Why I'm Using A Quilt vs. A Sleeping Bag From Now On

hey y'all Dixie here today I have a confession to make and that is I'm a quilter not in a way that I'm stitching together pieces of material now but in the way that I am transitioning or have transitioned from using a mummy bag to using a quilt and I think that it's for good I have to admit I was pretty skeptical about quilts because I'm a very cold sleeper but I kept hearing different benefits of why it might be good to carry a quilt instead of your typical mummy bag and because I was going out to hike in warmer temperatures this summer or at least thought they would be warmer temperatures then I felt like it would be a safe time to get a quilt and then go out there and test it while I was filling in fire closures on the PCT this summer I took with me and enlightened equipment custom and nigma it has 10 denier nylon on the outside and on the inside and was filled with 950 fill power down the weight of this particular quilt was 15.3 5 ounces because of course they vary on the links and width that the individual needs one of the things that helped me transition to a quilt was that the Enigma has a sewn toe box that way even if the strap system didn't work properly for me or things got a little drafty at least I knew that my feet would be tucked in and warm like they were in my mummy bag now there are quilts that you can get that are designed to completely open up and they don't have that sewn toe box the main reason I wanted to try a quilt is because everybody talks about them and I couldn't say definitively that sleeping bags were better than quilts or quilts were better than sleeping bags for me because I hadn't tried it yet and everyone talks about the added benefits of saving weight and that quilts were cheaper and that there was a lot of versatility so I wanted to give it a go and then be able to form my own opinion as far as the weight savings go I looked at the enlighten equipment page and if I was to go with a sleeping bag that they offer I would go with the conundrum so for the same dimensions the fill power and the nylon on the outside and inside being 10 denier the conundrum would weigh about nineteen point one four ounces so there is some weight savings there between three to four ounces the weight savings come in because there is less material on a quilt than on your traditional sleeping bag and the idea behind that is when you're laying on your sleeping bag at night you're compressing the down that's under you anyway so the quilts are kind of designed where they can wrap under you to some extent but they don't go all the way around you like a burrito so there's a gap there but you're kept warm by your sleeping pad that's under you also you cut out literally the weight of zippers that would close you up completely in a mummy bag so the idea is that if you're not gonna be kept warm by the extra material then why tote weight that you don't need also it is said that the quilts are generally cheaper than sleeping bags and with inlighten equipment sleeping bag versus the quilt I also found that to be true cost difference between the conundrum in the same size fill material etc would have been three hundred ninety dollars versus three hundred and forty five dollars and finally the quilt was definitely more packable than the sleeping bag wasn't really an issue with the pack that I had but if you were going altra light and you had a pretty small pack then volume would definitely matter so it would benefit somebody that was really needing to conserve how much space they used on each item in their pack I also heard that quilts were more versatile I didn't really figure this would apply to me as much because I don't need something that I can hang my leg out of I don't need something that I can fold down in and cool off in the night because I'm pretty much always cold so I like to be bundled up and that's how I sleep in the rare case that I do need to cool off because it's a really hot night I would just unzip my sleeping bag so I felt like the versatility wouldn't play he'd roll but I can tell you what really did win me over with the quilts and that's I can toss and turn because I go from being a side sleeper to a stomach sleeper to the other side sleeper so I really end up flipping around and kind of squirming all throughout the night well when I have a mummy bag on I end up being like a little caterpillar you know in a cocoon and I have to be real mindful of where the zipper ends up because when you have a traditional sleep you want the zipper to be on the underside of you the side that's touching your sleeping pad that way you don't have heat escaping that area so if I found myself flipping around in the night I'd usually end up waking up a little chilly and then I'd have to you know kind of squirm around and wiggle that zipper back down to where it was either on my stomach or whatever side I was sleeping on with the quilt I didn't have any issues like that I had much more freedom of movement and I didn't find myself waking up in the middle of the night having to worry about where my zipper was because there wasn't a zipper and it was wonderful there was a lot more room to flip around in so I just didn't feel as trapped but I was still warm if you are somebody who sleeps pretty warm then a quilt would come in handy for sure where you can open it up and just kind of have it draping over you there was one night that was rather chilly and I saw that fancy seemed a little colder she was all balled up so even though I was also a little chilly I undid the strap on my sleeping bag and flopped the edge of the sleeping bag over on her it was definitely more drafty that way but she was able to stay warmer and having her more or less under the quilt with me at least partially helped keep me warm rather than if I had just been alone with it you know flopping open anyway so if you take a dog backpacking with you that could be one benefit you know being able to kind of offer them some more warmth especially if you're not a super cold sleeper before I use the quilt I knew that I was supposed to keep it cinched to the sleeping pad but I wasn't quite sure how to do that and if you watched my original video about the quilt that I was gonna carry you'll see that I actually did it wrong I just had my sleeping pad slid inside the quilt but on enlightened equipments website it does state that you really shouldn't do it like that because having the sleeping pad squishing the quilt onto the floor of your tent or whatever shelter you