Gear

I have a Point Five 'Lightweight' down sleeping bag, very nice it is to.

Derrick Booth who wrote 'The Backpackers Handbook' back in the early 70s, used to recommend Point Five.

Barry says, my wife and I both still have Point 5 thermo bags daron quallofil, still excellent. Mines an v early ripstop inner and outer but my wifes slightly later has a polycotton inner. The beauty of these bags were they were (Inner and outer) only joined at the drawstring opening so there were no sewn through stitches for cold penetration and you could pull the inner inside out to air it properly. My first bag was a blacks pal o mine (feather and down) 6 quid new but not really effective totally ineffective when wet, my mates parents bought him the blacks annapurna bag about the same time (mid 70s if I remember) 30quid new really warm but just a little better than pal o mine when wet.

Down very good/light when dry poor thermal and heavy when wet. Synthetic good all round wet and dry.

Kat Jones wrote (see)

This is orange nylon (definately not cotton). Compresses down quite small, but maybe that is because it doesn't have enough feathery stuff in it!

Think model is 'snowcap'

Certainly weighs a lot less than my ME Sleepwalker but I don't have any scales.

I suspect that it was a good bag for its time but the down is a bit pants.

So probably not an awful lot of use I guess I could donate it to charity (is Oxfam collecting for Pakistan?) as it surely has some insulation value and could be put inside another sleeping bag to be better than nothing.

Just an idea but if the bag itself is in good condition and it is only the down that is clumping and not distributing properly then why not get it professionally cleaned and refurbed. IIRC there is or was a company somewhere in the South Lakes area that specialises in down clothing and equipment. They re-fill, top up and clean and refurb down bags. If you think it is worth getting them to look at it you might be ablet o say spend about £50 and end up getting a down bag worth a hell of a lot more if you consider the performance.

Unfortunately I can't recall the company Its something like something mountaineering. just found it, they are called Mountaineering Designs if you think it is worth it. BTW if you happen to pass their place they offer a free assessment service if you call them before going round. Just an idea but they might be able to turn it into something that could compare with something being sold now for lots of money.

I spent a long time one afternoon in Pindisports, Ealing, 1976, deciding on a sleeping bag to buy and eventually bought a Pointfive Sierra Left (zip on left for attaching to a Sierra Right).  This is down filled with a built in hood and has a blue outer and an orangish-red inner. 3-4 season bag.  Seem to remember it cost about £45 or so.

However that night I met a young lady, who has been using this ever since.  I can only ever use it when I go out without her, which is not very often!

 Good quality, very warm, but a bit bulky as it was nat supplied with a compression sack.  It does squash down a lot in whatever outer bag I use though .

I was just searching for Point Five on the internet as a few years ago my dad gave me a jacket to take on a kayaking expedition. It was bought in the 70's and in the last few years has been on two expeditions in Greenland, The grand Canyon  of the Stikine in Canada, the Humla Karnali in Nepal and just got back from a long trip down the Yangtze.

I have some great photos of it in some fairly back and beyond places. I wanted to pass them on to the company if they were still going, alas this thread is the company's only remains. Yet their is much more than a thread remaining of the jacket.

I nice touch inside the jacket is a small label with "made by Mary" printed on it.

Barry Hislop wrote (see)

 My first bag was a blacks pal o mine (feather and down) 6 quid new but not really effective totally ineffective when wet, my mates parents bought him the blacks annapurna bag about the same time (mid 70s if I remember) 30quid new really warm but just a little better than pal o mine when wet.

Well now, children -

my first bag was from Black & Edgington, bought when they closed their Sidcup factory. That would be in the year of nineteen hundred and sixty two I recall.Thin green cotton with an orange cotton lining which tried it's best to restain some very good down. I still have it, but last used it 5 years ago - put it away again as the tent looked like a fox had got into the chicken coop in the morning. Probably the best £2.00 I've ever spent.

Also bought an 'Olgi' tent that day. single skin wax cotton with sectioned aluminium poles for each corner sleeve. A prototype I was told - another £2.00 gone bang.

Can't recall a Point Five though, sorry.

So I was searching for something completely different in the 'Gear' forum, and in a thread 'Shorter Ice Axe' found this post by Sand Dancer

Edited: 16/03/07 21:16

- which gets you absolutely nowhere. But I offer it for what it is worth.

I stumbled upon this thread when reminiscing about my trusty old Point Five Expedition bag, still OK though seldom used. Bought in 1973 or 1974, for 34.50 GBP, just increased from 25 GBP due to down shortage (rumours of Chinese stockpiling for war with Russia). Goose down, but only 23 oz, which was not much compared to the Mountain Equipment duck down fills of their rival Redline or Snowline bags (or the ME Everest, too much for me at 45 GBP, though Pete Hutchinson replied positively to my enquiry letter whether ME could make me one in 2oz ripstop instead of the standard 1.2oz ripstop on that model). Point Five advertised with a picture of J Brown on Trango or Cerro Torre, puffing a fag wearing one of their dacron jackets, and a caption 'warm when it's really cold'. Dick Renshaw or Alex MacIntyre or similar generation wrote in Mountain, Climber and Rambler or Crags magazine that he wore Point Five dacron salopettes and layered tops for alpine winter climbing (at the time I was still aspiring to Bonneville wool breaches). I remember all these and many more details, as I was a fervid 14 or 15 year old climber stuck in Kent and with Harrisons and High Rocks as my weekly climbing, getting out to the Peak, Snowdonia or Scotland being a rare occurence, and perusing the magazines and catalogues being part of the game.