Synthetic bag question’s

[gostovp]

Anyone use a high quality synthetic bag on your backpack hunts? Simply for the fact of cooking yourself dry at night…
I know all the advantages of down over synthetic (warm, longevity, packability,etc) and I own a WM AlpinLite bag which I really like, but after a few days of crawling in it damp at night I can tell the bag is losing loft and maybe feeling somewhat ‘damp’ ( WM bags do not use treated down )

Thoughts and experiences?

 

[Macchina]

I've tried many synthetic bags, Big Agnes and Marmot seemed to be the best but they sit collecting dust. There is simply no comparison to down even when camping out of your truck. When backpacking, down is magnitudes better.

My 20° Marmot synthetic bag is the only one I'd use down to freezing and it takes up half of my backpack compressed. I would much sooner bring 2 down bags than 1 synthetic bag if it was anywhere near freezing.

The only application I've found where synthetic works is in the dead of summer when I can use one of those ultralight cheap synthetic 60° (I think I would die if it actually got to 60°) bags basically as a pad cover and wrap up when I get chilly at 2am. This system works well because I'm not compressing down when I sleep completely on top of it. Even then, I'm more likely to bring a light down quilt.

Have you considered using a nice down quilt? They can be completely opened up during the day to dry and without the down underneath you there's a lot less to get wet. When you get warm in one, venting is a lot easier to prevent sweating.

Having said all that, I've never wetted out a down bag in a week of hunting, even when it's mostly rain. We're really careful about our bags during the day, but we often camp in a tippee so we deal with a lot of condensation from the exposed ground. Maybe you're doing something that is wetting out your bag? Are you drying your clothes or boots in it at night?