Serpentes (Fetal Position)

The Timmermade Serpentes is my primary sleeping bag, and I have probably 40 nights in it. Here’s what i can pass on: The most important difference from a false-bottom bag and a traditional bag is that you turn in the bag with a false-bottom, not with the bag. You have to keep the bottom centered under the body, and this can be surprisingly fiddly when you turn. Yes, you keep out drafts, but if you expose the uninsulated bottom to the cold air you will feel it nonetheless. It’s easier to keep drafts out in a quilt, assuming it is wide enough, than it is to keep a false-bottom bag properly oriented. For a zipperless bag, it is best to have a temperature profile like you would find in the arid American west: where the temperature drops quickly at sundown. In the humid American southeast, the temps drop slowly, such that a zipperless bag that is adequate for the lows will be too warm for the initial nightly high. Quilts are better in these circumstances since you can regulate temps easily. If you can only afford one, I’d recommend a quilt in a wide size. This recommendation is coming from someone who spends about 70% of my nights in a false-bottom bag. If you get a false-bottom bag, order one oversized so that you can easily turn in it, unless you spend all night on your back. My Serpentes is the “fetal position” version, which I highly recommend if you go that way. By the way, you want one without a hood. The cumulus versions with attached hoods make no sense, given the fact that you turn in the bag, not with it.

I want to second this, I love my Timmermade Serpentes, it took me a while to “learn” how to keep the bottom on the bottom, but now is second nature. I only really rotate trying to get (back) to sleep. I can’t recommend it enough,