Comments about The North Face Aleutian 4S 0F Synthetic Sleeping Bag - Regular Size:

Needed a bag for 20 degrees F for occasional car and tent camping, and decided on a 0 degree bag after reading several reviews warning about questionable ratings. Ordered the Aleutian 4S with some trepidation due to the lack of customer reviews, hence this one.

The bag in regular, left-hand version arrived reasonably compressed in a box of 13.75x13.75x20 inches. Some labels identified it as model "4S" and some as "4S BX". It is made in China and had no industrial or plastic odor. Labels on the bag finally show the EN13537 ratings sorely missing from the Internet descriptions. Comfort: 19F, Limit: 6F, Extreme: -32F.

The bottom and inside of the bag are a warm, brownish hue of charcoal grey and the top dark olive. A pleasing, if somber, combination and much darker than the Internet pictures. More suited for camouflage than to guiding rescue teams. The zippers are surrounded by medium blue piping. Compression bag is navy with charcoal/black bottom. These colors are fine but an artist would not have combined them with the bag.

The regular size bag was comfortable for this 5'10", 175 lbs. reviewer. I even had room to turn inside the bag even with multiple layers of clothing on. Foot box is nice. The piping around the zipper reduced the chance of it catching the insulated draft tube.

Quick Test Summer: To simulate summer camping, used it inside the house. Placed it on oriental carpet and an army blanket on unheated wood floor. Wore regular cotton underwear, no socks. Placed regular pillow on top of insulated hood. Starting temperature 64F. Bag felt cold for a minute, then comfortable. After two hours woke up overheated, especially below the knee. End temperature: 60F. There was some static discharge as I got out.

Quick Test Winter: Instead of tent, air mattress etc., just placed bag on Ridge-Rest and army blanket on the wooden deck. Wore regular cotton underwear, medium-weight polypropylene long underwear, outdoor wool sweater, woolen cap and hiking socks. Sky was clear, no wind, dry Colorado air. Starting temperature 18F. After 3.5 hours, hip and thigh started to feel cold on the ground. Feet stayed warm, no problems with condensation. End temperature 14F.

The second quick test determined that the bag is a keeper. Construction looks solid, expect that it will give decades of light service. The compression bag is quite small, do not plan to use it.