Drying wet gear … inside a down sleeping bag…

[Mike Oxford]

eVent-type bag inside a garbage bag. Put your wet stuff into the eVent, the eVent into the plastic and the whole thing goes into the down sleeping bag with you.

Works, or since you heat the whole thing up the vapor transpires both ways? What about outside the down bag in the cold, but with a handwarmer inside with the wet stuff … ?

What about an eVent bag liner inside of a VBL inside of a down bag? Trap all the moisture between the eVent and the VBL…

Thoughts?

-mox

[Dale Wambaugh]

Nice thought, but I wouldn't expect much except to find warm-ish wet stuff in the morning. You need a lot more air flow to get the moisture out.

I've heard of people wearing *damp* clothing and their body heat drying it out, but that moisture is going to go into the insulation. If the outer air is dry and not too cold, you might pull it off with a down bag. In a cold/high humidity climate I would expect goose flavored oatmeal for a sleeping bag in the morning. Everything will be wet and cold.

[Roger Caffin]

What Dale said.

Cheers

[Mike Oxford]

Sounds reasonable.

What about the second case of sleeping inside an eVent bag liner inside of a VBL? (The weight tradeoff vs just going synthetic notwithstanding…)

-mox

[M B]

Ive worn damp (damp, not sopping wet) clothing under a down quilt before, and dried up nicely with no effect on the quilt, in humid climate. But I made a point to keep the quilt pretty loose. Tossing and turning etc will move the air around too.

I certainly wouldnt try it all buttoned up.

[Mary D]

Ditto to what Dale and Roger said.

If my hiking clothing gets wet, I do put it in a zippered plastic bag at the bottom of my sleeping bag. It's not any drier in the morning, but at least it's warm when I put it on! Since I don't have to heat up the clothing when I put it on, my body heat gets some more of the moisture out while I'm packing up inside the tent.

You can dry wet clothing by wearing it inside your sleeping bag, but most of the moisture will get absorbed by the down, considerably reducing its insulating efficiency. It might be OK if it isn't too cold (like well above freezing) and if you're going home the next morning! The same is true of synthetic sleeping bags–the insulation won't absorb quite as much moisture as down, but it will absorb some.

[Justin Baker]

Event bag in a garbage bag? I haven't heard of that before. It would be easy to test, just put some wet clothes in the event bag and in the garbage bag and sleep in your sleeping bag one night. If it actually works, then it's something that I would use.

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