Thor

Alpinisem is the ultimative sport, where everybody is a winner. An Alpine school of self disipline, manouvering within your limit, belayed and secured by friends you trust......pushing your limite constantly.

In this school, you learn to know your limits, up against forces out of your control, as a accident can hit at any time.....And that's just the way it is. To summit does not make you more a winner, than a climber hit by a falling rock, becomes a looser.

Accidents are simply a part of the game. In 1983 André Vandeputte (See Odin page) was killed by a lightning in the French Pyrenees, and in 1986 Maurice and Lilliane Barrard was last seen by Wanda Rutkiewitcz at C5 on K2. Hallucinating famous last words: Can you see Maurice, the living are decenting? I don't give a shit about the living - Lilliane! Wanda was allso the last to leave UK climber Alain Rouse in a storm broaken C5 tent. Hallucinating, Alan was in his sleeping bag, trying to melt snow, to try to hydraite, before he would tempt the decent. Alan did not decent.

Wanda, made it down, just to meet her final moments on Kangchenjunga May 12th 1992, climbing her 9th 8000. Eight teen years later Oh Eun Sun, followed by Edurne Pasaban became the first two women to climb the 14th 8000. You see, at Valandre we don't forget Wanda!

Dr Eike Mrosek, Swiss German Alpine rescue doctor. Everest summit 2003.

The Thor sleeping bag, was interduced in 1988 under the name of Nuptse 1300. The Nuptse (THOR) was designed as a winter high altitude expedition bag. In the Eighties the Polish, having been granted a visa by the communist regime, started som of the most astonishing Himmalayan winter climbs. Names like Krysztof Wielicky, Laszek Cichy, Jerzy Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer litetaly atomized the notion of the word "the limit", and it was Wielicky/Cichy, that opened the Grand Bal by a Febuary winter climb of Everest 1980.

The Nuptse was a developpement from Maurice Barrards Makalu concept bag, where the straight H box walls were slanted, allowing to "struff" the bag with a maximum of down. But "slanting" changes the essence of the bag. As the baffels in the Odin are in a 90°, we use a baffel hight of 9 cm, and once slanted into a 45° 14 cm baffel's are needed. This difference in baffel width (height) changes the empty weight of the shell from 650g in M of the Odin, where as the Thor in the M size has a weight of 720g. The second difference between the Odin and the Thor is, that the Odin is a 27 compartment bag, where as the Thor is a 26 compartment bag. Otherwise they are identical.

It can be discussed, weather "slanting the baffels", does just have the pervertated effect, to ad unnesseary weight to the sleeping bag shell and increasing the compression volume.

What  ever......once filled with 50,2oz (1424g)of a totally mature and specially selected gray goose 95/05, the Thor does not weigh more than 75.6oz (2144g).

This weight is not the end of this world....the temperatures that it's capable to comfort, may very well be!

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