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Ultralight Sleeping Bags
By Steve Gillman, Thu Dec 8th
Why ultralight sleeping bags? Because ultralight isonly made possible by cutting the weight of the "big three;" thebackpack, shelter and sleeping bag. The days of five-poundsummer bags are gone - at least for those of us who prefer to golight. One Pound Ultralight Sleeping Bags There are several one-pound ultralight sleeping bags on themarket now. My own is 17 ounces. It actually weighs 19 ounceswith the stuff sack, but stuff sacks aren't always necessary. Itcan be stuffed directly into my pack or put in a half-ouncebread bag. It's a down sleeping bag, and has kept me warm downto below freezing - warmer, in fact, than my four-pound bag usedto keep me. It appears fragile, and I've babied it over the years, but itmay be tougher than I thought. I've used it from sea-level to16,000 feet, in all types of weather, usually camping under atarp, yet it still has its loft, and it appears almost new. Thezipper goes only half-way down, to save weight, and it's a mummybag, but I'm 6'3", 165 pounds, and I've always been comfortablein it. Sleeping bags weighing around a pound are summer bags, rateddown
to 40 to 50 degrees fahrenheit. A quick check of the newestbags out there, though, shows that even one or two of the 0degree bags are under three pounds now. These are down filledbags, of course, as down is still the lightest insulation forits weight.Another big advantage of any down sleeping bag is it'scompressibility. Nothing packs smaller than down. However, agood synthetic bag is probably better than down if you areregularly getting it wet. Several sythetic-fill sleeping bags now come close to down intheir warmth-to-weight ratio. At least one summer bag, usingPolarguard fill, weighs an even 16 ounces. That's amazinglylight for a synthetic bag. Using Ultralight Sleeping Bags Ultralight sleeping bags generally aren't tough. The lighter thebag, the more fragile, but treat them gently, and they workfine. I've used mine for many years, in snow and rain, fromEcuador to California to Michigan, and it shows little wear.Baby these things, and they can last a long time.
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