Golite Ultralite 800 quilt—fleeting 1st impression

"Victimized" by another "everything-half-price!" Golite sale, I ordered an Ultralite 800 quilt that arrived yesterday. It's very nicely made, very lofty, very light and the long is really darn long--I can completely disappear in the thing and could certainly have used the medium instead (same price, spec is 3 oz difference).

Design is simple--a generous footbox below the bottom opening which, itself is closed to the user's preference by a pair of adjustable straps. The foot and top have extra-repellant fabric panels to fend off excess moisture, including exhalation.

Not much to add, as my fiddling time has been brief. This should be the bee's knees for hammocking and most foreseeable three-season ground-bound sleeping as well. I've little doubt it's properly rated well below freezing because the loft seems generous in the fully baffled chambers. How to keep two blue bags called "Ultralite" in my closet separate is a small chore I now face. Somehow I'll muddle through.

Cheers,

Some feedback after my first trip with the quilt.

The supplied stuffsack is comically small--I imagine one could force the bag inside with a lot of grunting and a hammer, but I don't think either the bag or the stuffer would benefit from the experience. Simple solution: use a larger sack--a dry sack is best since it's down. Thus bagged it takes about as much pack space as a 30-degree down mummy bag.

For hammocking I found it much easier to get inside a quilt than my typical mummy bag. Pop the feet into the footbox after maneuvering over the two closure straps and pull the quilt up to the chin. That's it.

It's also easier to wrestle a foam pad into position when in a quilt because my arms are still free. Add the pillow and read or go to sleep.

The grosgrain under-straps aren't easy to adjust from inside as they fold over and jam in the buckles. I may experiment with thicker straps that stay flat; hopefully they won't dig into my back.

My "duh" moment came day two when I noticed the top of the quilt has a closure cord and toggle and snaps to enclose the shoulders. Now there's a good idea! Much of the draftiness I felt night one went away when I used the snap closure.

First night was near freezing, second night was in the low 40s and the third night was warm--probably 50+. I was a little cold night 1, a combination of not using the rainfly, not being situated correctly over the pad and not knowing about the quilt's top closure. The next two nights I added the fly, improved the hammock pitch to better handle the pad and used the top closure. I was perfectly comfortable and I even skipped the knit cap night 3.

In sum--for hammocking the quilt is easier than a regular mummy bag and I think is reliably warm to freezing (given some user education). I wouldn't (intentionally) try it down to the rated 20 degrees in a hammock without a serious underquilt, but hammock sleeping is very different from ground sleeping, since you're basically in a reverse convection oven. For what I paid, I think this quilt is a tremendous bargain. I'll try it for ground sleeping this summer.

Cheers,

I want one, I just wish they would get them back in stock at that price.