Camping outside in the summer is a more simple task than winter camping. You don’t need to worry about snow or your boots freezing overnight. The temperatures are warmer, the climate is milder. You’ll spend more time drinking pale ale in the sunshine than fretting whether your snow wall will protect your tent from the wind. At least that’s the idea, but to live that dream that you’ll still need a sleeping bag that’s decent enough to keep you warm.
Hailing from Santa Cruz, California, Marmot started life as a university club. Back in 1971, students Eric Reynolds and Dave Huntley were on a glaciology field trip to Alaska’s Juneau Icefield when they came up with the idea for the Marmot Club. To become a Marmot, you had to climb a glaciated peak with another Marmot. They named it after those sociable ground squirrels that live in mountainous areas.
Over the next two years, Eric and Dave began making down products in their dorm room. It started with a down vest and sweater before they quickly moved on to making three down sleeping bags. These became one of their most popular products. Now over 40 years later, Marmot are still making some of the highest quality down sleeping bags in the world.
“Over 40 years since they started, Marmot are still making some of the highest quality down sleeping bags in the world.”
The Marmot Atom sleeping bag is one of their ultra-light designs, designed as a bivvy bag for alpinists on extreme climbs. It’s not just for elite climbers – you can also use the Marmot Atom as a warm-weather sleeping bag for summer camping trips.
The Atom sleeping bag is made with 800+ fill power goose down, which is widely regarded as the world’s best insulator. Every ounce of down has two million fluffy filaments that lock together creating insulating pockets of air which keep you warm.
The benefit of down is that it provides ultimate warmth (you can sleep in this bag at temperatures as low as 4°C) while remaining incredibly lightweight and packing down small. This sleeping bag weighs just over 500g. And don’t worry, Marmot take special care to source their down feathers exclusively from ethical down producers who treat the animals as humanely as possible.
