The Snowline sits quite proudly in Mountain Equipments 'extreme' range, for a simple reason, they're designed to go where most bags can't even dream of visiting. Although this is the lightest bag in M.E's extreme range, it'll still happily go to temperatures around -23°C and can't actually be tested by the European regulated temperature guide, therefore Mountain Equipment go through their most extensive and more accurate tests to give you their "good nights sleep" rating.
Using a super high quality 800 fill power duck down, the Snowline will pack up smaller than a similar bag with an inferior quality down and will be warmer for the weight too. What makes Mountain Equipments down different to others however is that they became one of the first outdoor brands to introduce independant autiding of their down supply. This provides the ability for M.E to trace 100% of their down, allowing them to only use responsibly sourced down. This is not only better for the birds and the environment, but also means the down inside the product is a higher quality. This premium duck down is from the very cold North East of China and is collected from ducks that live a truly free-range existence. The birds are sold when they no longer produce eggs or when the market price for eggs drops below the break-even point. The birds are normally around 700 days old when slaughtered, they are then plucked and the down is shipped to the processing plant for cleaning and grading. Because these ducks are older and have lived in a free-range environment and a cold climate the down they produce is of an exceptionally high quality. All Mountain Equipment bags adhere to the Down Codex, a scheme that was developed to ensure that both animal welfare and down quality were put firmly at the heart of each and every one of M.E's down products. The Down Codex is a completely transparent and auditable system to ensure that:
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The down used does not come from birds which have been live plucked or live harvested
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The down used does not come from birds which have been force-fed
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The down used should be from birds which have raised in good conditions and to high standards of animal welfare
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The down used should be a by-product of the meat industry and come from birds which have been humanely slaughtered.
Each down product is marked with a 12 digit code that can be entered at the Down Codex website to gain access to the specific information relating to the down source of that product, go to http://www.thedownproject.me.uk/index.php to find out more about how M.E have become the only brand to go beyond accepting written guarantees from down suppliers and to make their audit results and independent quality reports publicly available.
All this ethically produced and high quality down is encapsulated in Gore Thermium, a fabric designed to protect the precious down (and obviously the user) from moisture and wind. Although other less wind and water resistant fabrics offer greater compressibility and breathability, at high altitude the threat of moisture is increased that much more, and if the down were to get soaked it would lose almost all of it's thermal capabilities. That won't be comfortable at -23°C. Gore Thermium is an extremely breathable, water and wind resistant membrane which sits between the down and the outer fabric. With an incredibly light 10 denier outer fabric and a DWR (durable water repellant) coating, the Snowline will still compress impressively while protecting you and the insulation.
Mountain Equipment's bag's are very unique in a number of ways. One is the way they optimise their heat efficiency by changing the layout of the baffles. Vertically aligned V baffles on the chest and foot piece offer the most warmth where greater heat is lost, while trapezoid baffles are used throughout the rest of the bag to minimise dead space, filling every inch of available space to avoid cold air building up inside. 6 baffles inside the foot piece shape the bottom of the bag to an ideal place for your feet to sit at their most natural position (facing upwards), and a 7 piece baffled hood creates a truly anatomical shape to surround your head with uxurious warmth. To further optimise insulation M.E have developed the Gemini System that has two overlapping anti-snag draft tubes and a fully integrated neck collar.
Mountain Equipment give the Snowline their Expedition fit; a design with a little more room to allow extra clothing to be worn, kit to be stored inside or even footwear to live inside to avoid freezing in the coldest of conditions.
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Gore Thermium 10D outer shell
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Highly water resistant and breathable
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831g of 800FP Goose Down
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Expedition fit
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V chest and foot baffles, trapezoid everywhere else
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Ground level side seams
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7 baffle hood
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6 baffle foot piece
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Inner pocket for keeping essentials warm and dry
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Supplied with waterproof roll-top stuff sack and storage cube
How warm a sleeping bag do you really need? We’ve tried to help you by grouping our sleeping bags by their recognised comfort ratings. These are the ratings supplied by the brands that indicate the temperature at which you will remain comfortable whilst sleeping on an insulated sleep mat. After all, comfort is what you want when it’s cold and wet outside, and you’re all tucked up in your nice warm sleeping bag.
We always recommend that you choose your bag according to the coldest conditions you will experience; you can always unzip a bag if it is too warm, but trying to sleep when you’re too cold is just miserable. Bear in mind that we are all individuals, so we all feel the cold differently and that our own resistance will fluctuate depending on a whole load of factors, including how much we have eaten, whether we have consumed alcohol, whether we need a wee or what kind of mood we are in!
Sleeping bags do not generate heat; they only trap the heat we produce, so it is vital that you get into your bag when you are giving off warmth, don’t go to bed when you are cold, have a hot meal or a hot drink or do some brisk exercise to get you nicely warmed up.
Traditionally sleeping bag manufacturers provided their own temperature ratings based on their experience, the product's intended end-use and the perceived environment. However, each brand tested their bags in different ways, and it was hard to find a fair comparison between models. So, in 2005 a European standard for sleeping bag temperature ratings, EN 13537, was introduced to give consumers a comparable guide to sleeping bag performance across a range of brands and models. The ratings have four different temperature ratings to give you an indication of the bag's performance.
Comfort Rating: This is the temperature at which an average female should experience a comfortable night’s sleep. On average, women sleep colder than men, so this rating is some degrees above the "comfort lower limit" for a man.
Comfort Limit Rating: This is the lowest temperature at which an average male should experience a comfortable night’s sleep whilst laid down in a curled up position.
Extreme: This is a survival rating where the user is likely to suffer health damage such as Hypothermia. It should be treated with the utmost caution and not be relied on for general use.
However, the EN 13537 European Standard does not apply to down-filled sleeping bags with a fill weight of more than 800g; for those bags, you will have to rely on the manufacturer's experience and technical expertise, which is often more accurate!
Most reputable brands still use their own rating system alongside EN 13537, for instance, Mountain Equipment's “Good Night’s Sleep” and Rab’s “Sleep Limit”. These ratings are often the most accurate guide to the overall performance of a sleeping bag being used by an average outdoor enthusiast because they are based on years of expedition heritage, field trials, technological experience, and constant feedback.
But please bear in mind that all ratings are only a guide and, as mentioned earlier, there are a huge range of factors that can affect your comfort; if you are just not sure, it is always wise to go for a warmer model.
The biggest difference you can make to your overall comfort is to use an efficiently insulated sleeping mat. Once you get inside your sleeping bag, you instantly compress all the filling beneath you, greatly reducing its efficiency. Therefore using a quality sleep mat will ensure you are properly insulated from the cold ground, and you will be a lot more comfortable... Basically, there is no point in buying a top-quality sleeping bag if you are just going to lie down on the floor.