Compact Mummy Sleeping Bag Backpacking Lightweight Camping Hiking Intermediate. In addition to the fit of a bag or quilt are the little details that can detract or add to comfort. As for women’s ultralight sleeping bags, the Feathered Friends Egret UL 20 is the best of the best. For some ultralight backpackers, spending more is worth it to drop a few extra ounces, but as the Econ line from Hammock Gear proves, you don't need to break the bank for a quality lightweight quilt. Designed specifically for women, the Joule 21 offers more room at the hips, a tighter fit around the shoulders, and extra insulation in critical heat-loss areas. Any bags with similar characteristics that cost more than $200, we called a premium backpacking sleeping bag… The continuous baffles let you position the insulation where you need it, while protecting against unintended downshifting. There is only one standard for sleeping bag temperature ratings, the EN 13537 standard. It features a full-length #5 YKK zipper, interlocking draft tubes, and a full down collar to seal in the heat without adding excess bulk. When you’re backpacking through colder regions or hiking up past the tree line, you may need to drop that recommendation down to 0℉. In general, hooded mummy bags were a bit warmer by allowing us to burrow deep into the bag, whereas quilts inevitably allowed cold air to creep into the thermal envelope whenever we moved during the night, and never felt quite as toasty. $275.00 - $295.00 (48) 48 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. We recommend unpacking your bag well before crawling into it so that it has time to regain its loft (and therefore maximize its warmth). Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo Ultralight Tent. Our Editors independently research, test, and rate the best products. When you’re counting ounces and pressed for pack space, go with the Big Agnes Hitchens UL 20. Although a great introduction, it may not be a product that will grow with the owner as she becomes more advanced in their backpacking objectives. $85.49. The Down Hugger 900 #2 features a patented Super Spiral Stretch System, multi-tube construction with flow-gate technology, dual insulated zipper draft tubes, auto-locking zipper limits, a drawcord for face hole adjustment, and a neck baffle shoulder collar. Our 2020 review compares 13 top models currently available. Here’s the golden rule for temperature ratings: take the stated temperature rating and add 10 degrees to estimate the comfortable limit. A warm night in the Black Canyon was a great excuse for Cowboy camping in the Katabatic Gear Palisade 30. The clear choice for hikers looking for the … Hanging out to watch the sunset and eat dinner in the award winning Feathered Friends Flicker 40, on an overnight trip into the Uncompahgre Wilderness in Colorado. High fill power goose down is the highest warmth-to-weight insulation out there, but is much more expensive than duck down, even with comparable fill power. All ultralight sleeping bags, but especially quilts, are designed to be part of a sleep system: the bag, the pad, and your clothing. The ZPacks Full Zip Sleeping Bag hits the sweet spot with weight, warmth, and compressibility. Fill: 16 oz. You can follow Mac on Instagram at @macmisseldine. Keep in mind all these scores are comparative, as we could only speak for the products we test, not everything that exists in the entire ultralight sleeping bag market. During our testing on cold nights, we found that some quilts left something to be desired, and would have liked some extra insulation below us to fill in the gaps. Draft collar – also known as a neck baffle, is an insulated tube sewn into the inside of the bag … What does it mean to have an "Ultralight" sleeping bag? Our head testers are 5'11" and 5'8" and fairly trim, so we ordered all of the test models to suit a person 6'0" tall and standard width. There aren’t as many women’s sleeping bags as there are men’s/unisex models, but it’s a growing trend that’ll hopefully continue to expand. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com. The Down Hugger 900 #2 uses premium 900 fp EX goose down from waterfowl in regions with seasonal temperature extremes. Combined with an elasticized thread that creates small gathers in the quilting, the result is an unrivaled comfort and fit. Warmth From Beneath: Your sleeping pad is just as important as your sleeping bag for warmth at night. In the realm of ultralight sleeping bag design, sometimes one category must be sacrificed to aid another. To us, there's really only one way to test how a product truly performs - by using it. Not only did it have a ton of features — full-length zipper with a reinforced draft tube, drawcord enclosure at the feet, dual drawcord and neck baffle at the head, optional attachment points for DIY pad straps — but they all worked well. Manufacturers provide a temperature rating to help buyers understand a sleeping bag’s heat-retention capabilities. The Flicker 40 is one the quilts in the review that is capable of opening up fully into a blanket on warmer nights. We think that the best balance of all three is the Enlightened Equipment Revelation 20. You won’t find any sewn-through seams here, and the #5 YKK two-way zipper is covered by a draft tube to prevent cold air from passing through. Because some of these categories are more significant than others, we weighted each one according to the relative importance for an ideal sleeping bag, scoring each metric from 1 to 10. Once you get past the sticker shock that comes with upgrading from synthetic to down insulation, here are a few pointers on what to look for in a sleeping bag with down insulation: To save weight, most manufacturers use 10-denier nylon ripstop fabric on ultralight sleeping bags. Some quilts also were too narrow to wrap ourselves in on chillier nights, no matter how much we repositioned. The Vesper 32 is impressively light and packable at 15 ounces, but the compression sack made concerning ripping noises when we tightened it down. No matter how fast and light you go, eventually, you'll have to stop and recover. This isn’t just a top 10 ultralight sleeping bag — it’s a strong contender for the #1 position. Sleeping bags that could do both with ease were the highest scorers when it came to versatility, and sleeping bags that pigeonholed themselves into only being practical in one season or temperature range scored the lowest. For insulation, ZPacks uses 900 fp white European goose down that outperforms 950 fp goose down tested in the US. Higher prices can mean a higher quality product, but not always. There are those who go light, and there are those who go truly ultralight. Many other bags/quilts scored just a little lower, including the Sierra Designs Cloud 35, which was unique out of all the sleeping bags we've tested in that it does away with a zippered design completely, rather using an extra-wide comforter for you to wrap your body around. A hoodless mummy bag that is rated to 20F features box baffle construction, and a DWR coated Pertex Nylon shell, the Zpacks Classic is ideal for cold nights. Tired of Sleeping on the ground? Weight: 1 lb. You can learn more about our editorial and affiliate policy, 12 Best Hammocks for Camping and Backpacking, REI Co-op Cool Trail Split Pack Cooler Review, Helinox Chair Zero Review: The Ultimate Backpacking Chair, Rhodes Footwear Huxley Boots & 10 More Chelsea Boots, Weight – 28 oz. The REI Magma Trail 30 quilt fared pretty well in our testing when it came to warmth for a quilt but was a bit finicky to set up correctly. Best Women’s Sleeping Bag. The Aya’s shell is constructed with a durable 20D nylon ripstop OSMO DWR fabric. Up top, you’ll enjoy an oversized interior anti-draft collar, contoured hood baffles to cradle your head at night, and a low-profile cord lock that lets you un-cinch the hood with one hand. Despite being made for a 6'0" person, some bags were too short, making it so that we couldn't comfortably cinch the collar over the shoulders, or wear the hood over our heads. The comfiest bags gave us the most room, allowing us to toss and turn unfettered. With all the systems necessary for backpacking and other overnight wilderness travel, purchasing wisely can save you quite a bit of cash without compromising performance in the backcountry. These sleeping bags take the female form into account by adding some extra space where it’s needed, tightening the bag in other areas, and adding extra insulation in places where female campers tend to experience cold spots. The difference in having a full zipper versus just intermittent buttons or straps to enclose the quilt is a game-changer for trapping in heat. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. The full-length, locking YKK two-way zipper features an anti-snag slider and zipper garage. Let’s talk plastic. However, the current model is the warmest quilt we tested, and quite comfortable in a wide range of temperatures, and it scored well in our tests. Feathered Friends spared no expense and used only the very best and lightest materials in this model. On warm summer nights, the unzipped bag functions as a large quilt that’s big enough to cover two adults. When something is designed well, why change things up for the sake of change? Fill: … Warmth Rating: 16°F / -8.9°C. Combined, they spend over 150 nights a year in a sleeping bag, from shiver bivvies on the sides of mountains to comfy nights around a campfire with friends, and we know how to get a good night's sleep outside. Ultralight fabrics, both on the shell and baffles, reduce weight but usually make the bags more delicate. Zippers that wouldn't stay zipped or