Lightweight Sleeping Bag or Quilt (Advice Needed)

If your primary goal with that $270 is to save as much weight as possible, there are better areas that could be upgraded than your bag I should think. Of course we would need to see a complete gear list for the most accurate analysis.

The Marmot Helium 15 is a good bag, perhaps a little too warm for high summer backpacking, but all in all you can make it work 3+ season pretty well. So unless you are unhappy with it, I wouldn't upgrade right now. Your tent is where you would see the biggest weight savings per dollar spent.

If you aren't wanting to give tarping a try, you could get something like a TarpTent or 'mid style tarp with an inner net a try, depending on your specific needs. You could easily drop 30+ oz from your shelter system for that 300ish dollars versus only 16 oz savings if you got an EE quilt or similar.

Then there is always a thousand little tweaks you could most likely do with your kit that are all minimal (and sometimes zero!) cost that could potentially save you even more weight than making a major gear purchase.

"Is it worth it?" is a question that only the person asking can answer. On a calculator you would be looking at a "worth" of just under $17 per ounce of weight savings, that's worth it to some people but not to others. Would you be selling your Helium? If so factor the net proceeds of that sale to bring down your actual cost for a lighter quilt.

I agree that you could save more $$/oz by looking first to your shelter, but you may have reasons for wanting not to make a switch there and for focusing first on your sleep system.

Another thing to consider:

Going from a traditional bag to a quilt will require adjustment in technique–maybe an easy adjustment, maybe less so.

A lighter tent (or fly + inner, or hybrid double wall) will require almost no adjustment–maybe a couple practice pitches, but that's it. Even going from a fully enclosed tent to a shaped tarp is mostly just a psychological adjustment, assuming bugs aren't an issue.

If you do get an EE quilt, I'd say the 800 fp goose down is a better long-term investment that the 750 duck. Figure that a good down bag/quilt may last you 20 years, and buy the highest quality you can.

If your primary concern is weight, then you really need to get the gear list together.

Cheapest is the stuff you have that you don’t need to take – costs you nothing to take them off the list.

Lighter weight trail shoes vs. hiking boots are among the highest-value (oz saved per dollar) items because of the 5:1 rule of thumb for weight on your feet vs. in your pack. And trail runners can be had for under $100.

Consider your stove. Alcohol or esbit cooking kit can be made for <$10 and some sweat equity, or bought for well under $100.

Next would be your tent, pack, and sleep system (including your pad). From what you’ve said, your biggest weight savings is likely in a lighter weight tent. Or a tarp if you are ready to take that step (it took me about two years to go from 4 lb double walled tent to 28oz tarp tent (single walled) to tarp (under 1 lb)).

For sleeping – I’m about to pull the trigger on an EE Revelation. If you are interested in some comparitive data on bags and quilts (mostly 30 deg class, but some 20 deg as well), then take a look at: Sleeping Bag & Quilt spreadsheet!. Its a google docs spreadsheet. Comments welcomed.

"If you do get an EE quilt, I'd say the 800 fp goose down is a better long-term investment that the 750 duck. Figure that a good down bag/quilt may last you 20 years, and buy the highest quality you can."

@David Drake,
I'm curious… Is there any actual evidence to suggest that high quality 800fp goose down will last any longer than high quality 750fp duck down? If so, please point me to it. I have certainly never seen any data to support this notion, but you have my interest piqued.

Derek,
Sorry, didn't mean to imply the goose down would last longer–I have no idea about that (but am also curious). Only that 800 fp goose is considered higher quality/lighter than the 750 duck, and that the (significantly) higher price should be thought of as spread out over 20 years or so. Esp. since the OP already has a workable bag.

So for short-term, when funds are tight, a lighter shelter would be better bang-for-buck, as others up-thread have said.

@ Duane:

Wow–great spreadsheet. Much more extensive and detailed than the one I posted here:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=88500

Same conclusions to be drawn, though–if quilts work for you, it's very hard to beat the EE Enigma 800fp for warmth/weight/cost.

@DavidDrake:

Thanks for pointing me at your thread. And the new quilt looks great!

Just ignore this gear list. For some reason I upload an old file which is missing some of the smaller details FAK, toiletries etc etc and is in a odd format. Once I have a more coherent gear list I'll try re-posting on the gear list section.

Garret:

Your list looks pretty comprehensive. The only thing I didn’t see was something for first aid. I’d suggest you fill in weights and post your gear list for comments. I personally like the lighterpack.com tool.

There are lighter weight shelters (single-walled tarptents and both shaped and flat tarps) that depend on your comfort level (do you need a fully enclosed shelter) and practice/expertise (as in pitching a flat tarp for a storm).

You’ve got a great start, and you should be able to get in the 15lb base weight range without changing much of what you’ve shown here.