Lightweight stuff sacks

I use the HMG pods. I think Six Moons has them too.

I really like the Hilltop Packs ones. I have the ultra version roll tops.

Hi,

I consider before every trip the following alternatives which for me have some pros and cons:

1) DCF bags (compression or not) Pro: Light; Cons: Fragile (in my view), expensive

2) eVent compression bag: Pro: awesome for down (quilt and cloths – consider 2 ), excellent control of volume; Con: heavy, pricey

3) Nylon (usually my pumpsack): Pro: Cheap(isch), exist with window for easy control (usually when paddling as then all must go in a bag), different colors to distinguish content ;-); Con: heavy

Some additional questions to ask are

• used as pillow -> I find nylon more comfortable.
• for food -> pod gives me better control
• roll-top instead of draw-cord -> has a better feeling of being water-tight

As a final note I should add that I hike in Sweden where it is usually wet and cold -> Water protection is key as hardly anything is more miserable then wet clothes or sleeping system after a rainy day.

Nylofume bags are much lighter than trash compactor bags and are very durable. I don’t know if they are available in the EU but you can add them on to an order from MLD, GG, or Litesmith.

I prefer silnylon/silpoly rather than DCF and I prefer them oversize so they are packed loosely and can conform to the shape of the pack and to make stuffing/extracting contents more easily. I like MLD’s stuff sacks but really it’s just a sil bag with a drawstring.

It is more space efficient to use one big stuffsack (pack liner) than several small ones. This allows everything to conform to the space available in the pack. This is more important with a smaller volume pack rather than a larger pack. I use a nylofume bag for everything I want to keep dry and often have a smaller mesh bag inside with some clothing items that I want to keep together (gloves, hat, extra socks…).

I have had good luck with the Sea to Summit ultra-sil nano dry sacks. They are very thin, and some people think they are flimsy, but I have been using the same bags for 4 or 5 years so far. You can compress them pretty well with the roll-top if you want to.

Since I use a roll-top DCF pack, I don’t feel the need to have everything inside waterproof sacks inside the pack. However, I do use those sacks for my quilt and puffy at least.

I’m with matthew k here.

A large pack liner (I use a Schnozzle…multi-use as liner and pump bag) with large items stuffed in loose and several small “stuff sacks” is my system.  I am partial to mesh stuff sacks. S2S and Dutch both sell these, and likely others…I have the S2S and they have been very durable. The big appeal of mesh is you can see everything in them without opening. The S2S are also quite stretchy and conform to irregular spaces much better than traditional stuff sacks. I use them for my FAC, utility bag and my smaller clothing items.

Choose a liner big enough to contain the majority of your pack contents. Items that are inherently waterproof can live outside the liner.

Like others, I use a large pack liner (trash compactor bag) and stuff my quilt/bag in without an additional stuff sack for it. However, for organization I do use one very light Granite Gear Air Sack (approx. 20 grams – I don’t think they are made anymore) – for sleep clothes, down puffy, and extra socks, that also lives in the pack liner with my quilt/bag and sleeping pad. I pack food, cook kit, tent, etc. outside the liner on top. Any active insulation layers, like a fleece gets stuff in at the very top for easy access. Rain gear always goes in the big mesh rear (or front depending on perspective) pocket. This has worked well for me over many trips – the stuff in the liner has never gotten wet – even hiking in all day rain. I can’t say the same once in a tent, but that is a different problem.

Although not as nice as the snozzle, I also manage to use the pack liner to inflate my sleeping pad. I like to have the extra clothes in the separate stuff sack mostly because after I set up my shelter I need to empty the pack liner out to inflate my sleeping pad and its nice not to have extra socks, sleep clothes, down puffy, etc. floating around the tent.

What I like about the pods is that they fit the pack. They’re flat on the back. Instead of having to pull out a bunch of individual items, everything is organized into 3 or 4 levels and it’s easy to get to the bottom. I use one for my quilt. I don’t like compression sacks for down.

The zippered ones aren’t waterproof at the zipper though with the tight fit , they’re pretty well sealed off. I haven’t used a liner with them.

Hybrid approach for me. When I just used one large trash bag I found my HMG pack took on a barrel shape. I therefore use a zpacks medium plus DCF roll top dry sack for the quilt and puffy at the bottom of the pack. It gives me confidence it will stay dry and it locks in the flat shape of the pack against my lower back. I have not experimented with Pods, but would expect they have the same effect.  I’ll often then stack the pad either folded or in it’s stuff sack and clothes in another roll top “pillow” sack or more loosely in the snozzle pump sack. Then the shelter, cook kit, food and ditty bags on top.  I usually have enough room to avoid the need for compression sacks, but the quilt bag is sized to hold the down items pretty compressed.

I use ziploc bags.  1 gallon weighs 0.4 ounces.  One for food. One for misc. stuff like filter, electronics,  first aid,…

I use a MYOG silpoly bag for my sleeping bag.  Another for extra clothing.  Leftover fabric from projects.

