Feathered Friends - Swallow YF 30

I say this as someone who has bought a lot of sleeping bags. It’s better to spend the money on something premium upfront. I bought a $100 then a $200 then a $300 sleeping bag… and still kept freezing my ass off. I now have a feathered friends swallow, and have no complaints. If I had just invested that money upfront, it would have saved me lots. Consider WM, FF, or pHdesigns for your next purchase. You won’t regret it

I'd been using a Marmot for 30 yrs, what they called a 10-20 30. Don't remember the price but it was the most expensive thing I bought for a very long time and glad I did. There were not as many choices back then and I don't think they are the same now. Point is it was annoying when it was warm. Couple of years ago I got a Feathered Friends Flicker 40. It's a hoodless sleeping bag that can also open all the way to a quilt. (no it doesn't attach to a pad) Had that down to mid 30's cowboy camping in the desert and was fine with a puffy on. I had wanted a 30 but out of stock. This year sold the 40 and got a 30 for a trip to Iceland in July. I'm very happy with it; works well across temps. Combined with the Marmot gets me down to 0. Since it is a bag when I want it's less fuss than a lot of the quilts out there. (love the draft collar and the foot closing completely). You can rent one and they will credit up to 2 nights rental cost toward a similar purchase. May help but likely incur some extra shipping costs unless you're in their area.

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.