User Review: Kelty Mistral 20

Kelty Mistral 20
Above: The current Mistral 20, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed January 24, 2007 by Bagman

Rating:
Design: mummy
Fill: proprietary synthetic
Temperature Rating: (mine was actually Mistral 20-degree bag)
Weight: unknown--probably about 4.5 pounds
Price Paid: $45

I bought this bag because I wanted a cheap synthetic bag for car camping and heavy abuse. I've owned many very pricey down bags which I use backpacking and climbing, but didn't want to subject to the tortures of car camping: bonfires, muddy dogs, etc. The Mistral was the ticket. The proprietary synthetic insulation is very poor quality and lost loft almost instantaneously--far faster than bags with Polarguard, for instance. Still, the bag was usable a couple of summers for warm weather use, and when the dog chewed the zipper off, I was able to laugh about it, since the bag cost next to nothing.

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