How many sleeping bags do you own?

[Ken Thompson]

Check out the gear room threads if you think you have too much stuff. You don't compared to some of them.

[Daniel D]

Fairydown bag, 20F – Very old with lots of sentimental value, now used for car camping.
Kathmandu bag, 40F – Mostly for cycle touring
Kelty bag, 20F – Bought for end of season snow use.
EE Enigma Pro quilt, 30F – The new 3 season workhorse, It will go over the Kelty for more snow warmth. It's less than a month old and I've used it for 14 nights.

[Ito Jakuchu]

One. A Katabatic Gear Alsek quilt, long regular.

I would like to get a synth quilt from EE for warmer weather but keep on thinking I will just use my a big synth puffy (Atom SV) and some other clothes.

[b willi jones]

ive been through a few different bags, but the following are my keepers

katabatic alsek top bag

mld spirit 38 quilt

phd filler bag

these used on their own or in combination cover pretty much all situations for me.
i use them with a bivy/tarp or in my hammock

[David Moreno]

I have 4 of them. 3 down filled for backpacking and one synthetic filled for kayaking trips.

I found that with most mummy bags, the ratings were way off for me since I sleep very cold and don't bring extra clothes (for cutting down on weight) and using a Tarptent.

This is especially the case with ones that have UL wispy fabrics like the North Face and the Marmot bags even with the silk mummy liner I take along.

In NO WIND situations the 20 degree North Face bag only keeps me warm down to about 35 degrees, and to 40 -45 degrees in moderate winds.

In NO WIND situations the 40 degree Marmot Atom bag only keeps me warm down to about 50 degrees, and to 55-60 degrees in moderate wind.

I've solved the problem in my lower temperature bags by adding a little weight (tight weave / laminated shell material) and going with the overfill options.

In moderate wind situations the 30 degree Feathered Friends bag keeps me warm down to about 25-30 degrees.

In moderate wind situations the 15 degree Western Mountaineering bag keeps me warm down to about 15-20 degrees.

The bags I currently have are:

The North Face Fission Mummy Bag 20 degree (old style synthetic fill)

Marmot Atom Mummy Bag 40 degree (old style down fill)

Feathered Friends Merlin 30 degree ("2010" old style with 2.0 oz down overfill throughout the bag with a laminated shell)

Western Mountaineering Apache MF 15 degree (with 1.5 oz overfill in the footbox and 2.0 oz overfill spread throughout the rest of the bag)

I live in NE Ohio and do most of my trips here in the northeast U.S. from the middle of spring to the middle of fall.

I have no complaints with my Western Mountaineering Apache MF bag, but I'm extremely happy with my Feathered Friends Merlin bag. In the next year, I'll be buying a Western Mountaineering Antelope MF (or) GWS bag as well.

Given my slightly unique sleeping requirements that add to the weights, I'd rather have 5 different bags that will cover all temperature ranges I'll encounter than get stuck carrying more weight than I have to. It does get pretty expensive though. I know people that spend $2000 to completely outfit themselves. I'll have spent that just on bags, not including the ones I've sold.

I must be nuts!

[M G]

2 MEC 700FP mumy bags that can be mated, these are our car camping bags. They'll last forever.
1 Child's REI synthetic
2 JRB down quilts , light for mid atlantic summers one single, one double
1 WM Versalite
1 Go Lite 20F quilt, but more like 30F
1 EE Enigma 0F
1 MLD synthetic quilt
1 15F Moonstone synthetic mummy

[M B]

I have 3 good bags,

25F synthetic
30F down
35F down

2 good quilts
40F down
20F down

[K C]

I have 10 bags

5 are synthetic, 1 of which is for backpacking (summer bag), 4 of which are for car camping or loaners.

The other 5 are 15F, 25F, 30F, 30F, and 40F

Two of the above I made myself, my 18oz baffled pertex quantum GL 900 down bag/quilt/blanket is what I use the most.

[Matthew H]

Just one: Enlightened Equipment Revelation Pro (20 degrees).

If it's too warm I can just stick my feet out. Or if it's too cold, just layer up. Quilts <3

[Joe Lynch]

Montbell SSL 30. I don't winter camp much but can get down to 15 degrees by stuffing my Montbell into my wife's Western Mountaineering Megalite bag-she doesn't winter camp. On warm nights I open the Montbell and use it as a quilt.

[Serge Giachetti]

I do most of my backpacking in the colorado rockies during the warmer 3 seasons, but I backpack in utah 2-3 times a year, and montana whenever I can.

I own two quilts:

katabatic sawatch 15 degree long regular
I've slept in this quilt many nights and always been happy with it. Its about the warmest I can imagine a one and a half pound bag/quilt could be. I've had it to below 0 with some cloths.

katabatic chisos 40 degree long regular with an oz of overfill
I love this one too, and with a good ground pad I can use it for about 6 months a year

[Max Dilthey]

Everyone needs to read and re-read Matthew H's answer, including myself…

[Pete Staehling]

I only have two that I actually use, but I couldn't tell you how many I have that I generally no longer use. It is quite a few though.

