Mountain Hardwear Bishop Pass 15 Review

While the Pass 15 doesn't have any features that really knock our socks off, the features it does have are mostly well done. This includes the zipper and the interior fabric. The price is also fairly low for a down-filled bag. This fact, combined with overall performance, means that you'll have to spend a lot more cash to get a significantly better product.

Performance Comparison

Warmth

Keeping you warm at night (or maybe for a mid-day tent nap) is the most important thing a sleeping bag is supposed to do. When it comes to warmth, the most important characteristic of any down-filled item — clothing or sleeping bag — is the fill weight. This refers to how much down is inside the bag (or coat, etc.). The Bishop Pass sports an eye-popping 21 ounces of feathers, more than almost every other down bag in our review.

Fill power is the next characteristic that affects warmth. This refers to the down's physical loft — the higher the fill power number, the more insulating the down is purported to be. The down in the Bishop Pass is 650 fill power. While this is a lot lower than the 850 or even 900 fill power found in the more premium and expensive bags in our test, there is more of it — in some cases, twice as much as other bags in this review. What this means is that — despite a lower fill power — the Bishop Pass is still a very warm bag.

Another feature of the Bishop Pass that enhances the warmth is its draft collar. While this shaped tube of down doesn't have its own drawstring like some other models do, it still does a decent job of both keeping heat in and keeping chilly breezes out.

On the other hand, this bag lacks the continuous baffles found on other models. This design feature allows users to shift down to the top of the bag for colder nights and to the bottom for warmer ones. This feature is generally found only on the fanciest bags in our review.

Weight

Like a turtle, everyone on an overnight backpacking trip carries their whole house on their back. The weight of all that stuff can leave you feeling like an actual turtle crawling down the trail.

We recorded a weight of 2.3 pounds (about 1 kilogram) for the Bishop Pass 15. That number puts this bag among the heavier down-filled offerings in our review. However, it is lighter than all of the synthetic-filled bags we tested. Most of that weight comes from all of the feathers in there. For this reason, the Bishop Pass has a decent warmth-to-weight ratio, especially for a model that's on the low end for price.

Comfort

While it seems like some folks can fall asleep anytime, anywhere, for most of us, if we're not comfortable, we won't sleep well or at all. For a middle-shelf sleeping bag, the Bishop Pass 15 offers a decent level of comfort. The softness or rigidity of the insulation makes a difference in the comfort of a sleeping bag. Down-filled bags feel much softer than their synthetic counterparts, and the Bishop Pass is no exception here.

One of the primary things that affects comfort is the roominess or fit of a bag. Obviously, how spacious the bag is depends heavily on your size. That being said, the Bishop Pass is about in the middle of our lineup regarding shoulder girth; it provides about 62 inches of space around the torso. Our lead tester is slender, but he's also a side sleeper who rolls over repeatedly in the night. He found this bag to be appropriately roomy.

Packed Size

Generally, the bigger your pack is, the less fun you will have. For most backpackers, their sleeping bag is one of the largest items that will go in there. The Bishop Pass 15 is in the middle of our group of bags regarding pack space.

The spread in size between our most and least bulky bags is not enormous, which is why this metric only accounts for 15% of the total score. In actual use, the stuff sack you use for your bag will probably have the most effect on its packed size. The Bishop Pass comes with a standard stuff sack — not a compression sack. Using an aftermarket compression sack will yield the most space in your pack for other stuff.

Features

Honestly, a sleeping bag is really just a tube filled with insulation. Our testing team finds that a few simple features are really all that need to be added, and trying to reinvent the wheel by adding gimmicks is not ultimately helpful. The Bishop Pass 15 has the basic features we expect from a sleeping bag, done well, without any gimmicks.

First up is the zipper. The upper slider is designed to reduce snags. It has a glow-in-the-dark zipper pull, a nice touch we wish every bag had. The lower slider also has a zipper pull, another nice touch. Furthermore, the zipper itself is almost full length, which is nice for both venting our feet and opening the bag up all the way and using it like a quilt. One thing we really like about this bag is the light-colored interior. The inside of the bag is yellow. This brighter color makes it easier to find anything you bring into the bag with you, as opposed to the black hole interiors of most of the competition.

Though the drawstring on the Bishop Pass works adequately, it occasionally flopped in our faces at night. We think it could be positioned differently to prevent this.

Should You Buy the Mountain Hardwear Bishop Pass 15?

The Bishop Pass is a decent sleeping bag and a great one for the price. For folks who do lots of outdoor activities — backpacking, camping, climbing, hunting, travel — and don't need to have the perfect item for each job, this is a good do-it-all sleeping bag at a reasonable price.

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