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jigsaw
10-27-2002, 09:42
hi all i posted a while back that i was looking for a quilt.but what im really looking for is the lightest sleeping set up. now i just unzip my bag and use it as a quilt. so im looking for something without a hood. wm mitylite looks good or nunatak blanket.also anybody know the web site for rab half bags? not only is weight inportant but size. so im pretty much looking for down. jigsaw

Minerva
10-27-2002, 10:21
did u try www.rab.uk.com?

I have the wm mitylite. Got it from the Mountain Goat in Manchester, VT. It has two zippers, one is the foot box area and the other is up the side, but both can be unzipped to open the bag up like a quilt. I love this bag. At first I thought the inside liner material was weird, not as soft as the taffeta fabric on my two FF bags, but I got used to the feeling of the new the bag. This is one nice sleeping bag for summer hiking in the mountains.
Cin

Jumpstart
10-27-2002, 11:39
Hi Jigsaw,

I'm not sure how this compares with the weights of your Mitylite, but have you tried Western Mountaineering? We used the WM Ultralite (1 pound, 12 ounces) until Pearisburg, VA (25 degrees, and I am a cold sleeper) and used the WM Highlite for the summer months, (they are only 1 pound, and a good 40 degree bag). Both are down, pack down SUPER-tiny, and worked great for the whole trip.

SGT Rock
10-27-2002, 12:18
I have a Nunatak Backcounty Blanket and love it. I think the thing I didn't like most was price. Seems Nunatak charges about 4 times the ammount for down that Feathered Friends does. If I could have gotten the same quilt from them I probably could have gotten it a lot cheaper, but Feathered Friends didn't make them.

I used an old 30* down bag for about 20 years in temps as low as 7 degrees but stopped using it as a bag and more as a blanket. I am also a cold sleeper, but I found the draft tupes, zippers, hood options, etc just added a lot of weight when you could just turn and tuck to do the same thing.

Don't get me wrong, i bet in super cold weather, the mummy bag with it's form fitting insulation and all those coold options is essential, but in temps above 0* you can get by without it. At least that is my experience.

Have you thought of this? Getting one of those Nunatak 1/2 bags and using a down jacket. Sweeper did a northbound in 2001 using that starting in Feb, and had pretty bad weather, but he told me it worked just fine. That way you have a jacket for camp, and a bag for your feet to add. If you think about it, it is about the same as using the Ryku or the Rock Wren, just a slightly different form.

MedicineMan
10-29-2002, 01:09
I love the theory and concept of the Rab Top Bag but for me 6'1" and 188 pounds it was just too cramped, and as you might know anytime I turned even if just a little a gap would be created and cold air would sting me....someone posted somewhere about sending his Top Bag off and had a piece of silnylon attached below the mesh panel creating a sleave (the Top Bag comes with a mesh panel on the bottom) so he could slip his pad into the sleave. This sounds like a good idea and would take care of the air infiltration problem....but for me after several test hikes have decided that the Rab Top Bag is just too small for me....I have gone to Western Mountaineering bags and am well pleased.

garraty
02-03-2003, 00:17
I used a NunatakUSA Ghost for most of the AT last year and loved it. Packs up small, ony 17 oz, comfortable in hot weather and down to around freezing. For the range of temperatures on most of the trail their basic design - almost always sleep with it as a blanket held on by two straps that go under you - if it goes down near freezing have the two straps hold both your and your pad, worked perfectly.

MedicineMan
02-03-2003, 01:15
A couple of weeks ago I sent the Rab Top Bag to Moonbow for modification.
When it comes back (and Rhia of Moonbow just emailed and said it was on its way!) it will have a 24" wide sleeve attached to the bottom and a zipper between the sleeve and the bag itself.
I asked them to make the sleeve 1inch thick so I can put a really thick pad in it.
This is in hopes of using it in the hammock but surely will work better when on the ground too. I complained about room in the bag before and with this modification I should get a little more room. I camped on Isle Royale with the Top Bag down to 24 degrees in warm comfort if not room comfort so maybe the bag will get some use this way.
It will be moot when the Arc Alpinist gets here but that may be quite a while too considering the work load at Nunatak, but by then maybe I will have the underquilt constructed for the HH.....