were continually getting stuck in fabric, pad straps that wouldn't stay attached or wouldn't lock in place, and drawcords that didn't have buckles or wouldn't stay tight, are examples of poorly performing features that caused us to knock the score down a bit. These bags only use high loft down, most of them with 800 or higher fill power. These bags are also designed to be part of a sleep system, including an insulated pad and the warm clothing you'll already be carrying. Ultimately, the Feathered Friends Vireo UL scored as the most comfortable sleeping bag or quilt whose vast and spacious cut in the torso is designed to accommodate the extra fill of an insulated jacket, but also left us feeling free to move about as desired. The full-length zipper means that on cold nights, it is possible to seal it up entirely and trap the warm air in with the help of a neck baffle with dual drawcords. It’s time to ditch your tent and embrace the hammock. Much of its warmth comes from removing features that add to the versatility of a quilt. More importantly, it’ll keep you warmer with less weight as genuine down retains heat better than synthetic insulation. Then we compared them to similar features on the other bags and rated them in comparison to all the others. (medium), Fits – 5’3” (small), 5’9” inches (medium), Fits – 5’6” tall (regular), 6’ tall (long). The Sierra Designs Cloud 35 also had a great set of particularly unique features. WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU IN A SLEEPING BAG? For example, the position of drawstrings, feel of a fabric, or the shape of the hood can make or break a good night's sleep. The Nikwax Hydrophobic Down isn’t fully waterproof, but it’s pretty damn close. How can we improve GearLab? A solo campsite up in a side valley of the Khumbu, the famous part of the Himalaya that is home to Mt. Sleeping bags work by trapping many tiny little pockets of air in a layer of insulation, which prevents heat loss to the air around you. It’s wrapped in a breathable, water-resistant shell to protect you and the down insulation from condensation. Most of the quilts we tested aren't designed to enclose the user fully but instead attach to an insulated sleeping pad to form a warm envelope. (small), 29 oz. Besides just being able to be used in both hot and cold seasons, we also looked at whether a bag would be serviceable in wet climates. Follow this, and you’ll never have to worry about an underperforming sleeping bag. If you sleep well, you'll perform well the next day. Related: How We Tested Ultralight Sleeping Bags A solo campsite up in a side valley of the Khumbu, the famous part of the Himalaya that is home to Mt. It’s ultralight at 27 ounces, compresses down to 6” x 7” with compression straps, and doesn’t sacrifice quality or durability to pull it off. With this in mind, we tested these bags by sleeping in them - outside - a lot. Ultralight backpackers differ from regular backpackers by having a base weight (non-consumable pack weight) of under ten pounds. Versatility is the ability of the bag to be used comfortably in the most possible (different) situations. A common example is higher quality down to reduce weight, but raising the price. Can be used as both a quilt and mummy bag, Full-length zipper with baffle gives you complete enclosure, Uses the highest fill power down available, Not as feather-light as the lightest bags available, Uses high-quality DownTek treated 850 fill power down, Packs down to the size of a large grapefruit. Best for: Any outdoors adventure. As the second most important metric, weight accounted for 25% of a product's final score. So far, down feathers are the best warmth-to-weight insulation on the market, so we've only tested down bags. We loved the adjustability of the pad attachment straps on this pleasant evening. It didn't score quite as high as the Feathered Friends Flicker, but for a reasonable price plus free shipping in the USA, it's hard to find a bag as versatile and warm as this one. With a weight of about one pound for the regular size, this is a bag worth taking on backpacking … With differentiated hood and neck drawcords, it’s easy to adjust the top to your size and needs. We assembled an all-star crew to put these ultralight sleeping bags to the test, including Andy Wellman, Ethan Newman, and Justin Simoni. Not an issue if you simply stuff this bag into the bottom of your pack sans sack. The Summerlite is our favorite mummy bag among all we tested. (long), Fits – 5’5” (small), 6’ (regular), 6’6” (long), Total Weight – 22.4 oz. We tested the Econ Burrow in the backcountry of Zion National Park and Joshua Tree, and it kept us warm on nights around freezing and packed down surprisingly well too. Although easily available and faring well-enough on our warmth tests, we still had a few unanswered questions dealing with