User Review: ALPS Mountaineering Crescent Lake 20

ALPS Mountaineering Crescent Lake 20
Above: The current Crescent Lake 20, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed April 5, 2004 by ministercreek

Rating:
Design: mummy
Fill: PolyMAX (TechLoft)
Temperature Rating: 20
Weight: 4lbs 6ozs
Price Paid: $69.99

I needed a second mummy bag so I decided on the ALPS Crescent Lake seeing I purchased my Silver Springs from them three years ago and I know from experience that ALPS Mountaineering's products are very good.

The Weather Channel was predicting a cold front was going to push through Saturday night and drop the nighttime temps down to the low thirties so I decided to put my Crescent Lake to the test.

The first thing I did was see how the fit was. I did this prior to taking it camping. As with my other ALPS bag, the fit was right on and the contoured hood was very comfortable and was a very nice feature I appreciated that night when the temps took that big plunge! This bag has a puffy zipper draft tube that kept cold air from creeping in but it did lack a draft tube for the chest, unlike my Silver Springs. But I noticed hardly any cold air creeping in even though it lacked this feature. Seeing I got last year's model this particuliar bag had PolyMAX instead of this year's TechLoft, which I suppose is the same insulation since it has the same construction (a hollow polyester fiber not unlike Dupont's Hollofil 808). I was very warm in this bag. The hood worked great, the fit is excellent and I'm very pleased with my purchase! This bag is a definite great buy that works well even when those temperatures take that big drop! The bag is rated to 20 degrees. I highly recommend it!