The clue's in the name, this is an extreme cold sleeping bag. Designed for taking a nap in the polar regions, or other unpleasantly cold parts of the world, the Snugpak Softie Antartica is most extreme sleeping bag in the Softie range. Plus if you like the range, you can get a Softie bag with a comfort rating roughly every 5 degrees down from 5°C through to -30°C. These UK made bags come in regular and extra long, for people over 6ft 3. Snugpak also do an extra wide sleeping bag range.

When buying Mummy Shape, the quality of the product is going to be one of the factors that you really scrutinise before you commit to buying. Another factor that can be a great indication of product quality is the brand. Brands like Vango are of course extremely well known, especially for Mummy Shape. On a recent long weekend in Canada, we decided to head up to the mountains for the evening and review the Latitude 400 sleeping bag. The Latitude 400 is filled with Insulite® Helix which combines a mixture of hollow and multi-channel fibres. This material channels moisture away through tiny fibres, which works to keep the heat in and moisture out.

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Choosing the right sleeping bag can make all the difference to how well you sleep and enjoy your next wild camping trip. I personally can’t stand waking up feeling cold at night and will happily spend a bit more money on a warmer sleeping bag to ensure I have a good night’s sleep.

Price – as you’d expect the price of a product can be an instantly recognisable factor on what sort of quality you can expect. Whoever came up with the phrase “you get what you pay for” pretty much hit the nail on the head. Whilst it’s not always the case and there are many bargains to be had, you can as a general rule, expect the higher priced products to offer better quality than a the cheapest option. We’ll dive into the price of Vango Latitude Pro 300 Sleeping Bag in more detail in a moment. The limit temperature is the lowest temperature at which you, when in a huddled position, would be at a thermal equilibrium, where they are neither hot nor cold. This is not the recommended temperature for the sleeping bag but can be used as a guide when considering the different ranges of the sleeping bag. Extreme Temperature The more specific sleeping bag temperature rating tells you exactly how the bag is expected to perform. Each sleeping bag will be sold with three temperatures: the comfort rating, limit and extreme. When someone says a sleeping bag "goes down" to a certain temperature, they're talking about comfort rating. If the temperature outside your sleeping bag only goes down as far as your comfort rating temperature, you'll be nice and snuggly all night. If the temperature goes below the comfort rating, you'll start to lose heat from the sleeping bag. Thermal Embrace System – Elasticated thread sewn into the inner fabric. Makes the sleeping bag gently conform close to the body. Reduces cold spots and increases loft of insulation. These sleeping bags are also easier to keep clean as they don’t absorb water in the same way that down sleeping bags do.There’s so much information available online when we’re shopping now, that it’s easy to find lots of detail about products like Vango Latitude Pro 300 Sleeping Bag. This is of course really helpful, but there’s almost too much information available, so it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for. Despite the fact it looks pretty big, (4 season sleeping bags tend to be), the sleeping bag is still quite light weighing in at 2.1kg. The hood of the sleeping bag was slightly smaller than I thought it’d be but actually, this was great. Sometimes big hoods leave me feeling a little claustrophobic.

That got us thinking though, that we’re looking at every possible item from Vango so it would be good to narrow our search down even further and only look at Vango branded products within the Mummy Shape category. The cost of Vango Mummy Shape There are however some methods that you can use to determine a product’s quality without needing to physically have it. There are some other factors to think about too, though. Before you go around hugging every sleeping bag in the shop, trying to rate it on snuggle factor. Your aim is to get a sleeping bag that fits you well: snugly, without too much (or too little) space between you and the inside of the sleeping bag. You want some space, because it's by heating the air inside that you stay warm - just like with layers of clothing. But, if there are too many gaps, say a large space at the bottom because the bag is too long for your height, you'll struggle to keep the sleeping bag warm enough. It's your body doing the work after all and the bag acts as insulation. So pay attention to lengths and sizing. Most sleeping bags come in small, medium and large, or at least regular and long. I’d say that the sleeping bag did seem a bit tight around my hips but this also helped to keep warmth in and it was easy enough to move around in.Two Way Zip – A two-way zip allows you to open the sleeping bag from the top or bottom and can improve the ventilation fo the sleeping bag Up on our snowy mountain, top temperatures dipped below zero and as we were sleeping on metres of snow the ground felt very cold. The sleeping bag was having to work extra hard to keep me warm.

If you only want to own one sleeping bag (and fair play to you, not all of us have an unhealthy obsession with gear) then there are some things you can do to top it up. A sleeping bag liner can help to add extra warmth. Cotton and silk sleeping bag liners are the most common fabrics and add about 5°C to your bag's warmth - so your comfort rating becomes 5°C lower. Plus they help to keep the inside of your sleeping bag clean. For a more extreme top up, you can put down quilts inside your sleeping bag for that extra snuggle. Types of sleeping bag "No Watson, someone has stolen our tent." Photo: Getty The downside to buying online is that you can’t actually get hold of the product to try it out first. Feather down insulation is light-weight insulation that is great at providing warmth for your sleeping bag.The extreme temperature rating is the level at which the sleeping bag can help you survive in an extreme weather situation. I have not listed these in this guide as they are not commonly provided by the manufacturer and in reality, should not be used as a guide for buying a sleeping bag when wild camping. And, with temperatures dipping in the minus overnight, this was a pretty good test for this Vango sleeping bag! Hood with Multi-Cord Closure – Precise fit with dual cord adjustment. Individual cord diameter allows easy differntiation in the dark In this guide, I will demystify some of the terms used for sleeping bags, help you choose the right sleeping bag and, hopefully, help you find “the one” for all your wild camping needs.