What's amazing about Western Mountaineering?
Western Mountaineering is a small, independent local company from San Jose that brings almost a half century of expertise to everything they make. That's why they use only the highest quality goose down, sourced responsibly from trusted suppliers.
How do they source their high quality supply?
As a manufacturer of products which are filled with goose down, Western Mountaineering is very concerned for the welfare of all geese that provide the insulation that is ultimately used in their products. The down they purchase does not come from geese that have been live-plucked or subjected to force feeding. They have a unique direct contact in Eastern Europe which sources their plumage from a mother goose farm. This is a location where the geese are raised for breeding as opposed to strictly being raised for poultry. This means that their life span is much longer and they do not live their life in confinement or cages. These geese have relatively little interaction with humans on a day to day basis since the plumage is gathered from their nesting area while the geese are out on other parts of the property. We take the time to visit both the farm and the processor, and have always found the geese to be in good health, with a clean, covered nesting area on a large rural property with a stream and several ponds.
High quality comes from each hand.
Western Mountaineering is committed to making high quality products. They believe that making a high quality product is the best thing you can do for sustainability, because you don’t need to replace it.
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That high quality product starts with the people who make it. From an interview at Adventure Sports Journal, they said "The sewing skills in San Jose aren’t any better than anywhere else, but we pay by the hour, as opposed to by piece rate, so seamstresses aren’t incentivized to push through as much as possible. We train our folk to make every sleeping bag perfectly. We don’t do seconds, so all our product is show-quality. Every bag we make is the best bag we can make.”
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ExtremeLite Series
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As the name suggests, these are their lightest models. Some of them weigh less than 2 lbs (under 900 grams). These bags feature outer shell fabrics in high density nylon rip stops (7 denier to 12 denier) and the lining material is a nylon taffeta (10 denier to 15 denier) all woven with super high density and nearly square construction specifically for Western Mountaineering.
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MODEL SHAPE RATING WEIGHT
SummerLite Mummy 32° F / 0° C 1 lb 3 oz / 540 g
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UltraLite Mummy (w/ full collar) 20° F / -7° C 1 lb 13 oz / 820 g
Alpinlite Mummy (w/ full collar) 20° F / -7° C 1 lb 15 oz / 880 g
Versalite Mummy (w/ full collar) 0° F / -12° C 2 lb / 905 g
Microfiber Series
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Their Microlite XP Microfiber shell fabric strikes the perfect balance of breathability, water resistance, and durability for outstanding performance throughout a broad range of temperatures and conditions. The high density of filaments in each yarn plus the balanced weave of more than 400 threads make it the most breathable of our sleeping bag shell fabrics while providing excellent water repellency that will be effective for decades. Only slightly heavier than our Extremlite Series fabrics, this 20 denier polyester rip stop microfiber is still very lightweight and will be down proof for decades.
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MODEL SHAPE RATING WEIGHT
Ponderosa MF Semi Rec15° F / -9° C 2 lb 11 oz / 1220 g
Badger MF Mummy (w/ full collar) 15° F / -10° C 2 lb 6 oz / 1075 g
Antelope MF Mummy (w/ full collar) 5° F / -15° C 2 lb 7 oz / 1105 g
