Guidance requested on ‘pairing’ sleeping bags

Some sleeping bags have compatible zippers, so you can zip both zippers together to make one bag. If you both by the same sleeping bag then you can for sure attach them, a decent chance you can also do that with different brands.

I'd encourage you to jump in with the quilts, especially for the sort of thing you are describing. I started with a quilt with relatively slim experience. And nothing in that experience really made much of a difference for quilt vs. bag use!

Unlike car camping, you wouldn't bother with a layer under you. A pad should take care of that insulation (part of the point of the quilt route).

Have you looked at the Enlightened Equipment Accomplice? People seem to speak very highly of it. (double size, yes, but sounds like what you want — you could take it solo, at least one person here has done that, though it would be more than what you'd need.)

What Katherine wrote.

Cheers

Just a couple of thoughts. Mummy type bags of the same brand purchased within a few years of each other can generally be zipped together, as long as each bag has a double zipper. It's helpful if the bags have zippers on opposite sides so that no one has a hood over their face. Bags from different manufacturers can sometimes be joined, but no guarantees, you'd have to physically try them.

Apologies if this is old info.

As someone who wrestled with linked mummy bags for years: there is nothing on the market more flexible, adaptable, customizable, comfortable, true to temp rating and backed by awesome customer service as an Enlightened Equipment Accomplice. You will not regret getting one.

Any two bags of at-all similar length with the same type of zipper (e.g. YKK#10, etc) can be zipped together. However, unless unless they are a left and right bag, someone ends up with the "head rest" portion hanging in their face.

If you are joining buying two new bags, typically women sleep cooler so if her bag is rated 10-15F cooler, you'll both throw back the covers (or bundle up) at about the same time. (also, you'll have more variety to fine tune on solo trips).

Also, as a double bag, it will never seal around your neck as well as a solo bag does. So bring a little warmer bator wear a little more around your neck and shoulders (I've got a fleece dickie that works nicely).

A few tricks on sleeping pads: Thermarest sold a coupling kit which was just a loop of nylon twice a Thermarest in diameter. Half a twist in the middle and you slip one pad down each loop, at shoulders and knees. A very easy DIY. There are also pads that come with velcro on each edge – hook on one, pile on the other. That works even better, but rather than place it on the flat edge, I'd place one bit inward from the edge so they overlap with constant single-thickness coverage and no gap. It doesn't have to be continuous velcro. A 2" x 3/4" patch every foot or so is plenty. Some velcro comes with an adhesive backing. If not, a bit of fabric cement will do. Any solution is better than nothing so pads won't slip out and away from both of you.

After 30+ years of backpacking with separate and then zip together bags my wife and I got our first two person quilt. After the first night we knew we'd never go back to bags. The quilt weighs half as much as the combined weight of the bags and is as warm or warmer. In addition it's much less confining than the sleeping bags and much more comfortable in general.

The comments above on "coupling" two thermorest pads (we use short pads) together are very pertinent. We just use two 1 inch webbing loops to link the two pads.

I also went to a one person quilt for when I go by myself. Again, I'll never go back to a zip up bag.

I'd really encourage you to give a two person quilt a try. If you don't like it you will find willing buyers on BPL.