We first heard about Nordisk’s Oscar +10° sleeping bag back in August.
Since then we’ve been desperate to get hold of it to try it out, especially because it is billed as the “World’s lightest fibre bag”. What better way to test it out than to carry it in my ruscac for the 2016 Rab Mountain Marathon.
It arrived in the post the day before I was due to drive up to Mallerstang in the far north of the Yorkshire Dales; I didn’t even get chance to take it out of the stuff sac until I was in my tent after first day of running!
Expectations were high and after a day in the wind and rain I was praying that the thin bag I’d unravelled in my single-person tent was going to be warm enough.
The first surprise was that the stuff sac is integrated into the bottom of the bag, a really nice touch. You then turn the whole bag 
inside out to sleep it it with the mustard colour showing on the outside.
I really like that the zip is down the middle and I like that it’s short zip; having less zip means less weight. There’s no annoying velcro too. I might add a piece of string on to the zipper to make it easier to locate in the dark for future use however.
It started raining heavily as I was getting in the Oscar. The temperature was dropping too, around 8 degrees, so kind of ideal territory for its temperature rating. I opted to wear my Helly Hansen base layers and my Rab Microlight jacket. I woke up a lot in the night from the noise of the rain and wind, but I’m pleased to say at no point did I wake up feeling cold. And when I did move around and open up the top of the bag, I could feel the warm air that had been storing up in the bag – a reassuring sign that it works and there are no cold spots or stitching issues.
I had plenty of space in the bag to roll over back and forth (to ease aching hips!) and I liked the simple string closure to tight up the bag around me. I also liked the shaping of the trapezoidal footbox and the neat pocket on the inside to store your phone or torch.
With a weight of just 350g Oscar, it was certainly a brilliant choice to take with me for the Rab Mountain Marathon. It’s not quite thick enough for adventuring between October to February, but for anything from March to September, the Oscar +10 will do the job.
The synthetic filling is 100% recycled and the outer skin is ultra fine 7 denier rip stop nylon.
You can also buy -2, -10 and -20 versions of the Oscar.
Dan at the start of the Rab Mountain Marathon – having a lightweight sleeping bag makes a big difference to the ruscac weight
It’s fair to say I wouldn’t have wanted any other sleeping bag in my pack for it’s weight to warmth ratio.
Invest and enjoy.
PS: I used the Oscar with a Thermarest NeoAir XLite underneath me (review coming soon).
