The folks from Peax and Rokslide provided me with a sleeping bag to review, the Solace 15. This is not your traditional, ultralight sleeping bag. The Solace 15 is a feature-rich sleep system designed for ultimate comfort in the backcountry.
What Peax says about the Solace
After 7 iterations of development and testing, we introduce the SOLACE 15—a hunting sleeping bag designed to optimize mountain recovery. Scientific evidence highlights sleep’s pivotal role in decision-making, muscle recovery, focus, and fostering a competitive edge for extended hunts. In essence, better sleep translates to better hunting performance. Solace is defined as comfort in distress, and this sleeping bag ensures reliable physical and mental recovery after the day, becoming the crucial equipment for thriving on the mountain. With the SOLACE 15, experience the comfort you want and the functionality you need to sleep better and hunt better.
Peax Solace 15
The Solace is a 15-degree (comfort level for men) down (water resistant down) filled bag; the one I’m reviewing is a Regular; it also comes in a Regular Wide and a Tall. The stated weight of the Solace Regular is 37.5 oz. Mine weighed 38.2 w/ the provided stuff sack, stuff sack weighing 1.2 oz, so 37 oz on the nose. Nice when things weigh exactly (or less) what they’re supposed to. The Solace retails for $625 and can be seen here.
The Solace 15 compresses nicely here in a compression dry bag.
My Use and Testing
I’ve used the bag on several trips this Spring and early Summer, including my annual Bob Marshall Open Trek in May. I received the bag a little later than originally planned, so I never got to test out the 15-degree temperature rating. I used it several nights in the low 20s, with just boxers and a light base layer top on, and it was very cozy. The bag includes 22.1 oz of 850+ fill. A quick peruse of other down bags in this range also tells me this is an ample amount of fill for this rating. I think I can safely say that the rating is accurate. For reference, I consider myself a pretty “normal” sleeper; I don’t sleep too cold or too hot.
Unique Features
A couple of things jumped out immediately about this sleeping bag. The first was it included arm holes. I was a little skeptical, but I have to admit, this is a very useful feature. At night, you need a drink, a snack, or check on something— no unzipping the bag to do so. In the morning, you want to get some hot water going; no need to get out of the bag—yeah, pretty nice! I mostly sleep on my side, and I sometimes like to put my hand under my pillow, the holes allow to stick an arm/hand out do that without any unzipping. My little dog often goes with me on trips, and he finds them handy for getting out of the bag 🙂
Drafts?
I never found any issues with drafts through the armholes when sleeping (despite some pretty windy nights); the baffles do a great job of preventing this.
The next thing that jumped out was that this bag could be configured into a parka. Cold in camp at night or morning—put the bag into parka mode, and that’s the end of cold. Glassing session getting too cold? Ditto! Converting the bag to a parka takes about 30 seconds.
Additional Features
Other notable features include a highly water-resistant fabric on the foot box and on the hood. I utilize a single wall shelter for many of my trips and while light, it often comes with some condensation. I really think this is a feature all manufacturers should adopt.
The hood on the Solace is much more akin to a hood on a parka vs a mummy sleeping bag. This feature allows a lot less fussing when rolling from one side to the other. I found once the hood is snugged down, it stays down—unlike other bags I have owned.
The bag has a three-way zipper, allowing several different options for venting if needed (it also allows the bag to be more easily converted to a parka).
The hood can be tucked away and the bag fully zipped open on warmer nights to use as a quilt.
It includes a 3-way zipper that opens several options for venting (also needed to convert the bag to a parka)
Larger Cut
Peax designed the Solace 15 to be purposely cut a little larger than most bags. Comparing it to several top-tier bags, I found this to be true. It’s a little wider (and with thier Wide size, it can be wider yet) and a little longer than most bags. The Regular is 64” at the shoulders, 55” at the hips, and 43” at the foot (and 80” long).
Who It’s For
Why would one choose this bag over other quality bags? The Solace, compared to some top-tier bags, is slightly heavier. However, that additional weight provides some features that are not found in many other bags. If you can benefit from using arm holes and/or the ability to use a sleeping bag as an additional layer (parka mode), then the Solace is definitely worth looking at. In addition, if you find other sleeping bags too small, the Solace might be just the ticket. Order here.
Comment or ask Mike questions here.
Peax is a Rokslide advertiser.
