By: Kelly | Last updated January 23, 2021 
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The Western Mountaineering UltraLite is a premium, 3 season, mummy shaped sleeping bag. It is extremely light and compressible, has a 20 degrees F rating and it’s water resistant. It is impressively warm and in spite of its weight and seemingly fragile look, built to last you a lifetime. On the downside though, the UltraLite is quite pricey and a bit narrower than other mummy sleeping bags on the market.
The Western Mountaineering UltraLite is produced by Western Mountaineering, an American manufacturer with more than 45 years of experience in making outdoor equipment and particularly sleeping bags. The company was founded in 1970 and it is headquartered in San Jose, California.
The company specializes in top-notch sleeping bags and have over 30 available models. They also make outdoor garment, such as jackets, vests, pants and more. Their products are filled with top-notch, water repellent goose down.
Their UltraLite sleeping bags are one of their best selling items. The UltraLite is a premium, 3 season sleeping bag, it is mummy shaped and comes with an 850 fill power goose down insulation. It is best suited for backpacking and it is made in California (hand-sewn). Because of its shape, it is pretty narrow, so if you are bigger or you prefer more space, this might not be the best choice for you (instead, you can try the Alpinlite sleeping bag, also from the same brand).
The UltraLite has a 20 degrees F temperature rating, with a lower limit of 14 degrees F. It can be trustfully used anytime from spring to late autumn It comes in three available sizes: 5.6, 6 and 6.6 inches and you can opt for one with a right or left handed zipper. The zipper is full length and there’s also a useful zipper guard which prevents you from getting the zipper stuck in the fabric.
The UltraLite has several premium features that justify its rather high price of $500: down draft tubes, draft collar, continuous baffles (the goose down is distributed in continuous horizontal baffles, so you get a sort of temperature regulation and you can use it in different weather scenarios; you can shift the down from bottom to the top of the sleeping bag to get more insulation where needed), overstuffed neck baffle to keep your neck warm during sleep, and more. It is also water resistant, with a standard DWR treatment. Western Mountaineering offers a lifetime guarantee for the sleeping bag.
Because it is aware of the quality of its product, Western Mountaineering is quite relentless when it comes to pricing. Not only is the sleeping bag expensive, but they don’t allow retailers to offer discounts and you have to be really lucky to find them on sale.
The bag comes with a stuff and a storage sack and weighs 1 lb 13 oz (the regular sized), 1 lb and 12 oz (the short one) and 1 lb 15 oz (the long version), which means is extremely light, especially for a 20 degrees F sleeping bag. Hence its name. It is also easy to compress to an even smaller size, to fit in your backpack. Actually, it is among the most compressible sleeping bags in this range. That doesn’t mean that the sleeping bag skimps on warmth, on the contrary. You could say it is even underrated when it comes to its temperature rating.
The UltraLite sleeping bag costs $485 (the 5.6 one), $500 (the 6 inch) and $515 (the 6.6 one).
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WesternMountaineering
In spite of their professionalism when it comes to the quality of their products, Western Mountaineering’s customer support leaves room for improvement. Their website doesn’t have a Help Center per se and you can only reach them by email, and only during weekdays, until 4 pm (PST). There is only a section on their site, called ‘Product Details’ where you can find useful information (product tips and care, sleeping bags specification chart, guarantee and warranty), but that’s pretty much it.
Our editorial staff evaluates products and services independently, but Best Review Guide may earn money when you click on links. Read our advertising disclosure.
