Vango with their Apex range of sleeping bags have hikers and adventurers well covered for a good night’s sleep, writes Mike Gormley.
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As a reasonably large and tall person, I have to admit I am never quite sure if a ‘mummy’ style sleeping bag is right for me. I tend to feel a bit restricted. However. This Apex 2 from Vango, however, worked out very well indeed for me during a number of chilly Dartmoor nights in the run-up to this year’s Ten Tors.
There is a lot going on in the design of this Apex 2 bag from Vango. This company and I go back very many years and I have learned to trust their products. They work and certainly do the business they are intended to do. The Apex 2 sits in the middle of the range of three sleeping bags, which are designed to cover a range of season and temperature ratings. The Apex 2 is rated at three seasons and down to -6°C. I did not get down this far, more like 0°C, but I was very cosy at that so have no worries that this bag would offer a decent night’s sleep if the temperature dropped further.
This is a relatively new range from Vango and incorporates many features; one being the use of recycled materials, which many expect these days. The inner is Polair Econet, which starts life as fishing nets, but no worries as the bag does not smell fishy; though it might just have helped to put your fish & chips on your plate. The outer material is also made from recycled fishing nets and is ripstop and water-resistant, which are really good feature which I am sure most of us will appreciate. The ever-important insulation is made from recycled synthetic materials, which emulates duck down, and I must say it certainly worked for me.
Vango call this bag an Omega shape (perhaps this should be Omega 3 with all the fish connections) and I have to say I prefer this to the more generally used ‘mummy’ terminology. The insulation material is known as Thermal Reverb which is a non-woven aluminised (i.e. aluminium-faced) material designed to reflect heat back to the user, which again I can say seems to work.
The foot box of the Apex 2, the Arrow Foot in Vango speak, offers space to allow the well-worked feet to relax and move about as one rests. Having quite large feet this is important to me, and again this is a feature that worked for me. This section of the bag can be independently vented using the two-way zip.
To help with heat retention and to keep the occupant warm there are a number of baffles incorporated into the design, especially at the top end, allow the head to be out but keeping the warmth in with the body.
There really are a lot of designed-in features on this sleeping bag, which compresses down well (to 360x190mm diameter) into the supplied stuff sack and weighs in at only 1.75kg. Maximum recommended height is 6’2” or 1.9m.
[images © Mike Gormley]
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