its long-term durability, and lack of versatility. Most sleeping bags and quilts come with a temperature rating recommended by their manufacturer (i.e., 20F). NEMO Tempo 35 Degree Synthetic Women’s Sleeping Bag. Most zips run the full length of the sleeping bag, however ultralight sleeping bags save weight with a ½ or ¾ length zip. It's lighter or as light as most of the quilts in this category, too, and it's really versatile. Weight: 2 lbs 7 oz. Down provides the highest warmth-to-weight ratio of any insulation, which is why it is the insulation of choice in the very lightest products. REI Co-op Magma 15 Sleeping Bag - Men's. If the compromises we've documented across all these products in the name of wearing the coveted "Ultralight" label is too much, consider more traditional backpacking sleeping bags. A sleeping bag is simply a down-filled sack or blanket designed to keep you warm at night, and the features are all those little components that make it work. We also looked at whether a bag used a DWR (durable water repellent) treatment on its outer shell to protect it from absorbing liquids such as condensation, or used a naturally water-resistant fabric such as Pertex Quantum to accomplish the same thing. Comparing and testing mummy bags in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, we found that the Vireo had by far the most spacious fit through the torso, and was also really light! The Summerlite sandwiches high-quality 850 fill power down between lightweight 12D fabric coated in a robust DWR to make one toasty package for a good night's sleep. As the zipper extends all the way to the bottom, you can kick out your feet on warm nights or wear it around the campsite like a comforter on chilly mornings. All of the bags on our list today are rated at 20℉, so they’re solid picks for three-season adventures. The one sacrifice it does make is a tighter cut, especially at the legs, so it may not be best suited for larger or more restless sleeping folks. No matter if this is your first foray into the ultralight world or you're an old hat looking to update your gear, we're here to help you find the perfect bag for your ultralight adventures. We strongly believe that you should choose your bag on the conditions and temperatures you expect to encounter. For many of us, the weight to warmth ratio isn't the only consideration of our gear; it's also price. Justin has explored the more exhilarating peaks and ridgelines of Colorado, finishing bold fastpack routes on his unsupported multi-day adventures, and has assisted with guided ultralight backpacking trips in Kings Canyon NP, Rocky Mountain NP, and Gates of the Arctic NP. … Whether you are trying to ventilate on a hot night or bundle up to stay warm when the temperature drops, this bag has you covered. The sleeping pad sleeve keeps your underlying pad from getting loose in the middle of the night, puts the insulation of the pad right where it needs to be, and gives the whole system rigidity to do its magic. Even if it does perform better, is it worth the extra cost? Genuine down — whether it’s goose, duck, natural, or hydrophobic — will always weigh less and compress better than synthetic insulation. It has comfort features and smart construction that will keep you cozy during your nights outdoors. Ethan has worked professionally outdoors for over a decade, including working as a rock climbing guide, wildland firefighter, wilderness ranger, and environmental educator. In general, quilts are more versatile than ultralight mummy bags, whose half-length zipper designed with weight savings in mind often made it even harder to ventilate on warm nights. We found it's durability, lightweight, and packability to be worthy of its one time fee for all your lounging needs. Temperature ratings are independently tested for veracity, but they can be a little misleading. While the fill is one of the key factors in the warmth of a bag, we found that the design is just as big a factor, and can be the difference between sleeping comfortably and shivering miserably. If you’re a cold sleeper, consider upgrading to the Feathered Friends Petrel UL 10 for a little extra warmth. If you’re not sold yet, check out the laundry list of premium finishing touches. It comes with a 5.9” x 11.7” tapered bias stretch stuff sack, and a convenient storage bag for use at home. On bottom, you’ll enjoy a comfortable footbox that follows your natural foot position. The Summerlite kept us warm and dry on a rainy overnight in the Canaan Mountain Wilderness. The cold truth is the stated temperature rating for a sleeping bag is usually its lower limit. Read review: Feathered Friends Flicker 40 UL. The Helinox Chair Zero is the chair for all your adventures. This draws the down closer to your body it in the us, your,! 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