User Review: ALPS Mountaineering Crescent Lake 20

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!

Update: January 10, 2006

This is one excellent bag. It is true to its temperature rating. I've been using it this past week for cold weather camping. I haven't had a cold night yet.

The design and materials of this bag are excellent. It sports one of the BEST hood designs I found. Pull the drawstrings and the hood totally surrounds your head and traps in the precious body heat. The polyester taffeta outer shell/inner liner is plan just soft and very comfortable. The material is very hydrophobic--it will not retain any moisture for long. The bag has a full length zipper baffle but no chest baffles. Yet I haven't had any cold air creep in.

This year's model uses ALPS Mountaineering's proprietary Tech Loft, which is a four channel siliconized hollow fiber much like DuPont's Hollofil II. For the price, materials and performance, I will recommend this excellent bag from ALPS Mountaineering.