TerraLite

If anyone wants a light bag that is also roomy as fuck, and you are rich - Get a WM Terralite asap. I have been sleeping comfy for almost a decade, and I thought paying $450 at the time was ridiculous!

If you're willing to go to $800, that opens up Western Mountaineering. And really not even that much if you just want a three season 20f rated bag. I feel like their website is straight forward. Look at the list. Find the temperature rating you want. Look at the literal size. All of the individual pages have the girth measurements. So you can get a lighter mummy bag. Or a little heavier wide bag and it'll be just as warm. To be specific if I were looking for a side sleeper or roomy sleeping bag from WM that's three season, I'd get the TerraLite rated at 25f. But the comfort rating is something like 18f. 1.8 lb. Or add three ounces of overfill down and drop the temp ratings by 5f degrees. Under their faq they have the EN numbers of their sleeping bags listed. Everything except the newest bags that haven't been tested or the list hadn't been updated yet or whatever. WM is top quality. But I like Montbell too so I wouldn't want to talk you out of buying from them.

Western Mountaineering TerraLite is going to be a little bit over your budget. But it's a wide sleeping bag. The 6'6" version is 1lb 15 oz. They call it a 25 f bag which is considered conservative. They do have their EN numbers posted on our website under the faq. That's going to fall between the comfort and limit ratings so I think the Comfort rating is something like 18 f. But you can pay a little extra and have 3 oz of down added. It will make the sleeping bag rated for 20 f. Which would also drop the comfort rating some but I don't know that's been tested specifically. I would say also not all sleeping pads are equal. Even in how they rate them. And sometimes even the higher R value pads aren't quite what they seem. So let me give you a specific example. There's a YouTuber out of Canada called Justin Outdoors. He's tested quite a bit of equipment in very cold environments. Even though the Nemo Tensor Extreme has a higher r value than the Thermarest XTherm, the Nemo tends to get cold spots because of its design. This is according to him. And therefore in this particular case in the most extreme situations, the Thermarest is a functionally warmer pad with a lower R value. So you may consider upgrading your sleeping pad. Or you may just consider getting an additional closed cell foam pad with a 2 R value to put under your current sleeping pad which would increase your total R value.

Good pad. Stick with that. Edit: (I forgot about the Nemo eclipse. That's something to look at. I don't think they're ready to ship yet. I don't know that factually. I think they're officially going on sale in march. REI was doing pre-orders.) Someone mentioned Western Mountaineering. That's the best. But they're expensive. I don't know if I'd recommend it for a beginner. I have one and it's totally worth it. If you know you're going to be out there, then maybe eventually you want to make that investment. In general about sleeping bags look at the EN or ISO Comfort rating. If they don't have that, you probably don't want it. That's an incorrect statement. Because even some top brands don't necessarily publish that for certain bags. In which case you just really need to look deeper into that bag. To give you a specific example, Western Mountaineering has EN number is published on a chart under their faqs. But that only goes down to their bags that are about zero rated and above. That doesn't mean that they're cold weather bags are crap. The exact opposite actually. But a lot of budget brands are throwing a temperature rating on there that may be more related to the extreme limit number which is survivability and you'll just be cold. If you want to look at the difference between the comfort, limit, and extreme limit rating, you can. But just stick with comfort. Maybe build in an extra 10° from what you actually expect to sleep in. That's a heavy tent. You can save a lot of weight there. Let me offer a specific alternative. Durston Xmid 2. It's a trekking pole tent. If you wanted to try trekking poles, this is a great way to save weight. If you don't want to use trekking poles, Durston sells ZFlicks poles. You'll still be significantly lighter than the Half dome 2. R/durstongearheads Naturehike is a budget brand with tents you can look at to see if one would work for you. You'd save money. And probably can come out a fair amount lighter. Check out r/ultralight. I'm not saying you should go full ultralight. But if you're going to be backpacking, save weight where you can.

Western Mountaineering has sleeping bags that you can order with one being right zip and one being left zip. And then you just zip them together. But I'm going to be honest. I don't know your friends and family. That's not something I would put on a wedding registry. And I don't mean I wouldn't put sleeping bags on there. I wouldn't put Western Mountaineering on there because it's so freaking expensive. I have one. I bought it for myself. I'm okay with that. I'm just saying I wouldn't ask anybody else any kind of obligated way like a wedding registry to spend that much money on me. What I'm seeing from the comments is that there are probably other brands that can do this. I just don't have a more affordable specific recommendation. So a little research might turn up a good result. I know a lot of brands are going to use zippers from similar suppliers. But my sort of guess is that you'll be better off finding a brand where they specifically state their bags zip together and then get two from them that you know are compatible.

Have been on a few backpacking trips in fall/spring and LOVE my western MT Terralite. Wanting to do a trip in June but don't have a light summer bag. Was considering the Western quilt rated at 45 but feeling less rich these days. Would that be the ideal bag or is there a better option for me?

I have a TerraLite. I think it would be a good bag for southern Appalachia. Too warm of a bag is almost as bad as too cool. Although you can unzip these bags like a quilt they're still quite warm just on top. If I take my VersaLite 10 degree out in warmer weather it's constantly on and off all night which makes for not reap restfull sleep. Buy what will be ideal for your first trips and then add clothing or a warmer insert if you need to go down colder.

\+1. I have a Terralite that is at least 15 years old and the quality is unparalleled.