I have 2 sleeping bags a mirage for 95% of the time and a 800g of 800+ goose down bag for when its really cold.

i prefered the 35cm mirage to the 3/4 zipper one, usualy when i go to sleep i keep the head and part of the torso out of the bag if its too hot and go inside the bag later in the night when it gets colder.
i have slept to a few degrees C minus 0 comfortably in it wearing odlo cubic ( lightests ) boxer and T shirt, under a spinntwin with no overbag.
but my wife woudnt use it at 0°C without her cocoon hoodie, socks and some long underwear for legs so as usual for a sleeping comfort range is quite personnal.

Allison,
I own a Mirage though the old version which used pertex quantum. Quality is what you would exspect from Valandré as already indicated in other posts.
One thing to take into consideration is that this bag has only a short zipper of about 30 cms long. In itself this should be no real problem. But this bag is warmer than exspected and has a narrow cut in the leg area. Too warm for a lot of nights and then it would be handy to have somesort of ventilation. The short zipper makes this not possible.
It makes it certainly impossible to use the bag as a blanket so I often just lay the bag on top of me although this certainly isn't ideal.
So if you would like to use the Mirage in quilt mode and prefer to have a means of ventilating, the 3/4 zippered model could be more interesting.

Edited by Woubeir on 09/04/2008 15:01:15 MDT.

Hi Allison-

BPL reviewed the Mirage a while ago. Take a look at Doug Johnson's article here:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/valandre_mirage_sleeping_bag_review.html

Cheers,

-Mike

Thanks for that Link Michael

So the Valandre stacks up pretty well all-in-all, but for the exact same dimensions (62 shoulder:53 hip: 38 foot) I am still better off with my WM POD 15. I get 100g more down (all of it on top where it counts), a full baffled zip, and a conservative extra 8 degrees of warmth, for a mere 80 grams extra weight.

Yes, thanks. I think based on price vs performance, the REI and Mountain Hardware sound interesting.

The men's regular REI Halo bags are 59 shoulder/55 hip/36 foot girth (inches).

The regular length MH Ultralamina 15 degree bag is 60 inches shoulder girth, 38 inches foot girth. (I don't have specs on the new zero degree version)

Both these are manufacturer's claimed measurements.

-Mike

>>The Halo bags will feature 750-fill down, and will incorporate EN 13537 standards in their temperature ratings.

Kudos to REI. Hopefully, this move by a retail giant will encourage other US brands to adopt the EN 13537 standard,

Valandré is very popular here in Japan and I would long ago have bought one of their bags, due to exceptional quality (definitely on par with Western Mountaineering) and the best fitting I have ever seen in a bag. THe only thing that kept me from buying them here in Japan was pricing (japanese pricing is insane)... average $800.00 is a little out of my price range...

FYI, Valandre' has recently adjusted their prices (down) on their most popular bags in order to be in line with the top competitors. The retailers chose to cut their margins so that Valandre' retail prices on the products would be attractive in the U.S. market.

So that I am in compliance with the BPL guidelines, Yes, I am affiliated with Valandre' and am an authorized retailer for their gear.

I think the Valandre bags are very well made, but tried both the Mirage and the Shocking Blue and decided not to get them, for the following reason-- in the torso area it seemed that they were sized to allow one to wear a fairly thick down jacket without compressing the down in either the jacket or the bag. But without the jacket, it felt as if there were too much air in the bag, which would need to be warmed, and, as one moved during the night, would be a medium for carrying off heat whenever it puffed out of the bag.

YMMV, of course, but one should check the fit. In the same weight class as the Mirage, I prefer a NF Beeline I bought several years ago, which is cut narrower and hence warmer--and uses Pertex Quantum. It was also quite reasonable, bought in an outlet store.

First picture of the Bloody Mary on the Valandré website.
http://www.valandre.com/us/bags/bloodymary.htm
Not too much further details currently.

Mountain Hardware (Canadian) site has some info up.

http://www.mountainhardwear.com/en-CA/Product.aspx?top=1693&prod=3432&cat=1745&viewAll=False

Showing more like 60 oz rather than 53.

If anyone has one, can you let me know how much your's weighs, and how it has perfomed.

Thanx