Podcast 122 | Unconventional Sleep Systems

Questions for our community:

(1) do you use an “unconventional” sleep system, and
(2) if you do, what type and why?

IMO at this point a person in the UL community using a quilt is a normie with a very ‘conventional’ sleep system.

I miss rectangular sleeping bags made with UL materials. They were the OG “quilts” when opened up, were more comfortable than a mummy when zipped as a bag, could be paired for couples, or layered for flexible temperature ranges.

UL rectangular bags solved all of the problems that the discussed “unconventional” sleep systems attempt to address, and more. Nothing sold today is as versatile. (Yes, a rectangular bag is heavier, but not much when built with a light shell.)

All of the modern rectangular bags I see are either summer weight and small (AegisMax E, 50F comfort) or heavy for car-camping (Coleman, et al).

The closest thing I have found is the large XL700 comforter by Cumulus. It lacks a zipper and is not one of their customizable offerings. Otherwise, it is a near miss.

I actually just bought a comforter from Cumulus (the L500).

It is wide enough that when using it in a single person tent (X-mid 1 pro), it bunches up around me, and there’s little if any draft issues. Personally I find the comfort of a comforter vastly superior to a sleeping bag, and while a zipper would improve or at least ease cold weather performance, I’m confident I can get it pretty low using just some shock cord.

Time will tell how low…

Other companies make comforters (Sea to Summit for instance), but I don’t think anyone has anything with the ultralight focus of the Cumulus comforters. A 695g comforter with 500g of down is pretty crazy.

Note that Cumulus does take custom orders on their comforters as well, but you have to arrange it by email. I got mine with hydrophobic down for a €50 premium.

Agree with George H.  Quilts are now fairly common in the lightweight community.