After I used gear aid tent fabric sealant on the back of my pack, sweat hasn’t got through so I don’t need a liner.  Before that I put my polycro groundcloth over the rear and bottom to keep the sweat off any gear.

I have spent years (,decades?) trying to find waterproof pack fabric.  200D nylon with urethane coating and tent fabric sealant as needed seems to be a solution.

I typically use a Nylofume liner.  I have a long discontinued thermarest sil-nylon outside, fleece inside as a pillow.  Normally I don’t use stuff sacks.  when I do it s2s ultra-sil, or drybags from osprey.

Many people, like David Hartley, use a large pack liner and stuff their quilt/bag in without an additional stuff sack for it.

When I tried, the quilt/sleeping bag occupied a pretty large volume of my backpack. How do you manage to keep the volume reasonably low? I’d rather avoid a compression bag  for down and synthetic, but till now it ‘s been the only way I could manage volume.

A question for those who keep their cook kit, outside of the liner. I have a canister stove. Would it work in case it gets wet? Apart from the tent, till now I’ve always kept everything inside the liner, even food.

Solitone- I have a Thermarest Neoair and use the inflation bag to store my down quilt in the very bottom of the pack. It conforms to the shape of the pack and the weight of everything else helps keep the compression.

Once the quilt or bag, pad, and stuff sack with other stuff is in the liner I push down from above with both hands to compress everything as small as practical, then twist the top of the bag several times and stuff it next to the compressed bag. I then set my food bag on top. With down bags I have found no significant difference in overall packing volume when I do this. I have a 30 degree long/wide Apex EE quilt and this method results in a much less overall volume vs a separate stuff sack.  For example, I can go for 5 days/4 nights in 3-seasons with the quilt stuffed this way in a Gossamer Gear Gorilla 40, but if I try to put the quilt in a stuff sack there is no way all my gear will fit in the Gorilla. I think the loose stuff method probably fills voids and corners better.

As far as the cook kit – I also use a canister stove (a no longer made Primus Micron Ti which I love for its efficiency) . It lives in a Toaks 750 along with a bic lighter and fuel canister. The inside of the pot is always at least slightly wet – even when it is not raining – I almost never dry it. I just pour out the water, give it a shake, put the stove, lighter, and canister in it, and put it in its little orange mesh sack (OK busted I use more than one sack – I also use the a small zippered bag for miscellaneous small stuff like first aid kit, repair kit, etc., and my shelter is usually in whatever bag it came in). Anyway, after more than ten years of packing the stove this way there have been no ill effects.

wow, I didn’t expect the Bic lighter would work when wet!

When you “then twist the top of the bag several times and stuff it next to the compressed bag”, does “bag” always refer to the sleeping bag?

Thanks again to you and everybody for your suggestions!

@solitone – no I meant I twist the liner and tuck the twisted top in next to the the liner (between the pack and the side of the filled portion of the liner). I mixed up terms.

The bic is not truly wet – just damp maybe? anyway – I never had a problem. Not sure the bic has any fuel in it at this point. I have used the same one for so long it might must be the spark that is lighting the stove.

@solitone My experience of compressing a down quilt into a pack liner like a nylofume bag is that it is about pressure over duration rather than lots of pressure. I put my quilt in first and then lean on it with moderate pressure for maybe 10 seconds. Then I put my clothing/pillow/pad on top and lean on it for another 10 or 20 seconds. Then I twist up the top of the liner (leaving a small hole) and lean on it again for another little while. I’m never pushing very hard but it is my perception that it slowly loses a little more air each time.

Also I think it is important to feel the bottom of the pack when you first start to stuff things in and make sure the quilt is filling the bottom corners.

Using this technique I feel like I’m able to get a nice small volume without overcompressing or stressing lightweight fabrics.

I think some of the complaints I’ve seen about down shift in certain quilts may be due to over compression in the bag.

The zippered pods do compress quite a bit when you strap down your pack. The zippers up against the pack material, work like a one way air valve.

I use a single Sea To Summit UltraSil dry sack, sized to fit inside my main pack’s compartment (I have different sizes of these for different packs…10L, 13L, 20L, etc.). Then I have several MTN OPS Flash Bags in various sizes and colors to contain my gear. These are slid down vertically into the Sea To Summit dry sack. Each color is a category (or two) of gear (i.e., extra clothes, emergency/FAK, battery/USB/solar, toilet kit, etc.)

I love the flash bags because they have a loop on either end for pulling out just the gear bag you need based on color/size which is labeled on the tag. Organizing things like this saves me time on the trail, and I can pull the whole guts out by just removing the bigger S2S bag from the pack. It also makes packing gear into other packs very easy because it’s so modular. I know my toilet kit is a 0.5L brown flash bag, so I grab it from (say) my 20L day pack and throw it in my 9L lumbar pack and I’m all set.