[pct-l] ethical down sleeping bag

[Dan Africk]

"I use synthetic b/c I don't believe in the down process of getting
the feathers off the birds...no they don't die they just suffer four
times a year for the first four years of their lives..."

For many years I refused to buy a down bag, primarily because of
ethical concerns. I'm vegan and try not to support animal suffering in
any form, and there is plenty of cruelty involved int the production
of down. The lower cost of synthetics, and the supposedly better
performance when wet, and more importantly the ability to dry faster,
also supported this decision. I think the North Face cat's meow(20
degree F) is one of the best choices for a synthetic bag- it is very
well designed, has good features, and is one of lightest synthetic
bags for the level of warmth. I have used this bag a lot and until
recently I was planning on using it for the PCT. The most important
thing about a synthetic bag is that it uses a quality insulation such
as polarguard delta or primaloft.

That said, I have been very envious of the lightness and
compressibility of down bags, which currently exceeds any synthetic
bag. It also seems that down bags recover from compression much better
and lose less loft over time, which definitely happens to synthetic
bags(especially if you use a compression sack). And it occurred to me
that I have never had a sleeping bag get wet, ever(it helps that I
always use a compression dry sack for my sleeping bag).
So I finally decided to buy an 'ethical down' sleeping bag. Supposedly
this down comes from a farm somewhere in Poland, where the geese live
free-range, and are kept for breeding purposes only. Instead of
painful live-plucking, the down is gathered by hand from their nests.
Supposedly this down is actually superior and has a higher fill
power(860). While I have no way of knowing that all their claims about
ethical practices are true, I'm choosing to believe them. I just got
my Pure -5(C) bag a few days ago, and I haven't had a chance to field
test it yet. This is my first down bag, and so very it seems very
warm, good quality, and definitely packs very small. If anyone is
interested in its field performance, let me know and I'll contact you
once I have a chance to test it(could be a few weeks).

You can find out more about the company that makes them here(note that
only their 'pure' and 'pure & dry' lines are made entirely of ethical
down):
http://www.tundrasleepingbags.com/


I bought mine from here:
http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/tundra_warmth_unlimited_pure_sleeping_bags/


By the way, I'm not trying to preach my beliefs to anyone. But please
hold the dead animal jokes. I know they're a great way to distract
yourself from this unpleasant topic that threatens to make you
question your beliefs, but they're also belittling to the seriousness
of people's ethical concerns.


-- 
www.hikefor.com/haiti-2010-Dan