Muscle creates energy while adipose tissue stores energy. Energy in this context is synonymous with heat. The female anatomy typically consists of more fat than the male anatomy, especially in the chest and hip area. This is why women are generally perceived to sleep colder than men. Women’s bodies are highly efficient at keeping their vital organs protected and warm, but at the expense of our extremities. When hands begin to ache and toes go numb from coldness, these sensations relay a message to the mind “my body as a whole is cold”. The Feathered Friends Egret 20 is a women’s specific bag with extra fill in the chest and foot box to help the body create and evenly store heat where we want it the most.

Like all of Feathered Friends women's sleeping bags, the Egret 20 features high quality, high fill power down insulation (900 fill power or higher).

Design and Description

Feathered Friends is based out of Seattle, Washington U.S.A., and have manufactured high quality goose down outdoor products since 1972. Many women will appreciate that Feathered Friends has a generous selection of serious sleeping bags that are women specific. Out of the women’s sleeping bags, the Egret is the most popular. The Egret 20 comes in two options, the lighter Egret UL 20 (ultralight 20 degree) and the Egret YF 20 version using slightly heavier fabrics. The UL 20 features a lighter shell with Pertex Endurance 10 denier nylon versus the YF 20 with a Pertex Quantum 20 denier nylon. In this review I’ll detail my experience with the Egret Nano 20 – the predecessor to the current YF version of the Feathered Friends Egret. Both the UL as well as the YF Egrets are also available in a 30 degree option that will save about 2-3 ounces off the 20 degree Egret and would be ideal for warmer locales.

The Egret also comes in two lengths, the small fitting up to 5' 3" / 160 cm. and a medium size fitting up to 5' 9" / 175 cm. These luxurious bags come with a luxurious price. The UL 20 will cost $589 for the small and $609 for the medium. The YF 20 starts at $489 for the small, up to $589 for the medium. As a petite woman with an unpredictable outdoor life investing in their first high quality sleeping bag, I would recommend the Egret 20 in either version. I was ready for an all-around, hardy, high quality down bag, and after extensive research my partner (an avid, four season, wilderness enthusiast that makes our guest bedroom look like a page from an REI catalog) concluded this bag was ideal for my spontaneously rugged and diverse outdoor lifestyle.

This 20 degree F mummy bag uses top-of-the-line 900+ goose down fill with a DWR fabric treatment. This treatment disrupts the adhesion properties of most liquids. Aqueous contaminants (i.e. perspiration, body oils, rain, sleet, snow, etc.) bead off the fabric because microscopically the molecule is unable to adhere to the shell and penetrate the bag. It’s like magic, but it’s science! This will wear off over time, but you can always refresh the DWR with a spray-on DWR restorer after washing when needed.

The Egret UL 20 will save some weight, but the Egret YF 20 will offer more durability. The Egret UL 20 with its lighter fabric will get you an entire bag weighing around 1 lb. 10 oz. for the small and 1 lb. 11 oz. for the medium. The Egret YF 20 weighs in at approximately 1 lb. 11 oz. (30 ounces measured for the bag in this review) for the small and 1 lb. 13 oz. for the medium. Every ounce counts, but I will happily carry the extra couple ounces if it affords me avoidance of the possible damage caused by my dogs sand-paper claws on a snuggle worthy night.

The Egret is designed to complement the female form with a narrower cut around the shoulders (54” / 137 cm.) but wider in the waist and hips (56” / 142 cm.). The roomy, trapezoidal foot box (38” / 97 cm.) allows the feet to fall to the side, resting without constraint. This bag’s design is perfect for those that alternate from back to belly-sleeping or want to simply bend at the knees in a bag. The two-way #5 YKK zipper with locking slider and dual-webbing zip guard, allows for the option to cool down lower extremities and keep toasty toes from getting sweaty during the night. Sorry lefties, but this bag is manufactured as right-zip only.

The hood has adjustable draw-strings to allow for a variety of protection from the elements dependent on the season and activity. No chimney affect here with the Egret’s passive collar and no loss in heat near the zippers with draft tubes in place.

Field Assessment

From the floors of tents in the Yellowstone Plateau to high altitude lookouts in the Bitterroot Mountains, from early spring to late fall, this bag has efficiently and effectively kept me satisfied. Initially I felt guilty about using such a nice bag for a variety of overnight experiences. I imagined getting the bag caught on a rusty nail in a cabin or an unforgiving larch branch reaching out to tear the shell. After several nights with nothing or no one (i.e. students excited to make camp fires, Australian cattle dogs excited to cuddle, etc.) destroying the Egret 20, I didn’t know how nor why I would ever sleep outside without this bag. This bag is hardy and can handle occasional dog claws, pine-cones, and spilt coffee, but of course, the more care you can show it, the longer it will perform at its maximum capacity.

