User Review: Western Mountaineering Pod 15

Western Mountaineering Pod 15
Above: The current Pod 15, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed April 6, 2006 by Scott Gallaher

Rating:
Design: mummy
Fill: 800 fill down
Temperature Rating: 15 Farenheight
Weight: 3 pounds total including stock mattress
Price Paid: $300

I picked this bag to take to Argentina backpacking in the Andes. Firstly, the bag is way puffy all up and down on the top but the bag has no down at all in the bottom and just a little bit on the sides to prevent drafts and conserve heat.

Overall the bag worked fine. however, I am a "warm" sleeper and I replaced the sleeping pad with a newer model Insulmat by Pacific Outdoor, a 1 inch thick model with air tubes on the side... It fit fine with my Pod 15 and it was, in fact, surprisingly comfortable for my 40+ year old back. However, on one cold night a deep frost hit and the ground became very cold and the 1 inch pad wasn't enough protection. So, on the plus side, the bag is comfortable, oh, so soft, and the down stays put well since it's closed off on the sides. However, on cold nights, you need to have the right insulation and thickness on the sleeping pad itself or you are going to get cold from the ground up-- essentially true for any bag, but noticeably more so for this type of design.

Now, let's move on to humidity. It was so humid, so much of the time, that invariably the bag got wet around the feet. Hard not to in any tent, I would think. With almost no time to dry anything out, it was a tad challenging keeping the bag dry. I stuffed the bag in a sil stuff sack and kept it at the bottom of a sil pack bag, and it was fine. Other than a bit of dampness, the bag handled the humidity with no problem. I usually awoke with a mild amount of dampness around the chest area but it seemed to dry within minutes enough to feel ok about packing the bag away.

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