La Fayette

The "La Fayette", interduced in the Valandré sleeping bag line the year 2000, was the pioneer in the second generation of our Tubular bell construction. The design direction was very simple: to concieve the ultimate superlight high altitude expedition bag, to be used in combination with the Combi suit.

Speed is the key safety factor, in non oxygen high altitude assults, as you enter what's known as the death zone. Once over 8000, you can start to count back, the time left before you have to be back below 8000. Eather you continue to head for the summit, or you head down.....If you stay, you are out!

The ultimate assults are speed assults in alpine style, witch includes climbers with no support from sherpas, no fixed ropes, and carring all the gear needed. This is where the La Fayette comes into the picture.

Ralf Dujomovits is a German guide who has climbed all XIV 8000 (and more) Ralf has sucessfully run his expedition company Amical Alpin (www.amical.de), a company that has a serious record in commercial expeditions.  This spring Ralf was on Everest North Face with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. Due to a mixture of bad weather with loads of snow, only Gerlinde summited Everest and addeded her XIIV 8000 to her list.

DAV Guide: Ralf Dujomovits left. Austrian high altitude climber Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner on the right.

The La Fayette is a tubular bell construction, using pre-cut circular baffels (not anatomical). All stitches are tuck stiched from the inside. The tuck stich technique, has the advantage of being stitch though a double layer of fabric, witch gives a very strong and solid fabric stitch.

The bag, being more a climbing toole, than a "normal" sleeping bag with side zip, has a "center half size zip system". The length of the zipper is calculated to be the minimum length nesseary to enter the bag, wearing a combi suit. The advantage of a center zip is, that once you are laying on the right side or on the left side, that you are not deranged by laying on a stif and hard zipper. And you need to face the basic fact: once it's freaking cold, you need to get hart and lungs of the cold ground, so you are "rolling over" on your side, in a foetus possision, during your night.

When you are on your side, your knees put pressure on the front of the bag, witch can provoke a shift of down from the front to the back. So, the La Fayette has a knee protection system, made out of tree smaller and sidely cloased compartments with a higher down density, than the two bigger ones on the back.

To imprison a maximum of air, warmed by you body heat (read burned caloris), the insulation below the "center half size zip", is a velcro placed vertically, who has a double funktion of: One; to create a barrier to reduce heat loss once the two velcros are perfectly closed. Two; to "fix" the inside cylinder. This "fixing" of the inside cylinder, has as effect, that you can't compress the down membrane, so you avoid cold spots. And this places the "center half size zip" on the La Fayette, as the ultimat zip system in a tubular bell construction. So, what feature can you ad to this?: well, fix a half inch of syntetic wad behind the vertical velcro, offering a guarantee, of isolation right up to the very edge of the vertical velcro.

French Team climbing up  Singu Chuli (6300m) Annapurna 2009.

A vital point where you can limite heat loss are the draft collor. Normal collors de-forme the shape of a sleeping bag once tighten in, and if you control perfectly the 3D shape in a tubular bell construction, you simply do not want to de-form this shape. (guitares are made of wood, not out of de-forming rubber!).

The draft collor is therefor built into the inside cylinder, like the seperation wall between the cockpit and pasager cabine of a air craft, with a cylindrical hole just big enough for your neck. To shut down the possibility of any leak of heat, a semi elastificated ajustment systems, is placed on the inside. So from the inside, your hands, can cloase the smallest little gap in the collar, and this without any de-formation of the sleeping bag!

Now as you roll over from your left side to your right during the night, you provoke air circulation. To limite this circulation to a minimum you find a semi elastificated adjustment system at the waiste. But we are not only talking about reducing air circulation, we are allso talking about keeping the maximum warm air where it should be: protecting hart and lungs.

The hood follows the same inspiration. It's a 3D half moon construction, offering a maximum down isolation to the limite of your fore head.

The power inside the La Fayette is the French Fat Grey goose down. This goose is capable of  migrating at 33,000 feet (10.000m) in –60°F (-50°C) temperatures for days on end. The down is harvested right before the traditional migration time, when it is fresh, clean and at its plumpest. Then Valandre selects only the lightest down and fills each compartment with just the right amount.

The La Fayette is more than a technical mountaineering bag, it's simply  beyond any compareson world wide. No other company, has the technical know how and the willingness to take technique to this levle of ultimate perfection without any compomise at all.

Everest, Annapurna, K2 etc, are tops of the Himalayan ice berg......and Valandré is simply a part in the water.

Take the video tour to get the full picture of the feature of the La Fayette by clicking the “watch video” button at the top of the page, and blast off!

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