Ultralight sleeping bag

Nathan,

You can read about 7 lightweight bags including the Nunatak Arc Ghost, Western Mountaineering Highlite, Sierra Designs Wicked Light, Montbell #7, Marmot Pounder, Mountain Hardware Phantom 45D, and the FF Vireo in the Rock and Ice Article:

http://tinyurl.com/bwsh4

Rich

Re: “cutting the floor out of a top bag and making it into a quilt”

don’t own the bag in question (or any top-bag for that matter).

no opinion. just questions. Is it wide enough (after having the bottom cut off) to do that? I mean would it be wide enough to “stuff under”/seal to keep out drafts? Aren’t quilts pretty wide (at least 12” wider than the top-bag would be after cutting off the bottom? Just a thought.

looking at the SD wicked light, size long, the widths are 64″ at shoulder, 61″ at waist, and 43″ at the foot.
arc alpinist has “usable width” of 55″, 45″, and 38″; the ghost is smaller.
Of course, I’m not sure this is worthwhile, but it’s certainly easier to find an SD bag on sale than a nunatak one.

looking at the SD wicked light, size long, the widths are 64″ at shoulder, 61″ at waist, and 43″ at the foot.
arc alpinist has “usable width” of 55″, 45″, and 38″; the ghost is smaller.

Nathan,
I wouldn’t recommend cutting the bottom out of a top bag. The dimensions above for the top bag include the bottom that would be removed, so removing the bottom would split the above figures practically in half.

The quilts that nunatak makes have straps to fasten under you or a pad to keep it in place. With the straps tightened all the way (I run mine underneath me instead of underneath a pad) the quilt wraps almost all the way around me with only a small area exposed underneath me. At that point it’s basically a mummy bag with a 55 inch girth.

i believe those dimensions are “girths”, not “widths”.

check out the following link for some fairly inexpensive, lt. wt. synth. quilts:

FanaticFringe Quilts

have never seen or used one, so i don’t know about quality. can anyone out there give any guidance on this company & their products (particularly the quitls)?

I’ve got Montbell’s #3 super stretch down hugger and it’s light (1lb 7oz I think), packs down REALLY small,
and the “airlite” shell they use has a dwr coating. The best feature of this bag is the stretch feature – the only other bag I considered buying was one of the WMs, but it could not compare to the weight and size of the Montbell.
I have pretty broad shoulders and most mummy-style bags make me feel just that – a mummy. THe Montbell however stretches so much that I can sit up, toss around, even change clothes with the bag completely zipped up.
The only downside to this bag is that the shell doesn’t breath AT ALL – unless I’m using it at or close to its max rating, I will sweat by morning.