Winter Quilts????

What do you think about quilts for winter use? I guess winter temps are relative...I am talking for use down to maybe as low as 15 but probably more often a realistic low would be mid twenties and more often would be used probably in the thirties and maybe 40s so I dont' want it to be so warm as to sweat me out, but then again that is less likely with a quilt than a bag.

I guess the bottom line is that I want a quilt to serve about the same niche as a good quality (marmot / western mountaineering) 15 or 20 degree bag.

I had a Golite down quilt for a short stint. It was supposed to be rated to 20 degrees. I used it on one trip where it got down a bit below freezing and was very cold even with layers on underneath. The specs on it were very close to those on the JacksRBetter Hudson River and the Nunatak Arc Alpinist; however, since it was of lower quality than either of those two I am not sure if it truly was equivalent to those two.

I am considering one of the three: the Jacks Hudson River. The Jacks Rag Mountain (true winter quilt) and the Mountain Laurel Designs winter quilt.

Or....I could stick with my Marmot Helium 15 degree bag. I know it will keep me warm but I don't like the confinemnt and I toss and turn a lot. I like quilts but am a bit skeptical about them for sub-freezing conditions.


thanks

Matt

Maybe, the issue is width. The more loft a quilt has the greater the circumference needed to reach the ground.

You can use a narrow quilt in a hammock but if it is not wide enough on the ground you may as well have a bag.

You may know that Ray and Jennie Jardine did a ski trip to the South Pole, using what they called their Greenland Quilt. You can read some of it here.
Antarctic Jardine Ski Trip

Of course, that was summer down there, but there was no hiking or skiing in shorts and Tshirt.

Ray and his wife have done cold weather trips all over the planet using his synthetic quilts instead of down bags. Read page 18 on his quilt section of his website.
http://www.rayjardine.com/ray-way/Quilt-Kit/index.htm

The way sleeping bags or quilts work is that they trap the air in the bag that your body warms up and insulate the warmed air from the ambient air outside the bag. Regardless of how the bag or quilt is constructed, that is what is doing.

Some bags are more efficient at doing this because of their shape (mummy v. square cut) and the amount and type of insulation (down v. synthetic) in the bag. Ray claims his quilt is as efficient, if not more so, than a down bag. I've never used one, so have no idea if that is the case. His many trips seem to bear this out. Keep in mind his quilt looks like a sleeping bag without the bottom on it, which he says you don't need since you are compressing the bottom layer anyway. Not sure what he uses for a pad, but I would assume he talks about that on his website.

One reason bags have hoods is to slow down the heat loss from your head warm. Your head is a big heat exchanger and in cold weather, you have to keep it insulated. You can buy a separate hood for really cold weather from this guy-

Innovations by Finbar

There may be other makers of hoods out there as well. Ray has a simple version of a hood on his website.

There are bags that are more generously cut than others for people who want more room. I have a long bag even though I am not real tall. I like the extra foot room, but that means I have to warm up some extra air.

I still like the idea of getting inside a bag, but based on Ray's many years of adventuring, it seems pretty obvious that a quilt works just as well or better. Ray uses synthetic because of his bad experiences with down as he recounts on his website. Some top of the line down bags use Pertex, eVent or some Goretex variation to keep the insulation dry.

Sorry, but you won't get me back in a bag. I don't care how cold it is. My quilts have served me down to 20F and will go with me every time, and I don't have a problem. You have to use them to learn to use them effectively. I've had trouble with gapping, but I don't any more. I also toss and turn, particularly when sleeping on the ground.

For ground sleeping I would gladly take a 4 season quilt from Jacks R Better, one of the larger ones will be more suitable, and with full omni tape down the quilt sides and a drawstring on each end, it will serve in any configuration you want it in. I won't be doing any arctic expeditions, but I'll be out in winter with one in the Sierras in a heartbeat.

I'll happily sleep in a quilt down to around 20F. That is just called Fall here in Minnesota. I love being able to tuck the quilt around me the same way I do in my bed. For full on winter weather, we're talking below 0F here, I use a bag and I don't see that changing for me anytime soon.

You might want to get the best of both worlds: the WM Mitylite. It's a hoodless 40-degree down bag that has 2 zippers. You can leave the foot zipper closed, and completly unzip the side zipper to get a quilt with a footbox, open both zippers for a summer quilt, or zip the whole thing shut and cinch it around your shoulders like a sleeping bag.

I've been in the process of converting to a quilt since last fall. Just to see what would happen, last January I used the Mitylite as a quilt in my back yard on a 15-degree night in a Hubba tent on a full-length Prolite Plus pad. I slept in heavy long johns, a down sweater (no hood), socks, gloves, and heavy balaclava. I stayed warm below 25; as I recall, it was about 21 when I called it quits and came inside.

I want to repeat that experiment this winter, with a couple of minor additions: down booties, down mittens, down pants, and a hooded down sweater. My guess is I'll make it to 20 degrees. (I recently started using an MSR Ventra quilt, also rated to 40 degrees; I'm anxious to see if it will go as low as the Mitylite.)

I would hasten to add that this was a test. I would not knowingly go out on a 20 degree night relying on that setup about 8 miles into the backcountry. That's why I want to test the limits - so I can leave myself about 15 degrees for a safety margin, in case it gets colder than predicted. If the system works down to 20, I'd be willing to take it out when the low was predicted to be 35 - meaning I'd still be warm when the prediction missed by 10 degrees, and it actually fell to 25.