Sierra Designs product reviews

The Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie.

Review: Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie and Sierra DriDown Jacket

by

Down Jackets
Sierra Designs Whitney DriDown Hoodie
$169, 14 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
Moosejaw.com

Sierra Designs Sierra DriDown Jacket
$159, 12 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
Moosejaw.com

The best, three-season down and synthetic insulated jackets stand out for high-quality construction and materials—which translates to abundant warmth per ounce, low weight, and excellent packability. They also range from over $200 to nearly $400, and while worth every dollar, those prices put them out of reach for some consumers. What do you do? More-affordable puffy jackets generally have lower-quality insulation. That’s why the Sierra Designs Whitney Hoodie and Sierra Jacket, stuffed with 800-fill, water-resistant DriDown, look so enticing. My field testing found some flaws but still demonstrated why they’re a good value. Read on.

Read on

The Sierra Designs Nitro 800 20-degree sleeping bag.

Review: Sierra Designs Nitro 20-Degree Sleeping Bag

by

Three-Season Sleeping Bag
Sierra Designs Nitro 20-Degree
$320, 1 lb. 15 oz. (regular)
Sizes: men’s regular and long, women’s regular
sierradesigns.com

Choosing between sleeping bags can sometimes feel like getting the names of identical twins right—they look an awful lot alike. With bags, you can compare certain key specs: temperature rating, type and amount of insulation (or fill), total weight, and, of course, the price. Using those metrics, the new Sierra Designs Nitro bags look like a pretty good value, so I slept in the 20-degree Nitro 800 while camping on some cool and windy May nights at Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve, and on a three-night, 39-mile backpacking trip in Wyoming’s Wind River Range in mid-September, to see if its performance matches its impressive numbers.

Read on

The Sierra Designs Flex Capacitor backpack.

Review: Sierra Designs Flex Capacitor 40-60 Backpack

by

BackpackSierra Designs Flex Capacitor 40-60$200, 2 lbs. 9 oz. (men’s S/M pack with S/M hipbelt)Sizes: men’s S/M (fits torsos 16-19 inches) and M/L (fits torsos 18-21 inches), plus four hipbelt sizes (XS/S to L/XL)backcountry.com Many avid backpackers eventually find themselves facing an expensive quandary: the need for a second or even third pack to better handle the range of trips …

Read on

Review: Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2 Tent

by

Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2.
Three-Season Tent

Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2
$200, 3 lbs. 6 oz.
sierradesigns.com

After it was first introduced in the early 1980s, the Clip Flashlight became an iconic tent among backpackers and bikepackers—you’d see them everywhere, and I used one for years. So when the updated version was introduced this spring, curiosity and a little bit of nostalgia prodded me to try it out—and see how this classic shelter holds up in comparison to modern tents. On high-desert trips from southern Utah to southern Idaho in May and June, the Clip Flashlight held up well through serious wind and rainstorms. While I found faults with some aspects of its design, its strengths—and a good price—make it a backcountry shelter worth considering.

Read on

Gear Review: Sierra Designs Flash 2 FL Tent

by

Sierra Designs Flash 2 FL.
Sierra Designs Flash 2 FL.

Three-Season Tent
Sierra Designs Flash 2 FL
$400, 3 lbs. 10 oz. (not including stuff sacks and stakes)
ems.com

The rain started as we searched for a campsite by Utah’s Dirty Devil River. Then the wind kicked up. My son and I quickly pitched this tent and stashed our gear inside without anything getting wet. And as we lounged inside, the Flash 2 FL withstood gusts of 30 to 40 mph—even when the swirling winds hit the tent broadside. But its stability is just part of the strong story of the Flash 2 FL, whose features and performance will appeal to many backpackers who want a lighter shelter, but can’t abide the cramped quarters of many ultralight tents.

Read on