sleeping bags

hell i am new to the website and i new to the whole hiking sommunity. i was wondering what would be a good down sleeping bag for a reasonable price.

Welcome to the forum.

To answer your question, one must first define "good." By which I mean, what are you using it for, what is your priority (budget, lightweight, compact size in a pack) and what is your anticipated lowest temperature (or, if you don't know that, where are you going and in what season)?

The best down sleeping bags will appear to the new backpacker to have completely unreasonable prices, until you start to factor in how often you will use it and what really works for you in your particular situation. Someone who will backpack every month has very different needs than someone who car camps four times a year and goes backpacking maybe once.

My usual standard reply is to look at the Campmor 20 degree down bag, which is in practice probably a 30 degree bag and represents a fairly good balance between cost, weight and warmth.

It all depends on what your definition of a 'reasonable price' is. Why don't you inform us of your budget, your needs (car camping, day hiking, 3-5 day backpacking etc), where you will be using the bag and during which seasons of the year.

All of this information will affect the answers you are given.

Welcome! I agree that we need to know more about your needs and wants, where and when you'll be backpacking and expected low temperatures before we can recommend anything!

As a general rule, what most people want out of a sleeping bag is warm, cheap, light. Unfortunately, there's no way you can have all three at once.

If you haven't already found them, there are lots of excellent articles for beginners and on gear selection listed in the left-hand column of http://www.backpacking.net/, the home page of this site.

Another good site for gear selection is Mark Verber's website. Lots of ideas for gear, including low-budget alternatives.

The previous posters have covered the topic very well. I would just say that, if there any one item on which I would spend excessively, it would be the down sleeping bag. You will be rewarded many times over.

I agree 100%. The difference in the quality of a down bag from the $100-$250 to the $300+ price range is huge and this is the single item that is well worth those 'crazy' prices.

Beginners tend to want to spend no more than $200 bucks for their first bag, but in a few years they are ready to upgrade and thus drop another $200+ on a bag-- at this point you could have purchased one of those high quality bags.

... and then I go back to where you are in the grand scheme of things. Because if you have never been backpacking at all, you don't even know if you will keep going, or be one of those who goes two times a year, or one who quits the job and spends ten months of the year on the trail.

For the first trip or two, I recommend a rental bag, rental tent, rental pack. If you have decided after that to keep backpacking as frequently as possible, buy a really good sleeping bag, a pack that fits, and a really good shelter (most of us end up with a couple of shelters to suit different seasons) - the stuff you will depend on to keep you comfortable and safe. A very good quality down bag like Western Mountaineering or Montbell will last you decades, with proper care.