95% of the time I use my Mountain Hardwear Phantom 45. In hot weather I sleep outside of it and pull it partially over me as the temperature drops. All zipped up, with a layer of clothing, two pairs of socks, and the drawstring tight I have been fine down into the mid teens F.

I use my North Face Cat's Meow mostly when camping in the same tent with my daughter who is allergic to down.

[Dale Wambaugh]

For PNW 3 season, three. I have a Moonstone 32f synthetic mummy and a Mountain Hardware Lamina 20.

I also have a Therm-a-Rest Tech Blanket for hot weather, but I use more around the house as a throw. It isn't freaky light, but it does pack small and that is a niche that I want to fill for my summer stuff: a light quilt that is about a pound and packs small. I can use that in my hammock or for ground and I can tip my kit to the SUL side when I want.

The only thing that stops me is the cost will equal the rest of my kit. That's an UL gear phenomenon that I call bracketing: you can get to certain levels of weight and performance relatively inexpensively and then you run into a wall— and the next level is VERY expensive. Sleeping insulation is the best example of this issue. Rain gear can be that way too. Crossing the line to Cuben tarps tends to raise my eyebrows as well.

[Jake S]

I've never need more than one.

I have two.

[Scott Bentz]

I counted 7:

1-BPL 50º Quilt
2-WM Summerlite
1-WM Megalite
1-Montbell DH, SS 4
1-Montbell DH, SS 5
1 WM Alpinlite

So, why so many bags? I hike with my family. Most of the time I have to equip 7 people.

All of my kids are out of the house and when we go on trips I take care of outfitting them, especially my wife. Funny thing is, I just pack for my wife and give her her pack with its basics and she adds her items and food, etc. Guess she trusts me.

If we are taking a friend, I like to outfit them, especially, if they are traditional backpackers. We hiked with my son a few weeks ago as he's thru hiking the PCT. My sister in law showed up with some borrowed traditional gear. I am sure the pack she had weighed 6+ lbs. empty. So, I let her keep her big comfortable sleep pad and gave her the rest. I don't think she ever carried more than 13 lbs. I do this so we can all hike the same miles without someone carrying a weight penalty.

I have bought the majority of my bags on the BPL Gear Swap.

[Richard Lyon]

After donating a few to the Forest Service or giving to my niece's family, I still own –

WM Sequoia
Feathered Friends Great Auk
Nunatak Arc Ghost
Nunatak Arc Alpinist
Two Nunatak Back Country Blankets

As someone said, I can only use one at a time. Not quite true, as I occasionally use the two BCBs as a couple's system and the Great Auk as an overbag.

[JJ Willcoxon]

Kelty Light Year 20 (600 Duck Down) My rating: 35 Degrees
Too heavy and far less than it's rating. Heckuva bargain if you're tight on cash I guess?

Marmot Always Summer 45 (650 Duck Down) My rating: 50 Degrees
Relatively light and comfortable to near its rating. No complaints here. I have only used it twice. I picked up the Atom to fill this spot at a bit lighter weight.

Marmot Atom 40 (850+ Goose Down) My rating: 40 Degrees
Very light and comfortable to its rating. At 1 lb. + 6 ozs., this is my current summer bag. The extra money for the Western Mountaineering Summerlite just didn't make sense for me.

Marmot Sawtooth 15 (650 Duck Down) My rating 25 Degrees
Too heavy and doesn't make its rating. It is comfortable and very durable. It was my go to shoulder season bag for a while. I've replaced it with my Western Mountaineering Alpinlite and it doesn't get used anymore.

Mountain Hardware Ultra-lamina 15 ("Thermal Q" Synthetic) My rating Reviewers say it is pretty close to right on its rating.
Very light / compacts very small for a synthetic bag. This is to be my "wet weather" bag. It promises amazing weight and warmth for a synthetic bag. I never bothered to try it out, as I haven't had a trip that called for it, since I purchased it late last year.

WM Alpinlite 20 (850+ Goose Down) My rating 15 Degrees
My favorite bag ever! I could get a bit lighter for the rating. But, I am a side sleeper and the extra room is soooo nice to have and it warms very quickly for a bag with that extra room. The first bag I have owned that comfortably exceeded its manufacturer's rating.

Now that you've called my attention to my bag surplus, I suppose I had better list a few on Gearswap this weekend to pare them down a bit? Thanks for inspiring my "Gear Guilt" complex again.

[Peter Boysen]

I work for EE, so you'll notice a pretty clear bias here:

I currently have 3 EE quilts (and just sent two to a friend of mine). I live in Minnesota, so temp ranges from summer to winter are huge (100+F in summer, although normally I'm only camping if it's in the 80s or lower, and -20F or so in the winter, which is about my limit as well, unless it's a huge amount of hiking and very little camping). All that said, a couple quilts can cover that range really well. I used a 20 and 40 together this past March down to -15F (plus a down jacket and some snow pants over base layers), and it worked pretty well. Then a 40 works for much warmer temps if you open it up and sprawl a bit, or just the 20 for more shoulder season stuff.

