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Ultralight Sleeping Bags
By Steve Gillman, Thu Dec 8th
Why ultralight sleeping bags? Because ultralight
is only made possible by cutting the weight of the "big three;" the
backpack, shelter and sleeping bag. The days of five-pound summer bags
are gone - at least for those of us who prefer to go light.
One Pound Ultralight Sleeping Bags
There are several one-pound ultra light sleeping bags on the market
now. My own is 17 ounces. It actually weighs 19 ounces with the stuff
sack, but stuff sacks aren't always necessary. It can be stuffed directly
into my pack or put in a half-ounce bread bag. It's a down sleeping
bag, and has kept me warm down to below freezing - warmer, in fact,
than my four-pound bag used to keep me.
It appears fragile, and I've babied it over the years, but it may
be tougher than I thought. I've used it from sea-level to 16,000 feet,
in all types of weather, usually camping under a tarp, yet it still
has its loft, and it appears almost new. The zipper goes only half-way
down, to save weight, and it's a mummy bag, but I'm 6'3", 165 pounds,
and I've always been comfortable in it.
Sleeping bags weighing around a pound are summer bags, rated down
to 40 to
50 degrees fahrenheit. A quick check of the newest bags out there,
though, shows that even one or two of the 0 degree bags are under three
pounds now. These are down filled bags, of course, as down is still
the lightest insulation for its weight.
Another big advantage of any down sleeping bag is it's compressibility.
Nothing packs smaller than down. However, a good synthetic bag is
probably better than down if you are regularly getting it wet.
Several sythetic-fill sleeping bags now come close to down in their
warmth-to-weight ratio. At least one summer bag, using Polar guard
fill, weighs an even 16 ounces. That's amazingly light for a synthetic
bag.
Using Ultralight Sleeping Bags
Ultralight sleeping bags generally aren't tough. The lighter the
bag, the more fragile, but treat them gently, and they work fine.
I've used mine for many years, in snow and rain, from Ecuador to
California to Michigan, and it shows little wear. Baby these things,
and they can last a long time.
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