User Review: Slumberjack Super Guide +30°F

Best backpack bag I have used for the price in twenty years, period (I got a great deal). Have used it summer peakbagging in the Sangre de Christos (10-12 days out), autumn canoe trips on the Buffalo River, and winter camping on Greylock and Monadnock (cold in Massachusetts!)

The weight is just right, about 2lbs 7oz, and packs down to barely nothing. The trail rating of 30° seems high, I have never been chilled in this bag, even in snowy basecamp, but personal preference means a lot (that and a MH Mountain Jet tent....) I tend to be hot-natured, and though my wife and I could zip ours together (regular and left-long models, I am 6' 215lbs) we seldom do -- it's too hot!

Overall, this is probably the best backpacking bag I have owned; I also have a Kelty Mistral 0°, but I swear the Slumberjack is just as warm, and at 6lbs 8oz the Kelty is a monster compared to the Super Guide. I bought the Mistral as a cold weather bag when we moved to New England, but have hardly used it, the Super Guide does it all. That, plus it's got groovy stripes. The Diamond shell shows little signs of wear after several seasons of use, and the zippers have never failed me.

The bag loses one star (nearly perfect) since most of the better bags have more inner pockets for things you may need without reaching out of the bag to get them (flashlight, etc), and I also think that the ventilated foot box could do with a better way to insulate the zipper. It's not that the cold gets in; it's just that having a zipper at your feet just feels, well, strange in a mummy bag. Maybe it's me. But it's a great bag. Best I've owned.