Lightweight backpacking sleeping bag

Hello everyone!!! Just joined the forum!!! I am a newbie to backpacking-my 27 yr.old nephew got me into it last year. Ive been slowly accumulating gear....good boots, ,ultralight tent, pack, Pocket Rocket, etc....Im looking for a reliable, and not terribly expensive ultra-light sleeping bag. I have a mummy bag now, which is great for car-camping, but when I stuff it in my pack, it takes up a TON of room, and weighs quite a bit, so Im looking for something that will really compress well...FYI, I dont do any sub-zero weather hiking(arthritis keeps me from that!!) so I dont need a bag thats rated at -15 or anything....just a nice 3-season bag, that packs well...thanks,all, and Im looking forward to being a part of this forum!!!!

Welcome to the forum and to backpacking.

Cheap, light and compressible don't go together.

You will need some basis for comparison before deciding to switch. My cheap Alpine 20 weighs 3 lb 4 oz including the stuff sack and a plastic bag. It's not very compressible, but since I have an external frame pack, it doesn't matter. I was given a Sierra Designs synthetic bag which is more compressible, but weighs the same and has the same temperature rating.

My dream bag is a Western Mountaineering Ultralite. It weighs 1 lb 13 oz.

When looking at down bags, it is good to look at the fill. 850 fill means that 1 oz of down expands to 850 cu in. 550 fill is only 550 cu inches. A higher number will be more expensive, but also lighter and more compressible.

You might be tempted to go to a 35 degree down bag. That works fine down to about 45 degrees for me. Then it gets a little cold. If you live in a warm climate, it might be a better option.

In my opinion, with a sleeping bag if you have something that works, keep using it until you can afford a really good one. Otherwise, if you keep backpacking, you may buy 2 or 3 bags before getting to the real good one. Keep in mind if you wait a year, the price will likely go up about 10%.

An alternative is to look for a good down bag from REI. Right now, they have 20% off the most expensive item you buy. You can get a really good down bag for about $329 before the discount. REI has a very liberal no questions asked lifetime return policy. If I were starting out, I might be tempted go that direction for about $260. But I'd probably keep dreaming about the Western Mountaineering bag.

If I wanted to take a chance, I'd get a bag from Zpacks. It only weighs 17 ounces and is $345 for the 20 degree bag.

I've been eyeing the Kifaru Slick Bag. It is advertised as quite compressible and light but reviews are few and far between for the warm factor. Cheap, well, let the buyer decide.

Yes, welcome Merrellman! I do believe that there is general agreement here that you are only going to get any 2 of the 3 qualities you are looking for; that is cheap, light, and compressible. Feathered friends makes excellent bags too...although I would be tempted to get a quality bag from a large enough company to have discount sales. Lots of companies will have these, like Go Lite and Western Mountaineering for instance. Thing is you have to be patient, spend the time researching what you are interested in, make a short list of products you are willing to go for, then wait for the prices to drop. By wait, I mean keep checking for the sales. Different web sites will have company sponsered sales, for instance that is how I picked up my Western Mountaineering Ultralight bag. Still not cheap, but cheaper than it was.

Personally, better to have a bit more weight and be reliably warm than to go too cheap. Can't beat REI's return policy. They will also rent some bags so it is possible you can try one out before you purchase.

It would help to know a bit more about the conditions you'll be using it in: are you in the western mountains, the Pacific northwest, Sierras, Tennesee, Michigan? What are the lowest nighttime temperatures you expect to encounter? (45 degree days, in some seasons, here in Ohio can easily mean 20 degree nights.)

My own 3-season, all-purpose bag was, for many years, a Western Mountaineering Megalite. A couple of years ago, I replaced it with a 20 degree Alpinlite and a 40 degree Mitylite, which better fit the temperature range I hiked in. (The Megalite was far too warm for summer, and not warm enough in January.)

If you're strictly a mild weather camper, and your nighttime lows will not go below 35 or so, you might be OK with a hoodless semi-rectangular bag like the Western Mountaineering Mitylite; it can be used as a regular bag, or unzipped and used as a quilt. In temps below 40, you'll probably have a hooded jacket of some kind (mine's a WM Flash), and you can wear it to bed with the hood pulled up.

How often are you going? Where are you going? What is your expected low temp?

Three season means something very different depending on where you go - in the Sierra Nevada you should have something reliably warm to 20F and be able to extend that lower in an emergency, because weather will take the temps well below freezing some of the time. How often you go makes a difference - carrying a slightly heavier budget bag a few times a year vs. going every chance you get.

I am out so often that I got myself a 20-25F down quilt, 22 oz, packs to the size of a cantalope, for $240. It is warm enough (I have been out on nights when water freezes in the containers) and compact enough, and it is down, so it will last me not years but decades. I call that a truly cheap bag because I will not end up replacing it if I take care of it. Down bags need careful washing but do not require it often - I've washed the quilt three times and had it for five (going on six) years.

You can find deals on bags, but this is one piece of gear that if you use it all the time, you want exactly what you need - an accurately rated, light, compressible bag. And that will not be CHEAP in the sense that you can find it for a hundred bucks. Pay once, buy well, and it will be a screaming deal ten years from now.

Glenn, how do you like the alpinlite? I have been dreaming about that bag for a while now. I plan to pull the trigger this January/February around tax return time. I will just tell my 11 yr old daughter that college will have to wait.

To the OP. The bag is the most important gear choice you will make. Spend as much as you can. Of course, there are some great 3-season down bags that are under 3 lbs and cost less than $150. REI has the Kelty cosmic down +20 for less than $150 and less than 3 lbs.

To reiterate to the Original Poster what FinallyME said, The bag really *is* where you want to spend your money.

if I had 500 dollars to outfit myself completely for a trip I would be spending 400 of it on a high end western mountaineering down bag, and cobbling the rest together from used gear and the thrift store.. I'm dead serious. and I backpack a lot

Just about everything else you can make, modify or put together easy perfectly good lightweight items easily. Sleeping bags really are "light, warm, inexpensive - pick two".

When I get newbs into the sport the first thing I get them to buy are good boots/shoes that work for them. Then I encourage them to get a good sleeping bag and borrow gear from me for the rest until they aquire their own.

I love the Alpinlite; it has just enough more girth over the Ultralite equivalent that it fits me well, and doesn't compress my down jacket or pants when I wear them in the bag. I've done that, and it let me sleep cozily warm on a zero degree night last year.

The double draft collar (front and back) is a real treat, though the extra drawstring takes some getting used to - nearly choked myself when I thought was tightening the hood.

+1 to Phat's sequence. After boots and bag, you need a comfortable, well fitted backpack. Everything else is trivial and much cheaper. I spent a fortune on a good down bag when I started getting serious about the outdoors and climbing many years ago. It was the best purchase I ever made.

After all, you will always carry it, and it needs to keep you warm, every night. Extremely critical gear.

I got a Kelty Lightyear Down 20º bag that I like a lot. I think it might work pretty good for you too, based on your description. It weighs under 3 lbs. I think the new version is lighter than mine and uses higher fill weight down (750 I think).

This past season I learned to put the sleeping bag loosely in a heavy duty trash bag, then put that inside my pack, then put my gear in the pack and let the gear compress the sleeping bag inside the pack. This compresses the sleeping bag less than the compression sack it came with, and gives you more room in the pack because there's less unfilled air space inside it. You might want to try that with the sleeping bag you have.

Most of us around here are looking for a down bag that weights 1.5lbs or less! For sure, that weight of bag compresses down and it don't take much toom. Like the poster said you can have any two things, I choose warm and light! Still, you can occasionally find a good bag for $200-300 if you watch out.

Have to agree that your backpack and your bag are the two pivotal gear choices, starting with your bag. There are not many good choices for good bags, less than 10 in my opinion, that fit the warm and light criteria of 1.5lbs and 30F. Luckily there are many backpack and tent choices so you can make those choices in bag, backpack and tent order. Least then you can't buy too much tent if you buy a tiny backpack!

The rule for bags is really "cheap, light, warm, pick two." Anyone claiming otherwise and there are plenty of them, doesn't speak English. One way to mitigate the cost is buy a used bag. Some people won't do this. I'm not one of them. I have a barely used winter bag I bought last year off Craigslist for less than half retail (which was $400). I had it dry cleaned when I got it ($20) and you'd be hard pressed to tell it from new. My bag is an older Marmot bag. Marmot has good customer service, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them if you can't find a FF or WM bag.

Stopped by my local Goodwill store Thursday looking for light weight clothing. Needed a light jacket, shorts, shirts, really just looking. Found several items and felt pretty good about my trip.

On my last lap around the store, I spotted a few sleeping bags. In and amongst the Dora the Explorer and the My Little Princess bags was a down bag. Pulled it out and found a Mountain Hardware Cloud Rest 5*-15* bag. No price. Asked, and was told $6.99.

It's not new, but much nicer and lighter than what I had. I consider myself lucky to have found the bag.

I would say that was a great find. You pretty much stole it at the price. I never get that lucky in a thrift store.

While such a find is rare, it's worth looking!

The bag made a believer out of me. I'll stop in and look when ever I'm in the area. Doesn't cost much to look . . . .

I like my Mountainsmith, it's on the less expensive side of things, but so far so good. Anybody tried Golite? Not the cheapest or lightest but not too bad.