Sierra Designs Ridge Runner 0

Important details like draft collar and hood seals not up to par for a zero degree bag and poor quality control shipping a bag with a substantial amount of down missing from several baffles.

Just recently got this off SAC and the bag came rolled up tight and very compressed in about a 12 x 13" roll. Long term compression of down can destroy its lofting ability and I have to wonder how long it was stored like this. A slightly bigger box is not that much more expensive… Not an impressive start.

Was a bit surprised that a 0 degree bag would come with no front draft collar to seal around the neck. This is a major oversight in the design. Even the rear neck draft collar is a bit skimpy. This makes it impossible to seal in the air your body had warmed and you feel it blowing out past your face every time you move. The zipper draft tube just continues all the way up and around the top edge.

This may be a good way to eliminate several steps in the manufacturing process, but this is not a neck draft collar, this is the part that should be on your face when you cinch the opening all the way down to a blowhole. Keeping that part down on your neck will leave way too much exposed in zero degree weather and let tremendous amounts of heat escape. It also bunches up when drawn closed and does not seal.

The upper face gasket, around the hood is also very skimpy and does not prevent the cord from pressing into the bridge of my nose while again, not providing a good seal to trap heat. The Velcro closure at the top of the zipper is not only useless but a potential for damage to anything else that the Velcro hooks grab onto.

Aside from that, Sierra Designs is having a serious quality control issue, several of the baffles over the torso area are missing a substantial amount of down compared to the leg area and top of the chest, the one over the abdomen being nearly empty, it's impossible to distribute it enough that there aren't complete voids in the insulation. The whole midsection has only about 4-1/2 inches of loft at best and the bulk of that is coming from the underside. There is no way I can trust this bag to keep me warm in zero degree or anything close to it.

The bag came with a cotton storage sack which probably should be a bit bigger & a stuff sack. A compression sack instead of a stuff sack would have been much preferred.

600 fill Down, on the economical side resulting in a bit larger stuff sack size.

The good points; 

• Good quality zipper that works pretty well and operates from either end so you can open it at the bottom and stick a leg out if your a little too warm.
• Reasonably roomy bag, especially in the legs, not too mummifying. (I'm 5'9", 180 lbs with broad chest and shoulders, 33" waist. I typically find a standard, 20" w sleeping pad too narrow.)
• The foot box is nicely shaped & roomy, wish the rest of the bag had as much down as it does... 
• The ergonomically shaped hood is great with generous down fill and good shaped baffling but again the gasket at the face is weak and bleeds heat.
• Love the flaming red color. 
• The straps to keep the bag on the sleeping pad are a nice touch but being a side sleeper, may prove impractical, for me.
• The fabrics are soft, smooth and silky without any propensity to snagging and don't feel too thin.
• Sierra Designs customer service phone # displayed on a tag sewn into the bag, unlike many companies today that just have no way at all to contact them besides a web site contact form that may never be answered.