This synthetic-fill bag is so compact that one of our testers actually thought it was a down bag before she read the tag.  The secret sauce is Marmot’s use of two types of short-staple synthetic insulations—a shingled, high-loft fill throughout the bag, augmented by a highly compressible, finer-denier fill in the torso and feet.  The short-staple insulations are more compressible than their continuous filament* cousin, and testers were impressed by the ample loft (about six inches). “ I was toasty on nights in the upper 20s,” says one 5’8” female tester from Alaska. “ Even after the bag got damp from condensation dripping off the tent, I stayed warm through the morning.” 

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However, a similarly sized male tester deemed the rating about 5 degrees too generous. “ On a 20°F night in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, I resorted to a bag liner and four-season sleeping pad,” he says.  The generous cut—60 inches of circumference around the shoulders and 57 at the hips—is best suited to big folks or warm-sleeping skinny ones. “ I had plenty of room around my shoulders and hips, which allowed me to sleep in my preferred fetal position,” says one average-size tester. 

Props: The Cloudbreak compresses down to the size of a medium watermelon, which is good for this class of synthetic bag.  Bummer: The zipper is snaggy.  $199; 2 lbs.  14 oz.;  20°F; marmot.com

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*CONTINUOUS-FILAMENT insulation consists of hundreds of thousands of parallel, interlocking strands of synthetic fibers that don’t clump or pull apart; it’s bulkier than other synthetics.-Features Flow Construction: Insotect Flow. A flow-optimized insulation system that delivers uniform heat distribution and natural body contouring through revolutionary vertical baffle design.  -Available in color: gray/burnt orange -Available in sizes: regular and long -Hails from Big Agnes' Divide Series Down line -Features new pad sleeve allowing bag to accommodate any manufacturer's sleeping pad