[Owen McMurrey]

Year-round in the Southeast, mostly Alabama and Tennessee. Some early spring and late fall trips out West. Temps rarely reach below the upper teens for either, though we got a couple weeks each of single digits and ~0F here this past winter.
The last several years, I've used three Marmot bags, a Trestle Trails that is just a shell with DriClime liner, plus their 800 fill Arete and Pinnacle. Also use a Sea to Summit Reactor liner during the warmest weeks.
As an exceptionally warm sleeper, the 40 degree Arete is good into the 20s with midweight baselayers for me, and saw the bulk of my use, with the Pinnacle usually only coming out when the temps were 20s or less.

I've switched to quilts for comfort, weight savings, and also because I tend to burrow and breathe into my bags.
Now have two quilts, the 6' Wide Katabatic Palisade, and a 72"(for up to 5'9") Wide Underground Quilts 50F Flight Jacket, both with 850 fill Hyperdry down.
The Palisade is rated for 30F, but with baselayers is more like a 15-20F quilt for me, and has worked down to 0F with heavier bottoms and a down jacket. Hasn't been used, yet, but I recently bought a Goosefeet hood from ZPacks to use with it.
So the Palisade is for 0-50F, while the UGQ quilt is for anything ~50F or above.
I'm keeping my Marmot bags for loaners, and for when/if my girlfriend gets out with me, but the two quilts do it all now.

[Miner]

I own 5, but that's because 3 are older down sleeping bags that I don't use anymore after moving to lighter down quilts. I use to use a 15F/20F ('98 Pinnacle?), 30F ('06 Hydrogen), 40F ('05 Atom) mummy sleeping bags by marmot (all down). I really should donate them to a scouting troop since they just sit in storage.

I now use a 18.8oz 20F Golite down quilt (original 2008 model) and a recent 12oz HG 40F Burrow down quilt that can be completely opened. As I normally backpack in the higher mountains of the west, I mainly use the 20F quilt for most trips since the weather can turn cold on short notice. The 40F quilt being used for lower elevation trips or summer trips back east when I'm sure the temperatures won't turn cold. There have been many trip that I've used the 20F where the temperatures never dropped below the 40's and I wish I had the lighter quilt, but you just never know. I've seen snow in July in Yosemite, so its better to be safe for trips beyond a 3 day weather forecast. As they are quilts, there is no hood. I find my lightweight Mountain Hardwear balaclava works in most weather down to 20F. Any colder, I can cover part of my head with my quilt pulled up. So my head has never been cold.

[Anthony Weston]

I have 4 bags:

A feathered Friends UL Vireo is my go to bag for spring and fall.
It weights 20 oz and has 15 oz of 850 fill. (I'm a cold sleeper)
I probably should have ordered this with 12 or 13 oz but too late now.

I also have a feathered Friends Nano Vireo. If it rains this is the bag I take, sheds water so I don't need a bivy and it's breaths well.
It weights 24 oz and has 16 oz of 850 fill.

Both of these bags are good for me from 20 to 40 degrees.

In the winter, I use a zpacks 0 degree bag with 3.75 baffles and 22 oz of 900 fill which weighs 29 oz. Generally the FF bags have a warmer footbox but with so much down this one is Toasty. I'm rarely out in weather colder than 15 degrees so I have not tested this down further than that.

I also have a 15 oz KatabaticGear 40 degree Chisos quilt for the hot weather. Right now Alta Peak in Sequoia at 11,000 feet is supposed to be 50 degrees according to MountainWeather
http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Alta-Peak/forecasts/3416

I used to use an EE cubin 30 degree quilt and it was plenty warm enough even in 20 degree weather but too narrow and as a side sleeper, I finally opted a sleeping bag and now I get a more restful sleep and at 20 oz.

[d k]

I have 4:

My WM Versalite rated as 10 degrees, (34 oz) which is what I use pretty much all the time.

GoLite Down quilt, 26 oz I think, supposedly 20 degree but definitely not that warm for me…I'm hoping that someday I will do some warmer trips this will be good for. It is much warmer inside a bivy, so it also would work on a trip where I don't want to sleep in a tent…if I ever evolve to tarp or cowboy camping.

My old REI Down Time 3 lb 10 degree bag, not as warm as its rating either, which is what I use if I car camp or for a loaner.

A Slumberjack 2 lb "40 degree" (more like 50-60 degrees!) synthetic rectangular bag which we've used for car camping in Hawaii as a double quilt.

I mostly backpack in the Sierra.

[Brian Johns]

I have three.

Montbell UL Down Hugger SS #2 mummy style (25* and 27 oz.)

Enlightened Equipment Revelation X rectangular quilt (overstuffed down ~35-40* easy and 16 oz.)

Stateless Society Quilt (tapered shape, event footbox and collar, 30* stated but more like 25* also down filled 14 oz.)

The EE quilt is a rectangle when opened with lots of loft, over either of the other bags will handle high single digits. Luckily I have not had to test below that.

[Chris S]

0* Bag, 20* quilt and 30* quilt. I don't camp when it's around 10*.

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