous so it would suit someone after a larger bag, someone who moves around a lot at night and warm sleepers. The overall weight is really impressive given all the features too.