Advanta CX5 5-Season Sleeping Bag
Advanta have just launched the CX5: a true 5-season bag without the normal true 5-season bag price tag…
Stitching a sleeping bag has traditionally been an exercise in compromise. Triple-layered models with their heavy fills offer extreme warmth and flexibility, but they’re weighty and bulky. Lightweight and compact bags are wafer thin inside your bedchair, but they’re not true 5-season bags. And those mountaineering models force you to remortgage the house. Advanta’s CX5 model eliminates these trade-offs, fusing comfort with warmth and compactness along with a healthy bank balance.
The big questions
Where does this bag sit then?
Smack bang in the middle. It’s a 5-season sleeping bag but without the bulk of triple, sometimes four layers in the latest models. It weighs just 3.5kg – that’s 1.25kg lighter than its nearest competitor and a full 2.5kg on the heaviest. And because it’s not hugely bulky and thick, it’ll fit inside your bedchair.
How the hell is it so warm then?
It’s thanks to a combination of material and features. Damp is wicked away courtesy of the luxurious peachskin cotton fabric outer shell. Warmth and comfort is provided thanks to the over-generous hollofil insulation with fleece baffles.
But that all sounds pretty standard?
Er, yes. A bit. But it’s the combination of the fleece baffles and 7” draft-excluder skirts which reduce cold air penetration that means this bag offers such high levels of warmth. Plus, should you want extreme warmth, just couple it with their CX5 Combi Peackskin Quilt. It’s less than forty-five-quid, simply snap-locks onto the CX5 Sleeping Bag and you’ve got yourself another layer.
What’s the inner material like? It’s not fleece is it? That’s horrible and all clingy…
Advanta totally agrees with you. Whilst fleece is soft, warm and generally lovely, as you rightly say, it’s also clingy, so the design team has only fleece-lined the top section, with the body section being made from a nylon quilt. This means you have unparalleled comfort with freedom of movement.
So I can roll around freely then?
Yep, and it’s pretty spacious too, measuring 200 x 90cm. You don’t have to worry about it falling off the bedchair either: elasticated anti-twist head and foot fixings with nylon wellie wipe section and double fixing bedchair straps equals zero twist and combined with the full anti-snag zips, it means quick exits are guaranteed.
Sounds nice, but isn’t all of this going to be a bit pricey?
Absolutely not. Advanta is a workhorse with showpony looks brand. It doesn’t rely on fancy ad campaigns and big consultancy fees. Instead it focuses its time on producing hardwearing, functional and affordable products, and the CX5 Sleeping Bag is a bloody great example of that. Normally £99.99, but currently on offer at £89.99. It’s a genuinely cracking bag – and we don’t use that term lightly.anglingdirect.co.uk