Winter Just-In-Case Sleeping Bag

Well…  for a Colorado day of backcountry skiing, say in the Indian Range, I’d cary my overstuffed (20 F.)  Western Mountaineering bag, REI FLASH Insulated mattress, and (like Daryl & Daryl) the fly and main pole from my Tarptent Moment DW solo tent. That would be my “sleep/shelter system”. Also I’d carry extra food, fire starting gear and a small 3 cup pot for melting snow if I needed the water. (And you very well may need it!) Plus the rest of the Ten Essentials not mentioned here. You can carry a small ESBIT burner and some Knorr soup mix as well. Don’t forget a Lexan spoon if you carry soup.

That’s about it besides my avy gear and SPOT emergency beacon. ALWAYS carry a pair of GTX mitten shells.

With these items and my clothes I know I can survive almost any weather and temps for a few days, say in a blizzard.

Eric B.

I’m not sure packing everything you need for a comfortable Winter overnight is what you’d call “Just -In-Case” day hiking.  I’m personally not lugging around a 10 lb plus BPW , even in Winter, on hikes where the chances of getting caught out after dark are slim, Sure, I might suffer and not get much sleep if something happens, but I’ll survive and I won’t be packing around a heavy load just to go on a day hike. It’s a gamble but I’ll take that chance.

But what if you wake up dead?

Slim chance can turn into no chance very quickly, for a quick walk in the park I take a torch but for a days skiing on the exposed plateau that is my home turf breaking a ski or snowshoe could kill you if you didn’t have some gear with you. I can assure you that my 8kilo pack is enough to survive but I wasn’t even close to comfortable, slept intermittently and was moderately hypothermic by dawn

Growing up in rural MD, I did not appreciate what it would feel like to be alone on the continental divide in January.  I suspect the wide distribution of locales and activities make it hard for everyone to appreciate each other’s perspectives on this.

Extrapolating backward from my experience:

Using my snow camping clothes – puffy jacket and pants – to extend my summer sleeping bag  seems to give me about 15 to 20 degrees extra wamth, taking abag that works for me at 35 in long johns down to 15 degrees. Educated guessing that i could sleep in just that same combination of clothes at about 55 degrees, that would suggest that the 30 degree rated bag is giving me 40 degrees over the clothing. Sounds about right since I can sleep at 80 naked and at about 40 in that bag naked. So there is a rough datapoint; 30 degree bag gives you 40 degrees colder than the clothing you have. Of course, for this to beof use you have to have some idea from experience as to what temperature you could sleep at in the clothing you would have with you.

Also, this is for actual sleep. You don`t need to sleep, you just need to stay alive. Two different things.

Something to add for consideration. Most people pack for torso warmth and don’t usually add in extra warm layers for the legs, so you might have 6Clo of insulation for the chest, head and arms but only 2 Clo for the legs and why the half bag came into use for climbers. An inch of insulation for the legs [ that missing 4Clo] will be lighter if used as a half bag rather than as trousers but not as versatile or warm enough to survive a night out easily but if you add in a pair of LW or UL insulated trousers things will be a lot warmer due to the trapped air layer. Sp rather than a 0F sleeping bag perhaps a pair of reasonably warm insulated pants and a 40 degree half bag. I’ve bivvyed  a few nights at -10C with the combination of DAS pants and parka inside a Goretex bivvy bag and managed to get a little sleep with just my rucksack under my hips, under similar conditions but with the addition of a CCF pad and my old 14C rated summer bag I was able to get some real sleep even with the degraded insulation. I think this is due mainly to that important layer of trapped air between pants and the bags insulation. Not everybody needs to carry this much, but I think that if you are more than an hours ski  or 3 hours walk in good conditions away from help then you should take along something more than an orange rubbish bag and a spare thermal

For a day hike, you should have a pretty exact forecast of the expected overnight weather and can therefore plan according for “just in case.”
What is the expected lowest night time temperature?
What is the expected weather? Wind, rain, snow?
Is there enough snow depth to build a shelter? and does the person know how to build a shelter?
Does the person know how to build a fire that lasts all night.
If much below minus 5 degrees you will need more kit that you describe or the tools to build a snow shelter or lie close to a warming fire that you keep going all night
BTW the circumstances that would seem to require an overnight bivouac be an injury or accident which you have excluded or getting lost/unable to navigate.
I am not seeing a snow shovel on the above lists. When I travel solo, I always carry a small one. I also carry a bushcraft knife and sometimes a small saw.

Well I usually carry a snow shovel but not everybody does I know.

Having an all night fire can be very area dependent, not always possible here in Australia when the weather changes to wet and windy so a Bivvy bag is needed at a minimum but I agree everybody needs the capability to do so if possible and my area is more benign that where Roger tours.