What is the Nova IV?
The Nova IV is a lightweight, easily compressible synthetically insulated sleeping bag that is ideal for 3-4 season trekking and mountain adventures. It's incredibly comfortable and spacious and, due to its innovative construction, offers great all-round protection and warmth.
What is the Nova IV made of?
Insulation: Featuring Polarloft insulation, the Nova II will provide a good nights sleep down to -13°C. Polarloft strikes the perfect balance between warmth, comfort and durability. The benefit of a synthetically insulated bag is that the sleeping bag will perform almost exactly the same when wet as when dry, whereas down will lose the majority of its warmth. It won't pack down as small, however for those who are out in all conditions, the Nova IV is the ideal choice.
Fabrics: Protecting all of that insulation in Helium 20; this fabric uses tightly woven 20D Nylon yarns to make a fibre-proof fabric. It's soft to the touch, breathable and only weighs 42g/m². The inner of the bag is made up of Supersoft 30 which provides superb next to skin comfort, durability, breathability and only weight 49g/m².
What is the construction used in the Nova IV?
The Nova series uses a type of construction called Keystone Shingle construction. Keystone Shingle construction offers the greatest warmth for the minimum weight. Firstly the baffles run from head to toe in the bag, rather than side to side. Internally, overlapping layers of insulation are positioned at right angles to the sleeping bag plane, running outwards from a central apex. This minimises cold spots, offers excellent warmth and creates excellent loft and comfort. For efficiency, the underside of the bag makes use of offset layer construction.
What are the features?
The Nova features a full-length zip baffle, an integrated collar with lode lock closure and is supplied with a lightweight compression sack for easy storage.
How does the Nova IV fit?
The Nova falls into Mountain Equipments 'Mountain Fit' fit block which is a semi-tapered mummy profile that is both spacious whilst retaining warmth. The hood and foot-box are both anatomically shaped for comfort and thermal efficiency.
Summary
Incredibly warm and roomy, the Nova IV is the ideal bag for those looking at year-round trekking and backpacking anywhere in the world.
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Extra Long bag - Max user height 6'5" (200cm)
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Polarloft insulation
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Helium 20D outer shell is very light and highly breathable
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Left Zip
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Keystone shingle construction top
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Underside offset layer construction
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Mountain fit is both spacious and thermally efficient
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Anatomically shaped hood and foot-box
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Integrated collar with Lode Lock closure
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Full-length zip baffle
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Supplied with a lightweight compression sack
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.