We’ve bought our Mont·Bell Super Spiral Sleeping Bags back in 2010. They were expensive, but it’s a purchase we’ve never regretted, and we’d buy them again. We wanted bags that would keep us warm three season camping and backpacking and that were warm enough for the occasional trip out in winter. These bags have exceeded our expectations.

I also had some very specific requirements for a sleeping bag. I’m a fairly large woman, I require a bit more diameter at hip level than most high performance mummy bags can give. The MontBell Super Spiral Down Hugger #0 bags are made with fabric cut on the bias and a stretchy stitch pattern so that the bag can stretch with your movement to give a mind boggling 22″ additional circumference from the unstretched state. Before we bought our bags we’d seen a previous year’s model of a similar bag at Ozark Adventures and were quite impressed. We knew this bag had the potential to be both incredibly comfortable and wonderfully warm. At 3lbs 4oz, they are fairly light-weight for the temperature rating.

In use they have lived up to our expectations. The quality of manufacturing is excellent. After all this time there are still hardly any pulled threads on the stitching. The design is very good, with a draught collar that you can tighten around your neck, you can cinch the hood up tight around your face, and there’s an insulating tube that runs down the zipper too. There are two zippers so that you can open the bottom of the bag for ventilation if you get hot. As with most sleeping bags, the zipper is the only weak point. You need to be careful to ensure you don’t catch the bag or insulating tube as you open or close it. And just how stretchy are they? We we’ve found we can sit cross legged in them comfortably – not something I’d like to try in a regular mummy bag.

The bag’s shell while not water proof is certainly water resistant. Backpacking in winter Gary’s woken up to find the top part of his bag covered in ice, where overnight his breath froze on the bag’s surface.

In summary, we love our Montbell Super Spiral Sleeping Bags, so much so that I bought a Montbell Ultra Light Super Spiral Down Hugger 30°F bag (21 oz) for summer use. We’d buy these bags again. Gary has a GoLite 1+ season quilt he uses when it’s warm – why not a Montbell? He got the GoLite bag at a ridiculous price. It weighs 21 oz and we thought it a good idea to give a quilt another try.

Updated: August 2012, January 2016.