So there’s a fair amount said about the Ice Breaker, but less so for the Ice Nino. The Nino is touted as an Ice Breaker Jnr, sort of, and yet some of the specs leave me with questions, specifically the amount of down used, though this may be attributed to it being a smaller bag. The cuin is the same, bag sizes differ and temperature ratings differ too, though FA temp ratings are in house and should be but a rough guide. Best guide I can gather is an add up of cuin, down-feather ratio, amount of down per gram used. To this end the Nino is said to be for “smaller framed people and the ladies”. Construction is otherwise identical.
My question:
Does anyone have experience with this item, specifically if you’re a lady or cold sleeper?
Also, experience in more inclement conditions (Drakensberg escarpment winters) would be grand.
Next, has anyone ever found zipping two bags together to make significant difference, or is that just a bogus sales pitch? (shared body heat is a real plus but the bags will also not cinch closed around the chest an neck area amounting to heat loss).
I appreciate though two bags may be the same two people and all conditions are not, still, input is desired.
Hi Carl
I have had my Ice Nino for 20 years now.
I have camped in temperatures of -4°C and slept comfortably.
What I do find is that a insulating sleeping mat makes a massive difference to shield you from the cold ground. We once went camping in Oudtshoorn and I forgot my sleeping mat, so slept on the tent floor and it was freezing! (min temp was probably 5-6°C, but it was also raining heavily)
As for zipping two sleeping bags together - it makes a HUGE difference - the body heat thing really works! So much so that you might want that airflow in from the neck to stop you from overheating!
Hope this helps!
I bought the Icebreaker as it was the only sleeping bag I could find that zips together. I could not find a matching bag for my Cedarberg. The the Icebreaker has less down than my Cedarberg, and I would not want to go lighter than that. However when we started walking the Camino, We bought 2 First Ascent Explorer bags at 1kg, and then did not use them opting for 2 synthetic bags of the same weight. We were afraid that if they got wet, we would have wet sleeping bags for a month.
My sister in her youth decided that she was never going to get cold hiking, so opened her bag and put about another kg of down in. Do not tackle this lightly, for more than a week after the deed, every time she went into her bathroom the down that did not make it into her bag lifted off where it had settled