If you’re going to do a winter bugout one of the most important pieces of survival gear you can own is a GOOD sleeping bag.
Back in the 80’s I was sent to Norway for a month and we slept in ten man tents using extreme cold weather sleeping bags. They were comprised of an outer shell and an inner bag and I slept in -40 F temperatures in it with no problems, but it was the heaviest sleeping bag I’ve ever seen. At least twelve pounds and it was bulky!
Today’s sleeping bags are marvels of technology. Lightweight, but warm, they can compress down to a very small size using a compression bag. They shouldn’t be stored this way as it will destroy the loft of the bag, but when you’re out hiking the more room you can squeeze out of your pack the better.
There are a couple of types of bag to consider: synthetic and down. They also come in mummy or rectangular configuration. Synthetic bags tend to run a tad heavier than the down, but they’ll still still keep you somewhat warm even when they get wet. A down bag will not.
My personal choice is a synthetic mummy bag. I have a Mountain Hardwear Lamina cold weather bag good to about minus 15 degrees and a lighter bag that keeps me warm down to 15 degrees. I’ve experimented with different types of “sleep systems,” like a poncho liner inside a rectangular fleece bag,
and finally concluded that a sleeping bag is the warmest and lightest way to stay warm. One other thing to look for in the cold weather bags is a neck baffle, which will help keep the heat in at night when you move around. If it’s cold enough you may want to sleep with a wool hat as well.
Ranger Man and I were discussing sleeping bags awhile back and he believes that the rating system is totally arbitrary. I agreed with him, but then I thought about it some more and figured that it would have to be because of the difference in people’s abilities to generate heat. Men, you know what I’m talking about. In the summer when you go to bed your wife won’t get close to you because you’re like a furnace, but in the winter she’s on you like a heat-seeking missle. If I got into a sleeping bag and was just barely comfortable my wife would be freezing because our ability to generate heat is different. They can give a rough temperature range, but it would up to the person in the bag to decide if they are warm or not.
Do your homework before buying a sleeping bag and if possible get inside it first. If you’ve never tried a mummy bag they’re not quite as roomy as one of the rectangular bags, but if you’re camping out in winter you’ll be happier with a mummy type bag. Some
of them have baffles around the neck that help keep the warmth inside where it belongs. My sleeping bag (pictured on the right) has the baffle.
Sleeping Pads
One other important piece of gear to consider for coldweather sleeping is the sleeping pad or mat. A sleeping pad is not to make sure you have a nice soft place to sleep at night, it’s to insulate you from the ground. They do provide some cushioning, but if you were to take your super-warm mummy bag out and sleep directly on the frozen ground you’d be frozen too.
There are many different types of sleeping mats, but when I’m out camping I try to live by the KISS rule. I have a plain old foam pad that I use. They have air pads that you might think would be great, but if you put a hole in it you’re in trouble. I’ve also tried the 3/4 pads that are about 3/4 the length of your body. I didn’t care for this type of pad either. Experts advise that if you’re going to be sleeping out in cold weather to use two pads, but I’ve slept on frozen lakes and cold mountain tops before with just one pad and it was enough to keep me nice and warm. Experiment with your gear before you have to rely on it!
If things work out I’ll be camping out this weekend – January 15, 2010 – and I’ll report back about the gear I used and how it held up against the cold.
-Jarhead Survivor
BTW: Here’s a tip for keeping warm when you first get in your bag at night when the temps are below zero. Take your water bottle(s) and fill them full of hot water, then slip one down by your feet and hold the other one near your abdomen. This will start you out nice and toasty warm. Make sure the bottles aren’t leaking though!
18 comments
This is a place where I am sorely lacking. I have a good bag rated down to about 0. I can add approx 15 degrees to that by adding a pancho liner. The problem is BULK and the ability to stow and carry said bag in mobile fashion. I really want one of those itty bitty compresion bags that will get small enough to fit inside my pack, but I hv yet to liberate the 100s of dollars it will take me to aquire said asset. I can usually find things like that WAY cheaper than open market but this one is one that has evaded even my great scrounging abilities. I have camped in the kind of wheather we have right now(you know, teen temp., snow on the ground, utterly miserable) and I recognize the need for good gear. One tends to recognize that even more when your behind is frozen to the ground. Currently, I have a Pancho and Liner in my bag(s) and thats IT. I feel that given the current temps it would WOEFULLY inadiquate.
