JustaTouron
01-29-2010, 14:06
Down?
Do you love it or hate it?
I know lots of people consider it the ultimate UL insulation.
I hate the stuff and consider it even less useful than cotton. Sometimes I will bring a cotton T-shirt on a hike in the summer. I never bring anything made of down.
In large part of my dislike for down stems from novice mistakes I made and others made when I was in Boy Scouts. When I was a Scout, I had two sleeping bags – a summer rectangular one and a heavy (~5 lbs) winter synthetic mummy bag. I think it was rated for zero. Other than for summer camp and very late spring or very early fall I always used the winter one. Often unzipped or as a blanket when it was warm, but IMHO when it is 45 it is better to have a zero bag than a 55 bag. I had wanted to get a lighter weight down bag instead of the heavy synthetic one, but down was out of my price range at the time. My buddy got the more expensive down one.
Being both novices we made a lot of novice mistakes.
First one was setting up the tent in a depression when the forecast called for heavy rain and thundershowers. The tent became an indoor swimming pool. When I woke up in the morning my fingers were all shriveled up like they get if you swimming for too long. I was soaked, but warm. Although the bag lost some insulation value because of being wet, not enough given that it was still above 35 degrees for me to be cold. My buddy’s teeth were chattering. And while my sleeping bag worked great, the down jacket I had on the floor of the tent was useless for the rest of the trip.
Second one was on a canoe trip. We flipped the canoe by accident. Didn’t lose any gear cause it was all tied in very well, but both of our sleeping bags got soaked as did some of our other gear. The garbage bag protecting my sleeping pad was successful as were the ziplocks holding my clothes. But the garbage bag protecting my sleeping bag didn’t do much. By the time night fell I had managed to get my bag from “soaking wet” to just “pretty damp”. His bag was still soaking wet. I put on dry clothes and went to bed in the damp bag. In the early hours of the morning I woke up and being too warm unzipped my bag (it was almost completely dry at this point). My buddy heard me unzip the bag and ask me if I was getting up. I said “no, just too warm.” He responded by calling me something that I won’t repeat on a family friendly forum. I ignored it and went back to sleep. I asked him why he had been so hostile in the middle of the night and he hadn’t gotten much sleep and spent the entire night freezing, my complaining about being too warm was just too much for him to bear.
Maybe the lessons I should have learned, isn’t “down sucks” but “be careful where you set up a tent” and “use dry bags on a canoe trip”. I think I have learned those lessons too. I am better at keeping stuff dry now, than I was when I first started going camping. But I have never been able to keep 100% of the snow out of my tent on a winter trip or managed to avoid becoming somewhat damp inside the tent when it is raining. I would rather have a jacket or sleeping bag that does 80% of the job when soaking wet than one that is useless.
What says you…Down: love it or hate it?
Do you love it or hate it?
I know lots of people consider it the ultimate UL insulation.
I hate the stuff and consider it even less useful than cotton. Sometimes I will bring a cotton T-shirt on a hike in the summer. I never bring anything made of down.
In large part of my dislike for down stems from novice mistakes I made and others made when I was in Boy Scouts. When I was a Scout, I had two sleeping bags – a summer rectangular one and a heavy (~5 lbs) winter synthetic mummy bag. I think it was rated for zero. Other than for summer camp and very late spring or very early fall I always used the winter one. Often unzipped or as a blanket when it was warm, but IMHO when it is 45 it is better to have a zero bag than a 55 bag. I had wanted to get a lighter weight down bag instead of the heavy synthetic one, but down was out of my price range at the time. My buddy got the more expensive down one.
Being both novices we made a lot of novice mistakes.
First one was setting up the tent in a depression when the forecast called for heavy rain and thundershowers. The tent became an indoor swimming pool. When I woke up in the morning my fingers were all shriveled up like they get if you swimming for too long. I was soaked, but warm. Although the bag lost some insulation value because of being wet, not enough given that it was still above 35 degrees for me to be cold. My buddy’s teeth were chattering. And while my sleeping bag worked great, the down jacket I had on the floor of the tent was useless for the rest of the trip.
Second one was on a canoe trip. We flipped the canoe by accident. Didn’t lose any gear cause it was all tied in very well, but both of our sleeping bags got soaked as did some of our other gear. The garbage bag protecting my sleeping pad was successful as were the ziplocks holding my clothes. But the garbage bag protecting my sleeping bag didn’t do much. By the time night fell I had managed to get my bag from “soaking wet” to just “pretty damp”. His bag was still soaking wet. I put on dry clothes and went to bed in the damp bag. In the early hours of the morning I woke up and being too warm unzipped my bag (it was almost completely dry at this point). My buddy heard me unzip the bag and ask me if I was getting up. I said “no, just too warm.” He responded by calling me something that I won’t repeat on a family friendly forum. I ignored it and went back to sleep. I asked him why he had been so hostile in the middle of the night and he hadn’t gotten much sleep and spent the entire night freezing, my complaining about being too warm was just too much for him to bear.
Maybe the lessons I should have learned, isn’t “down sucks” but “be careful where you set up a tent” and “use dry bags on a canoe trip”. I think I have learned those lessons too. I am better at keeping stuff dry now, than I was when I first started going camping. But I have never been able to keep 100% of the snow out of my tent on a winter trip or managed to avoid becoming somewhat damp inside the tent when it is raining. I would rather have a jacket or sleeping bag that does 80% of the job when soaking wet than one that is useless.
What says you…Down: love it or hate it?