Top Rated: Carinthia G-90 Sleeping Bag (L) (8.3 / 10)
Category: Modular Sleeping Bag 2: Best 1 Season and 3 Season Outer
Carinthia are a rarity in the sleeping bag world. As we've stated before, there are many things one might wish to pack into a sleeping bag aside from ones own body. A sleeping bag offers sanctuary and a radiator for moist clothing to dry out over night, for wet boots that may freeze up. The obsession with dead-air and overly narrow mummy-bags is over-done in our opinion. By allowing some room to move and breathe Carinthia have made two great bags in the Defence 4 and the G-90, each at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of weight and warmth, but each following the same design principle, making them ideal for outer bags in a modular system.
The G-90, like the Defence 4 provides excellent wind and water resistance due to its non-stitched outer shell. The inner is silky smooth and extremely comfortable. Sandwiched between these distinctly different nylons is Carinthia's polyester-based, aluminium-infused, G-Loft insulation, which seems to outperform many of the synthetic fills on the market. The G-90 has an outstanding warmth-to-weight ratio and is finished to Carinthia's usual high standard.
Whereas the Abel +10 was marketed (wrongly in our opinion) at the family camper and only accidentally appealed to the serious outdoor enthusiast, the G-90 is a very different, streamlined creature altogether, quite clearly targeted at people like us. It's no surprise that it comes from a manufacturer with one foot in the military camp, where modularity and the flexibility that accompanies it, have been embraced for some time. The rest of the outdoor market will one day catch up. Until they do, and perhaps long after they do, the Carinthia G-90 will likely epitomise the ideal lightweight, wet and warm weather solo bag and cold weather outer (to pair with a down inner like Alpkit's Cloud Cover or their Pipedream 200), taking us down into typical UK winter temperatures of around -4°C, -5°C.
The G-90 rounds off our sleep system perfectly and though it's a hefty price to pay, we feel the investment is worth it. So it's 2 out of 3 for Carinthia in our 3-bag system, with their G-90 our top pick in the "1 Season and 3 Season Outer" category.