Hey,
I need a down suit for Cho Oyu. My problem is the sizing. I'm female small framed 5'2" tall and 118lbs. The only suits I can find in XS is the Marmot 8000 metre and The North Face Himalayan. I'm told the TNF suit would likely be too big. As for the Marmot I'm getting mixed opinions. I am no where close to a store to try one on. Does anyone have any experience with sizing particularly XS in down suits?

Thanks
DB

Marmot and North Face are mediocre off the rack suits. Feathered Friends in Seattle makes bespoke, custom down suits and are the gold standard. http://featheredfriends.com/expedition-down-suit.html

Agree with ExitableBoy. I had a wonderful experience with Feathered Friends. Needed down suit for Nepal trips. They offered custom sizing, sent us detailed list of how to measure ourselves and the resulting garments were truly well fitting and custom made. This was back in the 90s.

Check Feathered Friends out, hopefully they still offer this custom work.

For whatever its worth, commenting on performance and price, I got The North Face Himalayan suit off Ebay and it worked just fine on Manaslu. It was $700 compared to $1,300 with Feathered Friends. When are you going and which outfitter are you going with? I can put you in contact with some folks in Nepal and see if they have your size.

Thanks for the replies,
The plan was to go this year (with IMG) but some things got in the way and so now hope to go next year. I'm taking advantage of this time to get some gear, and perhaps some good deals! I will have to get it shipped here as I'm no where close to an outfitter that sells suits. I've been looking on EBay as well but no luck.

Try Googling for the Mont Bell 'Sub Zero' range, which is their Japanese-only gear. They would have very small good quality down suits.

I've worn Marmot 8000, TNF and FF suits, though mostly only the Marmot, and mine is now 15 years old. Marmot tends to fit bigger than TNF but generally has better down items - their top-level down jackets and sleeping bags are excellent. Feathered Friends are great, and make very good gear, especially sleeping bags, but their down suits are, imo, overbuilt, heavy and an inferior cut. Of those three mainstream suits, the TNF is the slimmer cut.

If money is not a problem but custom fit is needed, try www.phdesigns.co.uk for top quality down gear.

Question, everyone calls Denali the coldest mountain on Earth so why don't people wear down suits there?

Denali is not high enough. The reason people wear down suits on 8.000 meter peaks is mostly because they don't move fast enough to generate enough warmth high up. On Denali, even early in the season, you can motor up fast enough to not need down suits or even down jackets. The temperatures have little to do with it.

ChristopherFranklin wrote:Question, everyone calls Denali the coldest mountain on Earth so why don't people wear down suits there?

There we a number of Eastern European climbers on Denali with down suits and remarkably NO ice axes!!!

Oh ok that makes sense, I have a Rab Neutrino is that warm enough for Denali?

ChristopherFranklin wrote:Oh ok that makes sense, I have a Rab Neutrino is that warm enough for Denali?

Depends upon the timing and your other layers. Is it baffled or sewn through? It is advertised as 'stitch through baffle' construction which seems like an oxymoron to me.

I'll check not sure

Cool ... thanks for sharing dude.. I might use this ideas on my next trip...

ChristopherFranklin wrote:Oh ok that makes sense, I have a Rab Neutrino is that warm enough for Denali?

I have a Rab Neutrino Plus, from early 2013, and it has baffled construction. If I recall correctly the "Plus" has more down than the regular Neutrino.
I also have a Rab Infinity Endurance, which is lighter and more form-fitting and has sewn-through construction. I would take both of these if I were going to Denali.

don't know if the OP is still around but I stumbled on this today....

http://www.everestgear.com/rabexsugobl2.html