Mountain Equipment's latest bag incorporates a mummy-shaped, self-inflating mattress 'for a complete sleep solution', but did we manage to sleep?
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Mountain Equipment Firewalker 1
Integral - First Look
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Price:
£100.00
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Weight: Bag: 1264 grammes (including
compression stuff sac). Mat: 767 grammes (without
sac)
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Features:
Mummy-shaped bag with polyester Polar-loft tri-dimensional
siliconed hollow fibre filling, full length side zip with
baffle, neck baffle with drawcord, hood with drawcord, slot
for integrated coffin-shaped sleeping mat in base (no
insulation in base), shark's toe for foot comfort, twin
hanging loops. 30-day comfort guarantee (ME will swap
the bag for an upgraded one if it's not warm
enough)
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The Concept Ah, we're suckers for novelty. ME's Firewalker 1
Integral - there's also a
lighter
down Classic Integral - is a new take on the old idea of
incorporating a sleeping mat in a sleeve in the base of a sleeping
bag, removing the insulation from that area and hopefully saving
weight.
Where the ME version differs is in using a coffin-shaped, sorry
'mummy-shaped' self-inflating Insulmat which literally cuts off the
corners from a standard mat, saves weight and should, theoretically
make for a better ergonomic match for the user.
The mat and bag come together in one big stuff sac, though you can
carry them apart for convenience.
Features As well as the mat and mat slot, you're getting a
synthetically filled Firewalker sleeping bag with a comfort rating of
25 - 0 C and an extreme rating of minus 5 C complete with full-length
zip, baffles at shoulders and behind the zip and a closeable
hood.
Firewalker is the most affordable end of ME's synthetic range, but
they say the filling is still 90 per-cent of the standard of the
industry leader.
In Action We used the Integral on a recent backpack in the
Peak, not because it's astonishingly light - it isn't, a full-length
ultralight Therm-a-Rest is lighter at 644 grammes than the 767 gramme
coffin-shaped Insulmat, though the later does feel tougher - but
because we thought it was an interesting idea.
It's a bit weird having no insulation underneath you, even though
when it's compressed it does nothing much anyway, but the real
problem we found was that there are air gaps either side of your body
where the bag meets the edge of the mat. There is a small filling
panel, but while it's not too bad if you sleep on your back, if
you're a sideways on sleeper, rolling over produces big, inefficient
air gaps. We reckon some variation on ME's own elasticated EXL system
might be the answer here.
Next problem with sleeping on your side is that while you can roll
over inside the bag, the hood opening stays at the front. With ice
forming on the inside of the tent, we discovered cold ear syndrome,
even with the opening snugged down as far as we could manage. The
nexk baffle doesn't work well in this situation either.
We reckon the answer would be for the top section of the bag to be
free floating with the access sleeve underneath the bag at, say, two
thirds level. You might also have to insulate the underside of the
upper section slightly, but it would markedly increase comfort we
think.
If you sleep on your back of course, none of this will matter to
you and a little more side insulation with wrap-around effect might
be enough to make the bag acceptably comfortable.
Otherwise the bag was fine: the new-fangled shark's toe foot,
which is six cm longer on top for those tip toe ballet dreams seemed
to cope well and we reckon we were somewhere near the extreme comfort
rating of minus 5 C and it coped bar the cold ear...
A bit of a work in progress and in its present form, we're not
totally convinced. The mummy-shaped mat is a neat idea and helps
reduce weight and make the combined unit more ergonomic, but it's not
that light. Then again, this isn't a top of the range, ultra-light
bag, more of an affordable, neat, all-in-one gizmo.
We found comfort problematic, mainly because it was cold and
sleeping on our side magnified the air gaps inside the bag that come
with the design. In warmer conditions it wouldn't have mattered so much. We also found the inflexible hood unit hard to use
and we'd prefer one that moved with our head more easily.
Ultimately it would probably make more sense to develop the
concept as a top of the range ultra-light sleeping or race bag
possibly with a lighter foam mat and down bag. As it stands, we'd opt
for a more expensive but more comfortable separate bag / mat combo
over the Integral, but it should be good once it's finished.
Know more or want to?
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