The first time I slipped into this bag I thought to myself “this bag is to sleeping outside as a memory foam mattress is to sleeping inside”. The nylon lining feels like 800 thread count Egyptian cotton and is decadent to wrap yourself into after a long upward march on the trail. While perched in a fire lookout in the Bitterroot Mountains as wet spring snow fluttered through the air outside, my easy to chill body for the first time in my outdoors recreational life remained warm throughout the entire night. Its continuous baffles allowed me to move down where I wanted whether it was for keeping warm or merely creating a pillow. I am just under 5 ft. and about 100 lbs. Some bags are just too much material for me, but with this bag I never felt like I was suffocating in fabric. There was just enough room at my feet to store any items I did not want to freeze through the night and even on nights where I left the extra space vacant, the space did not feel excessive.

On another occasion, a wet and chilly camping trip in the Lolo National Forest, a light and steady rain fell through the cedars and made it under my shelter and onto the bag itself (note to self: replace the worn out fly with the missing window on my tent ASAP). The precipitation did not penetrate the shell, but the moisture beaded up on the shell with the down left unaffected. The science worked! In addition to providing protection from moisture, the shell also kept cold winds from penetrating the bag and whisking away hard-earned heat during some interesting canoe trips along the Big Hole River in Montana.

I’ve always paired the Egret 20 with a sleeping pad with an R-value of 4 (40th edition Therm-a-Rest), and I did find the temperature threshold for me as a self-proclaimed “super cold sleeper” one late fall night at a creekside campsite in Owl Creek Canyon (Salmon-Challis National Forest). I awoke chilled when temperatures dropped at night to 26 ºF with 65% humidity. I added a down coat and booties to my base layers and wool socks and slept for several more hours without any issues. As such, with a warm pad and baselayers, I’d rate the bag in the mid-twenties, but with additional insulation the 20 degree rating can be comfortably met. Warmer sleepers may be able to subtract a few degrees from my experience (take a look at the Petrel UL 10 women's sleeping bag if you need even more warmth).

The technology that I found that didn’t work was the zip-guard. Every time I have used this bag I have found the two-way zipper to snag the fabric of the bag on the way back up. The zip-guard technology is moot as a result of the draft tube technology. The draft tube is so lofty in its pursuit to eliminate heat from escaping from the zipper that it pushes the bag right passed the zip-guard and straight into the teeth of the zipper. Luckily, I can slip the nylon out of the zipper without any tearing. Not being able to work a zipper when half asleep is frustrating. After reading numerous reviews of a variety of high-quality down bags, I have yet to read one that doesn’t complain about sticky zippers. Whichever textile scientist figures out how to eliminate this zipper dilemma is going to be a millionaire.

The bag comes with both a stuff sack and a storage bag. The modernly chic color combinations of this bag and its stuff sack are rich. I know. I know. The colors don’t matter, but the look of the bag is worth mentioning. It is gorgeous! However, the stuff sack is better re-purposed for down jackets and socks if the goal is to get the sleeping bag packed down to a manageable size in a backpack. This bag’s loft is serious and a compression dry sack helped me get it to the 7”x12” size. Packing the Egret in some type of appropriately-sized waterproof solution such as a Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil dry bag, or the Ultra-Sil compression sack if more compression is desired, would be advised on the trail.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great first bag for women who want to backpack but prioritize durability (especially for the Egret YF) and design over every ounce of weight. This bag is the choice for women who are looking for sleeping in a more natural form since this mummy bag is more forgiving to the female form and doesn’t feel too constrictive. I would recommend if you are near the threshold height of the bag, then you might want to consider sizing up if you want some room at your feet. When searching other outdoor retail companies, no other manufacturer offers women specific bags of comparable quality. While you may find some to be less expensive, they will be heavier due to lower quality down and heavier shells.

Feathered Friends is made for outdoor enthusiasts in the West by outdoor enthusiasts in the West. The Egret 20 is luxuriously rugged. What else could a woman want?

The Egret 20 retails for around $440-$600 depending on size and version. You can find the more affordable YF Egret 20 and 30 degree sleeping bags here at Feathered Friends and you can find the lighter weight UL Egret sleeping bag here. For even more women's specific sleeping bags, take a look at their complete lineup on this page.

Editor's Note: This review originally appeared in Issue 31 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here featuring additional photos, pros and cons, and our rating of the Feathered Friends Egret women's sleeping bag.