This founding member of Every Body Outdoors can finally can sleep easy in the Thermarest Questar sleeping bag.
For those with a larger body, or just people seeking a more spacious bag, the Thermarest Questar is a great choice for a four season sleeping that is still packable and light enough to take on longer trips.
Steph Wetherell highly recommends
As a size 20 woman, finding sleeping bag for the winter months has been a mission. The Questar has solved this issue.- spacious
- very warm
- mat connectors
- none
| Quick Specs |
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| Price: $409.95 / £360 (available from Cascade Designs) Weight: 1.17kg (small), 1.21kg (regular), 1.38kg (long) Fill: 650 hydrophobic down Shell: 20D Polyester with DWR Zip: eg 2-way full length YKK Auto lock centre Length: 185cm (small), 203cm (regular), 216cm (long) – to fit 168cm (small), 183cm (regular), 198cm (long) Rating: -10C comfort, -18C limit Sizes: Small, regular, long Women/Men’s version: Unisex cascadedesigns.com |
As a size 20 woman, finding sleeping bag for the winter months has been a mission. I’ve tried to squash myself into an assortment of bags over the years and never found one that I could turn over inside. It’s not just about comfort either – a tightly fitting bag also stops the down insulation performing properly, undermining the very feature you need in a warm bag. The Thermarest Questar has solved this issue though.
As a cold sleeper, the -10C comfort rating is enough for my winter outings, but the 1.2kg weight and fairly small pack size and well-designed compression sack means that I can still comfortably carry it on multi-day trips if needed. With any down sleeping bag there’s a concern about if the bag gets wet but the 650 Fill Duck Nikwax Hydrophobic Down is designed to absorb a lot less water and dry really quickly. It’s overall a warm bag, backed up by some nice features, including a foot pocket to help warm your feet up (which took me a bit of hunting with my feet to find the first time) and the insulation being zoned around key areas.
Another nice feature is the thick baffle down the zip, and around your neck and the hood, which helps keep you toasty warm when you’re zipped and cinched in. In combination with a decent mat, it’s kept me warm even in sub-zero temperatures (something I’ve historically struggled with), and the down has stayed well distributed even with a good amount of use.
The fit is the highlight though. My experience of unisex bags has been that they fit men well, but not so much anyone with hips. However, this one does actually allow a good amount of space around the hip area whilst remining well proportioned from shoulder to feet. The With Additional Room for Multiple positions (W.A.R.M.) fit is designed to be comfortable regardless of what position you sleep in, but also allows extra space for those of us who want or need a few inches more than offered by most sleeping bags. It was spacious enough for me to comfortably turn over inside and for the bag to not be too tight around me.
The zipper was really easy to use and I had no issues with snagging when zipping or unzipping it. One of the best features is the removeable ultralight stretchy straps on the back that allow you to attach the bag to your sleeping mat. This massively improved my overall sleeping experience, ensuring I turned over inside my sleeping bag (instead of it coming with me) and also helping me to stay centred on my mat.
There is a limit to what sized/thickness mat this will work with, but it’s fairly generous and I had no problems with my fairly thick mats.
Testing conditions
Steph used this sleeping bag through the winter and spring months between 2024 and 2025 in South Wales and the South West of England. She is an especially cold sleeper, and plus size (size 20) so requires a warm and spacious sleeping bag.
This review was first published in the September 2025 issue of The Great Outdoors. Compare this bag to other models we’ve tested in our round up of the best cold weather sleeping bags or see more plus-size gear reviews.
