northface re meow 20 degree..review

[crl2010]

so after a cold night 17 degrees/ in my north face cats re meow i gotta say i froze and was un comfortable all night. i was even layered in clothes. the bag is durable and very very bright green if you get lost you can use it as a flag.. the draft tube that goes around your neck is pretty big and hard to get tight to keep cold air from seeping in. So i have traded it to get a big agnes lost ranger 15 degree bag

[Cooldays]

Maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago I asked here on the forum how people liked their cat's meow and everyone gave me great feedback about how much abuse it has taken and how much they like it. So I bought a used one. So far I love it!

I have used it one weekend now, so take this with a grain of salt, hehe. I used it in my hammock one night at 18 degrees and another at 8. I had a winter tarp, a down underquilt and a Hudson river on top of it which is rated to about 25 or 30 itself. Im a cold sleeper so for me that means 40 :) . The cat's meow made all the difference for me since it gave me warmth and kept the drafts out. I was a little worried so I went in at first with a hat and 3 layers of walmart under clothing and wool socks. I had down booties just in case too (which I never needed! and never left the pack) and in 5 minutes i was down to one layer of walmart undergarments and my hat and socks and still was toasty. I was so warm the undersurface of the tarp was loading with condensation to the point that it seemed like it was snowing on me under the tarp as well as outside the tarp. I agree alone without the HR I probably was not going to be as warm. Maybe I would not have been warm at all but I think the cats meow is going to be my bag of choice for 50 to freezing and I will augment it with the Hudson at lower temps. I hope to test it as low as I can with this set up but doubt here in NC it will get lower than single digits. Above 50 I am going to use the Hudson river by itself.

I'd be interested to see how your new bag compares at similar temps and I hope you post back in this thread.

Good luck with the new gear

cooldays

[ChrisFol]

My experience with entry level bags such as REI, TNF, Kelty etc are that they are rated generously, and I would always add 5 or 10 degrees onto their rating. So for TNF Meow +20, I would say it was more of a +25/+30 degree bag-- which is probably why you was uncomfortable, even with clothing at +17.

I always advise people to spend more money on their sleeping bag than anything else. $400-$500 is a lot of money, but TNF Meow or Kelty Lightyear can run you $200 at full-retail and now you will probably spend another $200-$250 on a better bag-- when for the same price, you could have had a Feathered Friend's Swallow or similar high quality down bag.

[Egads]

My experience with entry level bags such as REI, TNF, Kelty etc are that they are rated optimistically, and I would always add 5 or 10 degrees onto their rating.

I think Optimistically is a better adjective than "generously". And my experience with TNF is the rating is off by 12-15 degrees

[Cooldays]

I thought I'd give another update now that I've used it some more.

It was 29/28 last night and snowed an inch or so. I was in my clark with a diy underquilt with 2.5 inches of down loft 2/3 length total of 12 oz of down fill, and a small piece of ccf under my heels and a layer of insultex between the quilt and hammock.

I wore wool socks, cotton fleece hat, cotton fleece neck gator, cotton sweats, thermal underhirt (very old so not sure what it is) and my Cat's meow.

I was so warm i took off my socks and was sweating a little in the thermal shirt.

Not sure what a "real" bag is like but I love my cat's meow. Seems fine to me in my set up down to freezing at least and I felt I could go lower last night. By the way I bought it used for 85 dollars. I have some all down quilts that are lighter but I like the meow better. My only complaint last night was it was not wide enough to sit in it and cross my legs under me. I could sleep on my side with my knees bent, but not on my back with my knees pointing out. My only other bag I can but it is not worth mentioning due to weight .

cooldays