by jdeks » Mon 10 Sep, 2018 12:21 am
Add me to Team Undercling. My -8C arrived on Friday. I'm 178cm and 75kg, went regular width and height. Black and Cadmium yellow 15d taffeta and 950 down, but with 50g of overstuffing. Had the chance to field test it over the weeekend at -4C.
On the whole, this is the best quilt I've ever used. I've previously owned a Zpacks quilt, and used an EE Revelation, a Katabatic Palisade and a Tiergear queda. All very good quilts. Mikes are better.
The workmanship is impeccable, but it's also the first quilt I've had that's managed to nail down all of the individual niggles that the others have. The down doesn't migrate. Footbox zips up without cold spots. Has a neck baffle and shoulder clips that work. Proper human-shape taper, that you can adjust. No drafts. I honestly can't suggest any improvments.
I think all the main features have been covered already, but heres a few of the more subtle aspects I've noticed.
Laid flat, you can see the wrinkles around the torso area - it's a proper 3d differential cut. Meaning you can slide the clips underneath from right next to each other, to almost 50cm apart, and the quilt doesn't distort. I wasted half an hour of Mikes time talking about what width I needed for extra layers inside; it doesn't matter. The torso width is pretty much infintely adjustable, but the leg width stays consistent
Vertical baffles also obviously stop down migration to the side, but the split baffle on top also means the down over your chest can't migrate to your legs either.
The loft is epic. Certainly more than my -7C Zpacks was, and moreover, the baffles are actually full (actually, with the overstuffing, they're packed). For scale, that watch is one of Casio's big dorky ProTrek models. At -4C, it was warm enough to need some venting - which is real easy to do,
The neck baffle can actually be flipped outside if you're using a shorter hood and need more neck coverage, but the real beauty is that with the 3d cut, once you do up the neck elastic, it still holds shape around your neck and shoulders rather than just scrunching up in a knot. So - you can keep the drafts out, without strangling yourself.
The included stuff sack is a good size, but if you've got a 3L compression sack, it'll fit into it, at which point it gets that creepy 'feels lighter than it looks' property.
But lastly, and by far the best, is that with a bit of clever clipping, you can actually turn it into a very stylish wizards cloak! Not sure if this was by design, but if you're serious about going ultralight, there's real potential for this to augment any night clothes when you're kicking around the hut/campsite.
- Attachments
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- Impeccable Stitching
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- Laid flat, inside up.
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- Understraps adjusted wide.
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- Understraps cinched together
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- Lofty.
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- Neck baffle out.
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- Neck cinched, shoulder clips undone.
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- Compression Sack minimum size
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- YOU SHALL NOT PASS