Feathered Friends - Raven 10 UL

Would the FF Raven be too big for you? I have it and find it’s plenty roomy for me as a side sleeper. I’ve taken it as low as 20F and have been plenty, plenty warm. But I’m a guy, 5’9” and 210ish. I also have quilts from Katabatic and EE that I use for 30F and up. Both are very good but I find the cut and features of the Katabatic make it a little less drafty.

192cm here. Long versions of Feathered Friends, Western Mountaineering, or Enlightened Equipment bags. For your temp range I use 20F EE quilt. For a tent, you can also get something longer. I use Tarptent Rainbow which leaves me with almost 30 cm to spare length wise.

I use a -10F bag in PNW. I slept it in in temps hovering around 25-30F, and it was comfortable - although I ended up sticking my head out of the bag hood. This is a bag known to easily take -10F (Feathered Friends), so what I basically go out of that in sub-freezing conditions you can have much too warm of a bag and be totally fine. It seems to be mostly when we get in warmer temps that this can be an issue.

Western Mountaineering, Feathered Friends or Marmot for bags. Enlightened Equipment, Hammock Gear or Katabatic for backpacking quilts. Not cheap but quality and comfortable.

There isn’t really an absolute best, but I like Katabatic for a quilt and western mountaineering or feathered friends for a bag. I prefer quilts down to around the low 20s, bags below that. Having a pocket in your quilt for a sleeping pad seems silly to me.

At those temps you don't want to be messing around with some (relatively) unknown brand. I would also go insane if I had to deal with some fiddly hood that let in drafts around my neck in the winter. As far as I'm concerned, in the winter you have two options -- feathered friends or western mountaineering.

For sleeping bags I do Feathered Friends. PHENOMENAL products. Carefully selected down feathers and they don’t have to kill the animals to get them. I’ve got 3 different Feathered Friends sleeping bags for different temperatures, including an ultra thick one that I’ve used alone sleeping in no-tent self-dug snow trenches in the middle of Yellowstone in January. The outer layer of the sleeping bags is synthetic, but the primary ingredient is natural feathers. I also have one of their down packable jackets, but it’s too hot, even in -20F. Last time I camped in deep snow for a week, alone, on cross country skis, pulling all my gear on a Fairbanks siglin pulk sled behind me, I found I didn’t need much during the day, because I was working so hard I was always hot. At night I would dig a trench, lay a tarp across the top, supported by my ski poles, and sleep in my FF down bag on top of a thermarest. I’d keep my boots in the bottom of the sleeping bag so they didn’t freeze overnight. Wool socks, wool long underwear, wool sweater, synthetic wind-and-snow protecting pants and jacket. Wool hat, neck gaiter, and gloves. Synthetic outer-layer for gloves to keep my fingers drier. Smartwool makes merino wool boxer briefs. You need less than you think. (Except calories, holy f— do you need a lot of those.)

Sea to Summit bags are excellent. Western Mountaineering makes bags that are a little higher quality than S2S, and more expensive. Feathered Friends is another excellent bag. Both of these brands are small American companies who focus on making the best products they can, price be damned. If you’re at all concerned with price the Sea to Summit Spark will work just fine. If the price doesn’t bother you, Western Mountaineering or Feathered Friends bags will keep you warm and happy for decades.

Western Mountaineering and Feathered Friends are the best out there.