Hi All
this may seem lame
but if you want to learn about winter camping and gear, start in your backyard and be sure you can get back into the house.
Very good advice. I pushed a 35 degree quilt to 26 degrees recently on my patio. Yep, wife almost locked me out because she did not notice me in my hammock.
I personally would never take a quilt camping
I love quilts.
I started carrying a spare 4 ounce pair of "hot hands" fleece gloves that are restricted to sleeping only.
I also have a pair of sleep only gloves. A fleece hoodie keeps my hat in place and the tunnel pocket is the perfect place to store the gloves. No more hunting for lost gloves.
You will learn that having you head inside a properly adjusted mummy bag hood will make you WAY WARMEWR.
If you can keep your hands, feet and head warm then the temperature rating on bags starts to make sense.
Oh yes - one more word - chocolate....
Spot on.
While Jim Shaw and I do not use the same gear and technique his advice is a good starting point to discover what works for you. The best advice is testing gear iin a safe place. It is not fun and can be dangerous to discover that your gear does not work for you when you are cold and wet in the middle of the night and hours from the trailhead.