Feathered Friends Swift

Summary

This bag is Very Good, not Excellent. The hood design and lack of an insulated yoke made me sell it. It's a good bag, but I prefer Western Mountaineering.

I bought this bag because my Western Mountaineering Ultralite felt a bit too cramped. I have wide shoulders and I found my shoulders to be compressing the down of the WM UL and making me cold there in the night.

The FF Swift is a bit bigger. The first few times I used it I was very pleased with it. It was big enough that my shoulders didn't get cold. It is rated to -7°C [20°F] and at near freezing conditions I was nice and toasty.

Once it got down to -5°C, then I got chilly. This is mostly because the Swift doesn't have a neck yoke, just a drawstring around the hood, and I'd get a draft into the bag. I found myself trying to hold the neck area closed with my fist, but as I'd drift to sleep my grip would relax and I'd wake with a chilly draft again.

I should have bought the Western Mountaineering Alpinlite. It has the same dimensions as the FF Swift in size and weight, but it is a bit more $ [less than $100 more]. The WM Alpinlite has a nice insulated yoke with its own drawstring, so it keeps me warmer in below freezing conditions [which are common all year long in the Canadian Rockies]. 

So I sold my FF Swift at a loss after three seasons of use. I learned an important lesson: If you want a top quality down sleeping bag... don't settle for less than WESTERN MOUNTAINEERING! They're the BEST!