[at-l] Late Fall, Early Winter Sleeping Bags

[Ken Bennett]

On 9/11/06, jplynch <jplynch at crosslink.net> wrote:
>
> I've always been hesitant to use a down bag on the east coast considering
> all the rain and wet weather we get.  I gather that you've not had any
> problems with your down bags?  Do they ever get wet?  Do they shed water
> pretty well?
>



Hi, Jim,

This is something of a controversial topic. There's always someone yelling
about synthetic bags being the only safe choice because they are "warm when
wet" and that down is useless and will kill you.  Well, in my own personal
experience, #1, nothing is warm when wet; and #2, it's awfully hard to get a
down bag wet enough to cause problems.

Think about it this way: where does down come from? Do you suppose those
geese and ducks worried a lot about staying out of the water? Hmmm.

The answer to your last question -- do my down bags shed water pretty well
-- is easy: I don't know, and I don't expect to find out. I try not to let
myself get in a position where I have water running over my bag. I use a
tarp, or a tarptent, or sleep in a shelter on the AT, all of which keep me
out of the rain. I choose my tarp location carefully, so I don't have water
running under my camp site in a storm. My bags have *very* breathable
shells, so any moisture can evaporate easily through the bags from body
heat. (I am not a fan of any sort of "waterproof/breathable" shell fabric
for down sleeping bags. YMMV.)

That said, I have had some issues with my bag's shell fabric getting wet.
Once from snow, when I got caught in a blizzard under a 5x8-foot tarp.
(Actually, the bag didn't get wet in that case -- I just shook the snow
off.) Once from hammocking in a very bad storm, with wind blowing a lot of
rain and sleet up under the hammock tarp. I was toasty inside the bag, but
it took a couple of hours to dry out the shell fabric. Finally, I once had a
water bladder open up inside my pack, and a couple of liters of water got
inside my trash bag pack liner, and soaked my sleeping bag stuff sack pretty
well. There were big wet patches in my bag, but again, it was only the shell
fabric, not the down, and my body heat easily dried out the bag by morning.

I often use a sleeping bag cover with a breathable top fabric and a
waterproof bottom. Mine is an older model, but there are several companies
that make them:

*http://tinyurl.com/94arz
http://www.titaniumgoat.com/Bivy.html

*I use my sleeping pad *inside* the bivy, which means that I never roll off
my pad. The mesh keeps the bugs off my face, and the breathable top fabric
lets my body moisture evaporate during the night. (These are NOT waterproof
bivies.) They are very useful under a tarp and in AT shelters (no bugs, no
mice), plus I can sleep out under the stars and not worry about frost or
dew.

Hope this helps.

--Ken