When it comes to staying warm, your sleeping bag is the most important piece of gear you’ve got. As you sleep, your body’s metabolism naturally shuts down. You aren’t doing the physical activity typical to daylight hours, so your body isn’t generating enough heat. That makes it easier to get cold and even to fall into hypothermia. Besides all this, when hypothermia is coming on, your sleeping bag is the best defense against it.
With that in mind, buying a good sleeping bag is an important part of creating an effective bug out bag; especially for the wintertime. While you can get by with much less in the summer, or even sleeping out in the open, winter survival doesn’t leave that option.
The North Face is one of the biggest manufacturers of serious backpacking equipment there is. Their designs are created by people who use the equipment, ensuring useful innovation. Everything The North Face produces is high quality, which makes it not all surprising that I’ve picked them for having the best sleeping bag around.
The Furnace Sleeping Bag from The North Face is everything I could ask for in a sleeping bag.
A mummy style bag, it is designed for temperatures down to zero degrees Fahrenheit. It is filled with 550ProDown, natural goose down for warmth, as well as great compressibility. There’s also a Heatseeker Eco anit-compression insulation layer to act as a buffer between your body and the cold ground.
Although a mummy bag, the North Face Furnace Sleeping Bag has a more relaxed taper, giving you more room to move around. If you’re the type of person who tends to toss and turn in your sleep, that’s a great advantage. I know people who can’t sleep in a mummy bag, because they can’t move. Well, in this one, they could sleep just fine. There’s also a vaulted footbox, allowing more room for your feet in a natural, ergonomic position. All in all, a much more comfortable bag to sleep in.
Making the bag comfortable didn’t sacrifice anything in warmth though. A shaped hood and draft collar helps hold heat in, as well as a durable, as well as a full length draft tube alongside the zipper. The zipper has a glow in the dark zipper pull, so you can find your way out, even in the dark.
The exterior shell of the North Face Furnace Sleeping Bag is durable, embossed, water resistant polyester taffeta and the inside is a soft polyester taffeta lining. This helps keep the bag dryer, so that it will continue to keep you warm. The taffeta lining prevents the bag from sticking to your skin, while helping keep you warm and comfortable.
With all those great features, this bag lives up to its name of being “The Furnace.” But there’s one other feature, which may be the most important of all. This great sleeping bag weighs only 3 pounds, 8 ounces, packed up and ready to go. It stuffs into its included stuffsack, making a bundle that’s only 10″ in diameter by 19″ long.