Hey Spook45 – I’m not sure what kind of compression sack you’re looking at, but the ones I use run in the $20 range. Here’s a Kelty one: http://www.sunnysports.com/prod/KLTCSS.html?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=KLTCSS as an example.
Jut go online to google and do a search. I’ve got a couple of them laying around. The only thing you want to watch out for is once you get it in the compression bag you don’t want to leave it in there all the time as it will destory the loft of your bag. (That’s what makes the bag fluffly and warm.)
A down bag will compress much better than a synthetic bag. I’ve had both and to me, nothing beats down. I line the inside of the compression bag with a heavy-duty trash bag, then stuff the down bag inside that and cinch it off. The bag wouldn’t get wet even if I fell in a river.
I go whitewater rafting a lot during the summer months. I have a couple of small “dry bags”. They are a kind of rubber laminated cloth. Great for keeping “stuff” dry.
I’ve mentioned these on this site a while back, but here goes.
I’ll preface my recommendation by saying that I was raised in downtown Los Angeles, and spent the first 47 years of my life in Southern California. So I’m no “Mountain Man” by a long shot.
If you are looking for a lightweight bag that doesn’t loose it’s insulating ability when wet, check out Wiggy’s in Grand Junction Colorado. A friend of min who is ex-Navy told me about them.
I bought one of their zero degree mummy bags in 2008 for elk hunting, and boy was I glad I did! The highs during the (sunny) days were less than 20 degrees. The ONLY place I could get warm was inside that bag.
Wiggy’s sells sleeping bags (square and mummy), jackets, comforters, ground pads and other gear. They supply the military in the arctic and south pole with gear. Their insulation is their own patented type. You can get a summer bag and a winter bag and zip them together into a single “super cold” bag, which they call the “FTRSS” (fortress) system.
I have since bought the kids and the Ms. bags, and I bought a hood-less jacket for myself. The jacket over a Tee shirt keeps me toasty while snow blowing even in single digit temps.
And no, I don’t work for them, own their stock or know anybody from their company. But I surfed around looking for a bag prior to finding out about Wiggy’s. Their prices are on par with the stuff they sell at REI, and they have sales from time to time. I bought the family bags during one of these sales, which I believe was 25% off.
I just checked their site. I have the”Super Light” mummy bag rated at 0 degrees (they have bags rated at minus 60). All bags are currently 30% off, which would make that bag about $153. Not Wal-Mart prices, but believe me they are worth every penny!
That’s a great site.
If weight and bulk aren’t a problem (as they would be if you were backpacking) get a bag with extra room. In a really cold environment you can stick your boots and socks in their with you and they will dry (usually) and be flexible in the morning. Wet boots will freeze overnight in subzero weather and then you have a problem. On hunting trips I put my boots, hat, gloves, socks and handgun in the bag with me and put my parka underneath the bag.
I usually wear plastic boots in cold weather campouts, so I just take the inserts into my bag with me. I usually use hat and gloves as a pillow.
My dad was camping with me once in -20 temps and it was super-windy. (We were on a lake.) He took a water bottle into his sleeping bag with him overnight and it froze! He was not impressed with his sleeping bag. 🙂
I have an old pair of “snow-mobile” boots that work pretty much like you describe Jarhead. They are heavy plastic/vulcanized rubber around the foot, up to the ankle, and canvas the rest of the way (comes up to about mid-calf) with a “cinch top” similar to a gaiter. They have a heavy wool boot liner, that can be worn like a boot-shaped slipper, and are great for cold/wet weather.
When I was in Boy Scouts, there was a kid who had a Coleman sleeping bag that he used on the “Freeze-erie” camping trip. His bag got damp and he wound up getting some pretty nasty frostbite on his legs. A little extra money on a quality bag is well worth the investment, especially if you are having to “bug out”.
