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Thread: Sleep System

  1. #21

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    That's my understanding as well. I have two of the emergency bivys but they are not vented. I haven't picked up the Escape yet but it looks like it has Velcro closure vents on the sides? If I have a few miserable nights I'll be upgrading the system in the first month on the trail but I think the 30 degree bag with the fleece liner will handle march and April. I'll have the Escape bivy in my pack till I find out how right, or wrong I was about my gear choices!

  2. #22
    Registered User sketcher709's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TwistedCF View Post
    " I think the 30 degree bag with the fleece liner will handle march and April."
    So, you think that would keep you comfy down into the teens? How about the teens with sweaty or damp clothing because the day before your clothes got wet/damp so on this cold day you hiked in some of you sleeping items? Maybe it's snowing and you get to walk to keep warm because it's too far to hike out once you realize you are under prepared. Keeping in mind a 30 degree bag will likely keep you warm down to 38-40.


    March can be WINTER weather. It is about impossible to use the same system for 0-10 degrees as for 75 at night. I would err on the side of caution hiking with any possibility of winter like weather and any unplanned contingencies. All you need to do is have your spare set of socks on because your other pair are drying out and step in something and get wet and you are screwed, especially id the rest of your system is lacking.

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Slo-go'en View Post
    With a Feb 1 start date, the one thing you don't want to skimp on is the sleeping bag and a way to keep it dry. It will litterly mean the difference between life and death.

    A 40 degree bag, a silk liner and SOL bivy will not cut it. That combination is even marginal in April.

    A 0 degree bag, a silk liner and a SOL bivy would be the approperate combination for Feb. There is the potentual to have sub zero mornings at times. Although, it would be wise to head to town when those temps are forecast.
    Couldn't agree more. The OP's first mentioned setup won't cut it. And the single CCF pad underneath is laughable. What does it offer? 2R? 2.5R?? Needs to be at least 5-6R underneath.

    Quote Originally Posted by 4eyedbuzzard View Post
    An SOL bivy might work for a night or two. But, it's a vapor barrier, so it pretty much stops evaporative and convective heat losses. Because it blocks water vapor it will lead to condensation accumulating from your body's perspiration on and in whatever sleeping bag you are using. As you sleep, both heat and moisture from your body "travel" through the sleeping bag. It's a slow process. But as long as you are in the bag providing a heat source, most of that moisture will travel through and evaporate out of the bag. [Bags still retain some additional moisture but come to an equilibrium point with their environment and use.] If you put what amounts to a vapor barrier over the bag, you trap pretty much all moisture and it will condense. In February that will likely lead to either a wet bag or, if below freezing, ice forming on and possibly even inside your sleeping bag, and it will then provide even less warmth. It's very hard to dry out a wet and/or frozen sleeping bag in February (you need heat and airflow, aka a clothes dryer). If you're going to start in February, there's really no realistic way around a breathable 0 to 10 degree bag or system (like two bags or quilts). Keep it dry, and allow it to air out as soon as you get out of it (while it is still warm). Warm. Cheap. Light. Choose any two.
    The only way the SOL bivy will work is used inside his down bag and not outside. The best way to ruin a functional down bag is to wrap it in a vapor barrier bivy.

    Quote Originally Posted by sketcher709 View Post
    So, you think that would keep you comfy down into the teens? How about the teens with sweaty or damp clothing because the day before your clothes got wet/damp so on this cold day you hiked in some of you sleeping items? Maybe it's snowing and you get to walk to keep warm because it's too far to hike out once you realize you are under prepared. Keeping in mind a 30 degree bag will likely keep you warm down to 38-40.


    March can be WINTER weather. It is about impossible to use the same system for 0-10 degrees as for 75 at night. I would err on the side of caution hiking with any possibility of winter like weather and any unplanned contingencies. All you need to do is have your spare set of socks on because your other pair are drying out and step in something and get wet and you are screwed, especially id the rest of your system is lacking.
    Any backpacking I do from February 1 to March 30 is with a -15F down bag and a two pad system underneath---an 4R inflatable with a 3.5R ccf pad on top.

  4. #24
    Registered User Venchka's Avatar
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    We also don’t know if the OP is a warm, neutral or cold sleeper? The answer to that question could make a 15-20 degree (or more) difference in the REAL temperature rating of the winter sleep system.
    Another fly in the ointment: Bailing out to town accommodations could easily end up being more expensive than a decent, quality sleep system to start with.
    Buy quality once. The most economical solution.
    Wayne
    PS: Last month we were in northwest North Carolina when the first winter storm of the season blasted through.
    Grandfather Mountain recorded sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts of 90+ mph.
    The mountains make their own weather. The mountains don’t play.
    Be dry. Be warm. Be safe.
    Wayne
    Last edited by Venchka; 11-18-2019 at 12:54.

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Venchka View Post
    We also don’t know if the OP is a warm, neutral or cold sleeper? The answer to that question could make a 15-20 degree (or more) difference in the REAL temperature rating of the winter sleep system.
    Another fly in the ointment: Bailing out to town accommodations could easily end up being more expensive than a decent, quality sleep system to start with.
    Buy quality once. The most economical solution.
    Wayne
    PS: Last month we were in northwest North Carolina when the first winter storm of the season blasted through.
    Grandfather Mountain recorded sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts of 90+ mph.
    The mountains make their own weather. The mountains don’t play.
    Be dry. Be warm. Be safe.
    Wayne
    Totally agree and concur etc. Buy quality once is the pertinent advice. There's one big ticket item that allows a backpacker to go out in the winter---a state of the art goose down sleeping bag---and the best you can afford. Feathered Friends, Western Mountaineering, Valandre---take your pick.

    And I was out last month in perhaps that very same Windstorm---I was at 5,000 feet in NC perched on the leading edge of a ridge in a high mountain gap and Man Oh Man my tent got walloped and barely made it through! MY WX radio pinged "winds to 70mph" and dangit my tent and I experienced those hell winds. Survived of course but glad I had my 4 season tent.

    "The mountains don't play" means---the AT runs along the mountain ridges and the high points where the weather is always the worst and where the snow is always the deepest. And the cold the lowest. Carry the best lightest gear you can find and survive the best Miss Nature has to offer.

  6. #26
    Registered User Venchka's Avatar
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    Western Mountaineering Alpinlite for sale at WhiteBlaze.
    I own one of these bags. Personally tested to 15 degrees with my usual September in the Rockies sleep system.
    With the right accessories (R 5 minimum pad) , long johns, etc. this bag would be a minimum choice in February, March & April.
    https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthr...38#post2259138

    Wayne
    Last edited by Venchka; 11-18-2019 at 20:04.

  7. #27

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    Thanks for all the recent responses. I should have updated this sooner but I thought the thread was dead. I had a chance to spend two nights with my sleep system at 20 degrees f and it did well in bone dry conditions. Marmot 30 degree bag with Sea to summit fleece liner and closed cell foam pad. One night on a raised platform with air flow underneath and one night on the ground with good ground cover,(pine straw). I slept trough with no shivering wake ups both nights but again, it was 20 and it was dry. I don't think I would perish with this equipment but I don't think I have a huge margin for comfort so I've made some changes. I have a start date of March 1st and I purchased a 0 degree synthetic bag. It's heavier for sure but it still packs with my other equipment and pushes my weight up to 32 pounds with five days of food and two liters of water. I doubt I'll be carrying five days of food often but I'm using it as a baseline for pack weight.
    "I love the unimproved works of God" Horace Kephart 1862-1931

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