Sleep System Advice (Couples)

I can’t answer every question, but I will say that the combination of a Synmat HL Duo and an Accomplice has served my wife and I well. We’ve never done a thru hike, together or alone, but on trips of up to a week, we’ve really liked this combination. Having no gap in the middle is a huge benefit of a double width pad.

This may not be enough warmth for you, but on cold nights, I’ll sleep in my Montbell Dynamo pants. They add a small amount of warmth (though surely not as much as down pants), weigh under three ounces, and are breathable enough that I don’t feel clammy at night. Like you, I prefer to hike in shorts, so the wind pants also serve as my in-camp pants so I don’t get chilled. And they’re nice to have on if I have to get up in the middle of the night. Not a lot of extra warmth, but not a lot of extra weight, either.

To answer some of your questions:

My wife and I have used short neoair pads into the teens under our quilt, we place our backpacks and rain gear below our feet.

Buff and hoodie work well down to mid-40s for so for us in our quilt, below that we wear hats, and sometimes thin balaclavas, or both.  Below freezing we may stuff extra clothing, e.g. puffy vest, around our shoulders.  I just made a two-person bivy and the one time we used it in the teens it did a great job of blocking drafts around our shoulders (along with hats and vests around our shoulders).

Perhaps the best solution is Roger Caffins? An extra wide couples overquilt. Such a quilt needs full length pads tho as they utilise a pocket sleeve at the bottom to hold the quilt in place.

I don’t speak from experience tho, I walk solo

I’ve never (almost never) tightened my sleeping bag neck down to a nose/mouth hole, so I use the same head-gear with a sleeping bag or a quilt: the hood of a puffy hoodie if I’m wearing that, otherwise a fleece beanie.  One cheap source of head coverings that give better ear and neck coverage than most are hard-hat liners for cold-weather use.  Here’s one that sells for <$10:

I should get myself a Buff.  I know they’re very versatile and light.  Everyone else in the family has one.  Even the dog:

Why in the world, would a dog wear a buff?! Other than being adorable that way.

Thanks for all of this helpful info!

I’m looking into my different quilt options, and although I was originally considering the EE accomplice, I’m now also considering the Nunatek Dual Arc UL couples.

In any case, I’m trying to figure out sizing and hoping folks with couples quilts can advise. What width footbox do you use, and is it adequate? We are both side sleepers and tend to spoon, but we also flop around a lot at night. The “backpacking” suggestion by Nunatek is 20″ but they can do up to 30″. For the top, the range is 78″ to 88″. Unfortunately I can’t compare sizing to EE because they list the circumference rather than the width.

Can anybody speak from personal experience about widths of the top and bottom of their couples quilt?

FWIW, Nunatek’s “medium” is a 70″ length and their “large” is a 74″ length. I’m 5’11 and will ask to split the difference at 72″. This is also the length of the EE regular. I’m 5’11, but because I sleep on my side, I presume this will be adequate.

Thanks for your help on sizing!

Nunatak made the sleeve to fit my solo overquilt 26 inches wide, I would say get it sized to fit whichever mattress combination you normally use, but with the thought in mind that rectangular mats would seem to work best when coupled and that overquilts are [ in my limited experience] better bigger than you would think. Mine is usable over a super sized deep winter sleeping bag. The biggest sizes on their website in both length and width, my solo overquilt is almost big enough for a couple.

Go bigger; if in doubt, much bigger

Nunatak’s couple’s systems are awesome. Ours is sized to fit two 25×77 neoairs.

I think the orange quilt on the right used in their website promo is ours. It is Apex synthetic insulated to use above freezing alone or on top/around our 20* down bags in very cold weather to manage condensation and boost temps: