Last October after crossing Darwin Col I ran out of light and had to hunker down between boulders below Mt Darwin at about 12,000 feet. There was a storm forecast to arrive the next day so I brought my winter quilt, but I made it with a simple sewn-threw footbox. The cold air made its way through the unprotected seam and it was a restless night with very cold feet.
When I got home I ripped out the old footbox and added a trapezoidal footbox with 1.75″ baffles. I borrowed the idea for the trapezoidal shape from the Katabatic quilts. The trapezoidal shape is meant to follow the natural shape of my feet, thereby decreasing the amount of dead air space and reducing the total weight. The baffles in the footbox more efficiently keep the down right where it is needed. The footbox shape also makes the last baffle at the foot end of the quilt taper from about 1″ wide on the bottom to 5″ wide on top which keeps the down from migrating to the sides.
For the shell I used some of the old green Pertex Quantum from Zpacks and for the liner I used the last few yards of SevenD I had tucked away. The baffles are 1.75″ tall and made with 0.34 oz/sqyd cuben. All of the baffles are 5″ wide with the exception of the last one at the foot end. For the footbox I used M50 from thru-hiker because it tends to have a better DWR.
With the new footbox the total weight is 21.34 ozs. I used 15 ozs of 900 fp down and the double sided loft is about 6″. This kept me warm down into the teens last winter (while wearing a silk weight base layer, down vest and down booties).
For the whole story check out: Winter Quilt with a Trapezoidal Baffled Footbox
