Feathered Friends

Feathered Friends sew every bag in Seattle and publish girth at four points — shoulder, elbow, hip and footbox — which tells you more about whether a bag will fit than any temperature rating can. The Swallow is their three-season workhorse: 900-fill-power Muscovy down, 16.8 ounces of it, in a 59-inch-shoulder mummy that weighs 29.2 ounces. Like Western Mountaineering they publish no ISO figure, and like Western Mountaineering they have a forty-year record that people buy on instead.

Best for: Three-season backpacking where fit matters as much as warmth

Twenty-three point nine ounces for a hooded, full-zip 20-degree bag with 950-fill down — the lightest bag of its kind in this catalogue by about five ounces. Feathered Friends gets there with a 7-denier-by-30-denier Pertex Quantum Pro shell, which is a waterproof-breathable fabric rather than a simple ripstop, and by trimming the shoulder girth to 57 inches. That last number is the thing to check before buying: this is a close-fitting bag, and a broad sleeper will compress the down against the shell and be cold in it.

Best for: Long trails where a hood is wanted but ounces decide

The Flicker answers the quilt-versus-bag argument by refusing to pick: a full-length centre zip and a drawcord footbox mean it closes into a hoodless bag on a cold night, opens as a quilt on a mild one, and lies flat as a blanket in a hut. Because the zip runs down the middle rather than the side, the closure sits over your chest where you can reach it, and there are no pad straps to fight. Sixty-two inches of wrap width is generous, and 14.7 ounces of 950-fill down sits inside a 25.5-ounce total.

Best for: People who cannot decide between a quilt and a bag