Cliffystones is right about the Wiggy’s bags, I have one that my dad bought for me a few years ago, and I wouldn’t give it up for ANYTHING. I keep it in my JEEP (in the “stuff sack”) during the winter months. I have never had trouble with the bag maintaining it’s “loft”, and have had to use it over-night one time when my old truck got stuck while I was hunting in the mountains of VA. It wound up snowing like crazy that night and got down to about -15 with wind chill. I was wearing poly-pro underwear, a Mossy Oak “Dry-stalker” suit, heavy wool socks (with silk liner socks) and a pair of Red Head insulated boots. I took off my hunting suit and boots so I would have more room in my sleeping bag, and slept in the bed of my truck (because it was more comfortable to lay flat than to try and sleep in my single-cab Ford Ranger). The bag kept me so warm I had to keep the hood of it off so I wouldn’t sweat! Wiggy’s DEFINITELY gets my vote as a “must have” cold weather sleeping bag!
One thing to remember when considering a cold weather bag, some of the companies claims of temp ranges (as you stated) are completely arbitrary and a lot of them assume you are wearing thermal underwear. My father has a couple Marine Corp and Army cold weather “sleep systems”, they claim to be good down to -30 (if memory serves me right). What most people don’t realize is that they specifically design the system to work with poly-pro long-underwear. So if you are not using the EXACT same insulated clothing they test the set-up with, you won’t have the same results.
Another cool thing to mention about Wiggy’s, is that some of their bags can be purchased as a “mated pair”. Meaning that 2 bags can zip together to form a single 2 person bag. My bag is one of a “mated pair” (my dad bought them for me and my ex-fiance), I am trying to find a new one to match up to mine for my girlfriend. Supposedly the temp-range goes much lower when you have the two zipped together, I’m sure body heat has something to do with this (and you can always have fun generating more!).
ChefBear,
You should contact Wiggy’s and see if they can make you one. I’m assuming that maybe they changed their “style” and that’s why you are having trouble finding a mating bag.
I also have to add to this discussion that one of the things that really tweaks me about cheaper bags are the cheap-ass zippers they use. I had an over-sized Coleman that I was using in the summer. Half the time I had to get up to obey a call of nature I would jam the zipper in the fabric. It finally broke completely. I seam-ripped it off and the kids use it as a basement comforter.
Older bags into the early 80s had heavier metal zippers. I have two older bags that are still in fine shape, though the insulation isn’t worth much anymore. At least Wiggy’s uses a heavy-duty (although still plastic) zipper that they guarantee for life.
I had a zipper fail on my Wiggy’s once, they did replace it at no cost and payed for the shipping back to me.
Some of their bags are a little different in size than the average bag, mine is one of those. I have an extra-large bag (try fitting in a regular bag with 56″ chest/shoulders!), its about 6’5″ long and is plenty wide enough in the shoulders for me, because of this, finding a smaller bag that will match up has proven difficult. I hadn’t thought of getting them to make a new one to match up to mine… Thanks Cliffystones!
I wrote a similar post about 2 years ago. For my view, click here:
https://www.shtfblog.com/select-a-sexy-sleeping-bag-for-cold-weather/
Ha! I just read your post and I said basically the same thing you did, although you favor the down bags. I had a down bag years ago and it was a really sweet bag I’ll admit. And once I got out of debt paying the thing off I really enjoyed it. 🙂
Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but after a few years all the little feathers started to poke through and it wasn’t holding it’s ability to keep my warm. This was back in the early 90’s, so maybe they’ve come aways since then.
I just read the old post you put the link to. Gotta say, it makes for an easier read than most of the other sites I have seen, cause you guys keep the mood light and throw in some humor. It’s refreshing having a discussion that’s not all “doom and gloom”, while still covering some important subjects!
I commented in the previous thread on sleeping bags and my thoughts haven’t changed much.
Sportsman’s Guide had US Army Extreme Cold rated bags back in November. I gave my youngest brother one for Xmas as well as getting myself a spare. They were priced below $60 (Buyer’s Club price was $53+). SPG has had them on and off over the years so it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye out for them.
My primary bag is currently living in my Jeep for emergencies along with a wool blanket (which lives in the Jeep year round). This is the bag that I trust to keep me from freezing to death if I hit the ditch some night (same reason I gave my brother for his bag).
Steelheart
I just thought I’d pass this on.
“Meritline.com” has dry bags for $2.99 each. 9.5×18″. Probably not the best quality, but at that price………
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