Hi,

I am new here so I might not be driving the search system right, but I cannot find any mention of 'Blizzard Survival Bags'.

They look ideal for compact emergency kits such as car and plane and seem to be finding favour with SAR and military users, has anyone got any experiences with them?

Blizzard Survival's website

cheers
OIMO
p.s. Before anyone asks, as this is my first post, I am not affiliated with them in any way!

The only mention I found was under "survival bag" written by Jim on 7/17/06. But even that wasn't the same thing.

Interesting looking option though. Might want to drop $20 on the vest or something in the future.

Looks like the same technology as the MPI Outdoor Products Extreme Pro-Tech Series. There have been a few posts mentioning it here, but it would be nice to see an in-depth review, or even better some sort of testing results.

-john

Looks like the same thing. I don't see where to purchase, or price of it, though. Any ideas?

Hmmm "Original SPACE® BLANKET Products"... space blankets even sleeping bag ones are loud, fragile, and not as warm as everyone thinks.

RedFlare sells a nice one w/a pouch I suggest for the price... very similar.

http://www.botac.com/prodbyman.html

Scroll down or search for "MPI Extreme Pro".

-john

Agreed, but these are not just the thin mylar "original"s, but a sandwich construction supposedly able to trap air.

No idea if it really works or not tho. No idea how well built they are either.

-john

OIMO, First, the courtesy of a welcome to the forum. Blizzard Bags have been a UK product for several years and are now available worldwide, with a US distributor in Texas. I hope to test one in the near future. Anecdotaly my UK contacts are all favourable to it's carry and use. This includes winter climbers in Scotland and a member of the RNLI. I would be very carefull of ALL charts and graphs with formulae 'showing' X product performs at some %level vs product Z. The best of formulae, and some are GIGO, are at best approximations of the real world and at worse sales hype. Back to my collected, anecdotal, real world observations. The Blizzard Bag does require a bit of care to enjoy full performance. This translates into first trying one out at home and becoming familiar with the nuances of use, not in the first stage of hypotermia in the dark on the Pennines. It is EMERGENCY KIT, not a dedicated sleeping bag on the cheap. It's virtue is acceptable performance for the qualities of reduced wieght and bulk. For that it is a good product to stow in the Landy- and probably lets in less cold air.

Good info Chris! For the price I hope to test one too.


-Todd

I have seen them at my local outdoor-store, but they were very expensive (>€40) and I thought they were basically a couple of space-bags put over eachother and then vacuum-packet, so I didn't buy one. I did talk with the retailer about it and he found it to be fragile and noisy, wich is similair to a 'regulair' space-blanket .

Instead, I imported a AMK thermolite II bivvy amd a heatsheet.

The US distributor has kindly offered to send one unit to me for evaluation. I have access to a walk in meat locker and will post my findings later.

This is great! Can't wait to hear the report!

-john

Cool I just contacted them asking about retail pricing. The website for the US distribtor is http://www.ps-med.com/index.html . I look forward to the review maybe you can compare it to the AMK products.

A slight word of caution. According to the manufacturers data the indpendent test performed by Leeds University gives the Blizzard Bag a TOG rating of around 8. This would be equivalent to a summer bag i.e a 0.8Kg good down mummy bag. According to the EN13537 specification this would equate to a lower limit of comfort of around +3 degrees Celcius and an extreme temperature rating of around -5 C to -9 C. (serious risk of death through hypothermia) If your going to use the Blizzard bag as intended in real world i.e lying on your rucksac then I seriously doubt that the bag will be able to cope with any temperatures below freezing i.e. 0C for any extended periods i.e. greater than 3 to 4 hours without a suffering a cold weather type injury. If your meat locker is at -18 C then I would be be surprised if you last more than a couple of hours at this temperature before being carted off to the ER to be thawed out. The name Blizzard bag is slightly misleading. Scottish mist bag would be more appropriate.

That might be true if the meat locker is to keep the meat frozen (most household freezers are –20C and ultra-low freezers are between –70C to –86C), but if it designed to keep the meat cold, most would be in the temperature range of 4C (approximately 40F).

Pete

How does this compare to other, singled walled bags?

Thanks,

-john

Hi JohnN,

There really is no comparison to other singled walled bags. The Blizzard Bag will outperform any other singled walled bags either the mylar or the more durable thicker plastic types. The other types will have a TOG value of between 2 or 4. The lower limits for comfort EN13537 will be around 15 C to 12 C with extreme values around 7 C to 4 C. These single wall bags are very poor performers in terms of thermal insulation as most heat loss from the body is due to conduction and convection heat losses. I must also caveat the temperature ratings by saying that this assumes that there is some form of reasonable insulation from the ground whether that it is in the form of a ground mat, tree branches, grass or heather etc. These bags also have a major downside (including the Blizzard Bag) also in that they are not moisture permeable and will therefore result in a very uncomfortable night in the wilderness due to the progressive damp induced cold/cooling effect feeling they will cause. Are they any advantages? These bags will keep the wind and rain out initially and keep some heat in, but for only a short duration i.e. they will stave of hypothermia for a period of time i.e. a few hours in conditions where hypothermia may take hold in less than an hour. The Blizard Bag will be much better than the single wall bag types. The Blizzard bag weighs in at 385gms and is very compact. It is certainly better than nothing at all during the spring, summer and autumn months but more substaintial precautions against the cold wintery conditions should be employed once the thermometer falls below 5 C.