my favorite way to end a long day of backpacking is posing up in my sleeping
bag with so many options how do you know which one is right for you let's talk
about sleeping bags
before we get started let's just talk for a second about weight when choosing
a sleeping bag you'll want to strike a balance between the weight the warmth
and the cost of the sleeping bag you could get the coziest roomiest
warmest sleeping bag out there but you'd probably end up carrying a few extra
pounds and we all know that every ounce counts when you're backpacking so you'll
want to strike a good balance so you get something that's gonna be warm enough
but also it's going to weigh too much in the same respect before you buy the
lightest weights to be back possible remember that your enjoyment on trail is
super important so you'll want to get some features that will still make the
bag comfortable for you okay let's dive in
but deciding what temperature of bag you need you'll want to take a look at what
season you plan on backpacking in of course these temperatures vary widely
depending on how you sleep and also seasonal temperatures vary depending on
what area you're backpacking in but for the most part if you plan on backpacking
in the summer you'll be looking for a bag that's rated for 30 degrees
Fahrenheit or higher this bag here is rated at 36 degrees these are great for
warm weather camping and they're also sometimes used for a festival camping if
you're gonna be backpacking in the early spring or the late fall you'll want a
bag that's rated somewhere between 10 and 30 degrees this bag here is rated
for 21 degrees Fahrenheit these packs are sometimes referred to as three
season sleeping bags as they cover a wide variety of temperatures for
backpacking in the winter you'll want to look for a bag like this one rated at 10
degrees and lower this bag here is rated for 10 degrees these are really winter
weight bags and there's a variety of temperatures so find one that will work
for your winter campaign when you look at the temperature rating of a bag
you'll see two numbers listed the higher number is referred to as the comfort
rating and this is the temperature which the average cold sleeper will be
comfortable because women tend to sleep colder than men this is sometimes
referred to as the women's rating this lower number is the lower limit rating
this is the temperature at which the average warm sleeper will be comfortable
because men tend to sleep warmer than women this is sometimes referred to as
the men's rating one cool thing about this rating system is that these numbers
are provided by an independent organization that means that you can
actually compare the temperatures on bags across brands to decide which one
is right for you keep in mind that while these numbers provide you with a good
general idea of the temperature of the bag they are of course based on the
average person so you'll want to take in all different factors such as how
comfortable you are in certain temperatures what you'd eaten that day
your metabolism your sleeping pad all of that it's going to factor into how
comfortable the bag is for you okay let's move on to insulation
there are two main types of sleeping bag insulation and those are down like this
bag here and synthetic like this one down sleeping bags are filled with
feathers or a synthetic bags we use insulation that looks something like
this
the main pro of using a down sleeping bag is that it will pack small and weigh
less than a synthetic bag this means that if you have a 20 degree synthetic
bag sitting next to a 20 degree down bag the down bag will pack smaller and weigh
less than the 20 degrees synthetic bag one thing to note is that synthetic
sleeping bags will keep you warm even if they get wet whereas down when it gets
wet is not going to do very much to insulate there are down bags that have
been treated with a water repellency but if they get soaked fully through they're
not gonna provide very much insulation this steps will wreak about a cost down
sipping bags are generally considerably more expensive than synthetic some
people may have allergies too down so that's the case it's a good idea to go
ahead and get a synthetic bag if you're concerned about using down for ethical
reasons you can look for traceable ethically sourced down or just go ahead
and get synthetic there's one more thing to talk about
with down bags and that is fill power without getting too deep into it fill
power is essentially a measurement of how well the down will loft and trap
your body heat the higher the number of fill power the better the down will
compress and the lighter that it will be both of these sleeping bags are rated
for twenty degrees but this sleeping bag has a 600 fill power and this one has
850 fill power you can see that there's an obvious size difference between you
two and this bag weighs about a pound less
there are two main shapes of backpacking sleeping bags
those are mummy bags and semi rectangular packs mummy bags like this
one here are shaped like a mummy so they're narrow at the feet and then
wider here at the shoulders mummy bags are the most efficient sleeping bags for
backpacking as once you're inside the bag there's not a ton of extra air so
the bag will help retain your warmth a little bit better these bags however I
don't give you a ton of space to move around so generally speaking if you want
to sleep on your side you'll have to roll over with the mummy bag rather than
inside it semi rectangular bags covers a wide range of bag types and shapes but
these bags could be anything from bags that have a more rectangular foot box
bags that have a separate quilt additional ventilation things like that
so my particular bags give you a lot more interior space for comfort but
again they're not as efficient as well me bags because you have a lot more air
inside the bag that you have to heat you may have heard people talk about
rectangular sleeping bags these are essentially big quilts that fold over
and they're great for car camping but they're just too bulky and heavy for
backpacking there are a variety of different features that you may find on
sleeping bags some of them are really common like draft tubes those will help
keep cold air out of the zipper other features are less common such as a
pillow pocket like this one just during your pillow or a stash pocket at the
shoulder I have a friend who loves using this pocket for keeping earplugs and
that way they never get lost keep in mind that every feature you add to a bag
is probably going to add some weight so you want to pick features that you find
valuable there are women's specific sleeping bags and it's important to note
that there are differences beyond just the color since women tend to sleep
colder than men these sleeping bags will have more insulation in the torso and at
the feet women sleeping bags also have more space through the hips to
accommodate women's bodies another cool thing is that women's bags will
generally have the rating for the comfort rating listed on the bag women's
bags tend to also have a right-handed zipper so you can actually zip
right-handed zipper sleeping bags and left-handed zipper city bags together if
they're compatible the best way to tell what's a new bag is going to be right
for you is by coming into the store and trying a couple out if you want more
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