Zip-Around Sleeping Bag

I don’t really know of too many places messing around with FB other than Timmermade- someone mentioned the pad sleeves on BA bags and maybe the zenbivy setup but for UL Dans the only way I know of to get that. I buy used gear and Spent last 3 years with 3 different quilts - year 1: a Zpacks 10 zip around- fantastically warm and light- with it zipped I was over warm in the teens. I loved the ability to fully unzip buttt the superthin d fabric had me leery Year 2: Timmermade FB wren zipper added 20- whoa… Dan does amazing work and this thing was amazing. It weighed in at 22oz, the zipper was easy to use, easy to get in and out of, great in a hammock or on the ground… but I still felt a wee bit constricted in my torso while rotisserie sleeping. This Year -# 3: Nunatak Strugi-q 22- THIS quilt right here🤯…My 3rd Nunatak quilt and Jan and the team have assembled a pinnacle piece IMO. The diff cut, ETC, draft collar, baffles, fabric inner and outer, the stuff and the snaps… I tried it in the backyard without pad straps in the low 30s and didn’t fully adjust the etc and was surprisingly warm for how i flip flop through the night. Next 3 nights I adjusted, added the straps and as the temps crept into the mid 20s I slept through the night warm and woke up warm. FB is great and I enjoyed my time in the Wren- I love dans work and that you can literally build for your body/sleep style and what your needs are… and if you win a spot you can message him along the way of the build and he will help you out.

Try both. Some people like one over the other. For me it's about temperature. Much lower than 20F and I pack a sleeping bag just due to how much more apparent even a small draft becomes. I also begin to really appreciate the re-addition of a hood in extreme cold as my sinuses benefit from the trapped warmer air. Easy entry into either world would be with something like a Zenbivy system or a Zip around bag like Zpacks makes and the WM Terralite either of which can fully open.

Thats a tiny pack for 3-5 day trips anywhere. I have gone down the ultralight rabbithole for a few years, and spent way too much money on changing out gear, and I can barely do 3-5 days in a 30-liter pack in Norway during summer. The Fjellreven pack is kinda light, but the Klattermusen one is as heavy as a framed 50 liter pack. Why did you settle on these options? Nashville Packs Cutaway, Pa'lante V2 w/Joey Straps, Lundhags Padje Ultralight all make more sense.

Thats fine, but why get a heavy pack when your goal is to go SuperUltraLight? To make it work with a 20 liter pack you would need to get a 7D quilt with super high fillpower, sleep on a ccf pad, sleep in most of your clothing etc. Its doable for sure, but its not easy. For starters; tarp from borah/zpacks/mld in dcf .55. Quilt/bag: join the lottery over at timmermadegear. Zpacks and EE also use 7d fabrics. Swedish Vilse makes 10D 900fp quilts in Sweden, im waiting for my +3 celsius from them. If you want to go inflatable; Nemo tensor elite. But it will be hard to make room for an inflatable in a 20l pack. Get a regular thermarest z-lite.

For the sleeping bag I’d recommend a zpacks, timmermade or cumulus 30f range sleeping bag you could push into much colder temps wearing alpha 120 bottoms, down jacket, and down foot booties inside the sleeping bag. I’ve used this combo of clothing to push my 12oz 50f sleeping quilt down to 20f comfortably. If you plan to camp mostly in the summer I’d get the 50f bag and just wear more clothes inside it to push temps lower in fall. I switched to this technique and was able to reduce my pack size a lot and half the weight of my sleeping bag and its bulk. It works well since I’m already taking the alpha pants and down jacket anyways so I might as well wear them and save weight on the sleeping bag. The wind makes the biggest difference to me for how much insulation I need at night. For High Wind below freezing a windproof bivy that can fit over your pad and quilt makes a huge difference to your overall warmth and stoping drafts. Many UL quilts with 7D fabric are not very windproof and even a 20f bag can feel very cold at 20f in high winds. I like to summit camp and it’s often very windy above 6000ft. For the sleeping pad I’d recommend the thermarest nxt https://cascadedesigns.com/products/neoair-xlite-nxt-sleeping-pad?srsltid=AfmBOop1YJvl8n8oPU1vCNvveJ5sopEYhuUIcb1ORgJmz5-Sc-vxRd-W If 6.1 and the wide thermarest fits me but is still small. It packs down very small and is the most comfortable and insulated pad for the weight that I’ve tried yet. I have slept at 10f in the snow and been fine with it. You can also pair it with a gossamer gear thin light foam pad and gain more R values for freezing temps.