use it might cause abrasion and where that material because it's thinner nylon it might wear it out quickly but really the strap system works so that the bottom strap kind of controls where the sleeping is tough or how wide or how narrow it will be tucked then there is a strap that it's higher up and that just kind of keeps the top part cinched to the sleeping pad and there is a snap in the back that you can snap to kind of tighten things around your shoulders and then even a drawstring on the top so if you really want to tighten it down and prevent air from coming in you can do so and again with cold sleepers you will probably use all of those functions some people might freak out because quilts have no hoods but the sleeping bag that I was using before didn't have a hood anyway there are down hoods you can purchase separately if you are a cold sleeper and wanted to help keep your head warm where I sleep most of the time with my down coat that has a hood so that works out just fine for me usually I have the down puffy coat and a beanie under it in cooler weather now as I mentioned before I expected that the weather would be pretty warm out there because it's the summertime and it's gonna be you know at least warm enough where a 30-degree quilt should do me just fine but it got like in the lower 30s in some of these stretches also it rained a lot which I kind of expected that in Washington and in some parts of Oregon but I ended up being ok even with the 30-degree quilt now there were a couple of nights where I was like on the verge of being a bit uncomfortable but on those nights I had on two pairs of socks my leggings that I sleep in my long sleeve top my puffy coat and my rain gear and that's not uncommon for me I've done that in a 10-degree bag on the PCT and on the CDT before so I was actually impressed with how the 30-degree quilt was able to keep me warm now on those particular nights I could remove the straps on the quilt and just clip the little two ends where the straps normally connect to together to help the quilt be more snug but then on those nights I would need to be a little bit more conscious when I was tossing and turning because then it's fitting more tightly around me and then you know when I flip it might expose those openings on the back like it would the zipper in my traditional z-pak sleeping bag that I had that way it just kind of trapped in more body heat and wasn't really drafty at all but again there were only a couple of nights or that cold and I was actually pretty impressed with how its performed now with that said I would at least have a 20 degree quilt on a thru-hike and knowing me I would probably go with a 10 degree since I take longer to do it through hike usually and I'm starting earlier when it's pretty chilly and finishing later when sometimes there's snow falling then for me personally I would probably err on the side of being warm and go with a 10 degree another important factor to your sleeping system for staying warm is your sleeping pads having that insulation under you is definitely important in how warm you'll stay now for a three season backpacking and camping it's recommended that you have an R value which is just the insulation number the higher the number the warmer it's going to keep you so it's recommended that you have an r-value of at least two four three season backpacking the sleeping pad that I use with this quilt was the therm-a-rest NeoAir X light and I believe that our value of that pad is a two point five I actually still used my short sleeping pad and slept with my pack under my legs and it kept me warm down again to the lower 30s I probably would have been more comfortable if I had the sit pad that comes with the mariposa actually in the back of that pack but I carried fancy Z light pad so she used that at night so there wasn't that extra added insulation but if you did use a pack like that with a short sleeping pad then you should be fine now although the pack kept me warm enough being up under my legs basically from my knees down to my feet it doesn't mean that that's the best idea for the quilts as I mentioned before it is thinner nylon so it could be more abrasive to be on the pack or there might be things that could snag it more easily it didn't wear out on me anywhere that I could notice in two months so do use caution if you use your pack under your legs could potentially be better on a full length sleeping pad that's meant for sleeping bag and quilts to be on top of them just another couple things I want to mention on the quilt in general one concern that I've heard from folks is they feel like sleeping directly on the sleeping pad and not having the material that's softer of a sleeping bag kind of protecting you from maybe the awkward feeling of the sleeping pad might you know be uncomfortable I can't speak to that because again I tend to sleep in a long sleeve shirt and leggings so my skin is never really touching the pad directly my face does and that doesn't seem to bother me because I don't use a pillow so if any of y'all who sleep in less than you know long sleeves and long leggings then I'd love to hear your take on that if it's been uncomfortable for you at all or if you find yourself kind of sticking to the pad and for anyone who uses a quilt during trade up legitimate like winter camping because I would still be a little concerned with that so I'm just curious if any of y'all do that and how it's worked for you other than if I went winter camping or was in you know extremely cold weather I feel like I'm pretty much a permanent convert now on the quilts versus the sleeping bags thank you to all of you who insisted that even though I'm a cold sleeper I might like the quilt because I really do love this quilt I plan to take it with me to do the Camino in Spain this fall we'll be seeing and I'll bear gaze so I'm not really worried about the temperature rating but anyway more about that later that trip if you've tried a quilt and you didn't like it please feel free to share in the comments what you did not enjoy about aquila that way folks who are kind of on the fence on whether they want to go for it and make the leap or not can have some other perspective because I'm just one person with one opinion but anyway thank y'all so much for watching and we will see y'all next time

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Views: 322,809

Rating: 4.9138441 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic

Id: efWpMJSBkps

Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019