Western Mountaineering SummerLite

Summary

This is the bag, look no further.

I read the reviews, and knew this was the bag, but I had to be sure I suppose...

I ended up returning the MH Mountain Speed 32 for a really bad zipper design. (Even emailed them about the issue. Honestly, who wants to be out in nature with a stuck zipper? There is no way Ueli Steck actually tried this bag on a summit — he would say the same thing.)

We arrived at the trailhead with frost on the ground and temps somewhere around 30°...  I pitched my tent in shorts and sandals at midnight (it was 70 degrees when we hit the road) and slept like a baby, in nothing.

Drink some cheap bourbon for a week and buy this bag.

Purchased a Western Mountaineering Summerlite as light bag for backpacking. It is indeed very lightweight and well put together.

But major drawbacks: It is very confining in the torso (I am 5'10", weigh 170) so that my arms only just fit inside. Held up to sunlight the fill is seen to be thin and even missing in places. On two AT backpacking trips of about a week each I was cold at temps in 30-40's, wearing three layers of clothing.

The SummerLite is a great summer bag.  It's a little light to be a true three-season bag in Oregon. 

I wrote a detailed review of the bag at www.oregontrekker.com

I used the bag for the first time backpacking in northern Minnesota in the fall. I decided to bring this bag based on weather forcasts predicting the overnight lows in the mid 40's. The temperature plummeted to the 30's as soon as the sun set, and I wasn't looking forward to testing the bag's rating. By the time I crawled into the bag, my digital temp display was showing 27F. I was expecting to spend a long night shivering in the fetal position. Fortunately, the bag lived up to its rating of 32F, and I didn't get cold during the night. Granted, I wasn't peeling off the layers, but I wasn't cold either.

Pros: conservative temp rating, small pack size and weight.

Cons: none