Bag temperature rating for May 20, Hanover NH - Lee, MA SOBO

[No Hurry]

Hello everyone, I am leaving this coming Monday to hike from Hanover, NH to Lee, MA (or maybe Great Barrington), and I am in need of a new sleeping bag. I returned the REI one I used on a 650-mile trip in 2011, so am planning on getting a Sierra Designs Zissou Dri-Down bag when they go on sale this Friday at REI.


My question is regarding temperature ratings- my 2 choices are between the 23 and the 12 degree bags, for the sale and the dri-down. The 23 is $219.95 (before 30% off sale) and weighs 2 lbs, 4oz and the 12 costs $269.95 and weighs 2 lbs, 10oz.


I am inclined to get the 23 degree bag, but I just want to make sure this will be warm enough - I am using a Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo tent (not just a tarp), and I'd think that a 12-degree bag would be overkill. Then again, I have also been hiking in March, although at Springer - but that trip, it got down to the 20's one night in the Smokies.


I've also got a nice, light, Deuter 50-degree bag for the summer. I guess I am just wondering if I would really ever have the need for a 12-degree bag? I doubt I'd be hiking in the winter, but it can certainly get cold in the shoulder seasons.

Thanks,

No Hurry

[Kerosene]

I would point you to the 23-degree bag for late May in southern Vermont.

I typically hike from early April to late May, and Sept/Oct and bring a 20-degree bag (WM UltraLite) for all but my warmest hikes. I've done Massachusetts in late March (1975) with a foot of snow on the northern slopes with a similarly rated bag.

Your window to use your 50-degree bag will be pretty limited in the eastern mountains. I've been borderline cold in a 32-degree bag in early June.

[No Hurry]

Thanks- that what I am thinking also. I am sure that I would be cold in the 50-degree bag (and I've been, in, say, New Jersey in June when it was 45 degrees at night, so you never know!). I was just wondering if there was any reason to get the 12 degree bag. I'm really starting to think there isn't. I don't plan to do any winter camping, and I would THINK the 23-degree bag would be fine for almost anything in the 3 seasons.

[speedbump]

At least a 20 if not a 15, at any time in the whites.



Hello everyone, I am leaving this coming Monday to hike from Hanover, NH to Lee, MA (or maybe Great Barrington), and I am in need of a new sleeping bag. I returned the REI one I used on a 650-mile trip in 2011, so am planning on getting a Sierra Designs Zissou Dri-Down bag when they go on sale this Friday at REI.


My question is regarding temperature ratings- my 2 choices are between the 23 and the 12 degree bags, for the sale and the dri-down. The 23 is $219.95 (before 30% off sale) and weighs 2 lbs, 4oz and the 12 costs $269.95 and weighs 2 lbs, 10oz.


I am inclined to get the 23 degree bag, but I just want to make sure this will be warm enough - I am using a Six Moon Designs Lunar Solo tent (not just a tarp), and I'd think that a 12-degree bag would be overkill. Then again, I have also been hiking in March, although at Springer - but that trip, it got down to the 20's one night in the Smokies.


I've also got a nice, light, Deuter 50-degree bag for the summer. I guess I am just wondering if I would really ever have the need for a 12-degree bag? I doubt I'd be hiking in the winter, but it can certainly get cold in the shoulder seasons.

Thanks,

No Hurry

[No Hurry]

Ok, thanks- it occurs to me that I will eventually be hiking in both NH and ME to finish the sections of the AT that I haven't done (at the moment, I have to do north of Lee, MA, and the section between Pearisburg, VA and Harper's Ferry), so maybe the 12-degree bag WOULD make sense. I have no idea what time of year I'd be doing these last sections, of course, other than my upcoming trip SOBO from Hanover to Lee, MA. I just don't want to carry more than necessary, and, of course, I don't want to be hot...

[redseal]

I agree with the 23 degree choice.

[Migrating Bird]

28 degrees this morning just west of Lee, MA. at 925ft. So a 23 degree bag should be Ok if the bags rating is accurate.

[No Hurry]

Hmm. Ok. Well, the bag is allegedly EN rated, so it SHOULD be accurate. I guess it's going to come down to what they have in stock when I go down there tomorrow.

[q-tip]

It depends a lot on if you are a cold or warm sleeper. I use a WM Alpinlite (overstuff to 15d). I am an extremely cold sleeper and the 15 is the bag I use until the weather is consistently at 55+, the go to my summer bag...just a thought....

[No Hurry]

Yeah- I'm usually a warm sleeper, but I had hypothermia (TWICE) in 2011, as the bag somehow got wet... so I am just wanting to make sure that I get the right one. I am almost certainly over-thinking this as well, which is an unfortunate tendency of mine ;)

[House of Payne]

WM ultralight! I have the 1984 version and i wouldnt trade it (just yet)