Warm Sleeping Bag For My Wife

[Fowlman]

Help please.

My wife is going to start hunting with me more on late season backpack hunts. She is fine in September. But later on she will be getting very very cold.
I need to know what are very good backpacking sleeping bags. The bag needs to be able to get wet possibly.
Needs to be able to compress down to be able to be packed.
And I will say again. She gets very cold.

I have been thinking

1. Kifaru
2. Stone Glacier


Thank you everyone.

 

[rlmmarine]

Go with a big agnus park series
Get the synthetic because of getting wet otherwise i also go with down
The park series has a built in pocket to hold your pad in place but its built like a quilt to be light.
The get a exped down 9 something pad. It the combination i use in tje artic and it works extreamly well
I now have a couple ba bags for different climates and exped mattress for different temps but i always sleep as good in those as i do my bed at home

 

[BRTreedogs]

Feathered friends or Western mountaineering.
Warm is also going to be dependent on sizing.
To big and there is to much air for her body to heat.
To tight and the down will not be able to fluff.
So id look into some sized correctly.

Down won't be as water resistant.
Synthetic does not pack down well.

 

[Fowlman]

So far lots of help. Thank you.

 

[ljalberta]

I would be sure to get a real warm sleeping pad as well, such as an Xtherm to match the bag. Then I would be looking at the Western Mountaineering bags made with the Microfiber(little more water resistant, but still breathable). Look at the comfort (not limit ratings) of the bags and then if she is a real cold sleeper, I would get her a bag that is rated at least 10F better than the coldest conditions you expect. I cannot remember the exact details, but I believe the comfort rating is based on the average 25 year old women sleeping in a relaxed position. If she is a cold sleeper, then this would likely not be comfortable to her. Plus, as people age, they often tend to sleep colder, hence I would recommend getting a better rated bag than even the comfort rating.

Look at the dimensions as well. As someone mentioned, a snug bag is going to be warmer with less weight, as it is less space to heat. The downside is a lot of people can’t sleep in them comfortably. In that case, get a wider one, even though it may come with a weight/bulk penalty.

I’d get the overfill as well if she is a cold sleeper. It will add a couple degrees warmth, but the big benefit is there will be less shifting down so she won’t have to worry about moving the down around at all prior to bed.

I’ve heard feathered friends is great as well, but I have no experience with them personally.

 

[Fowlman]

Any bags you can light on fire. She use to be a fire fighter and the joke was she only volunteered to keep warm by the fire.

She never denied it.

 

[BRTreedogs]

You may want to do some digging and soul searching on treated down vs synthetic.

We use treated down and I'm very confident in it. But that being said if stuff gets bad we will just walk out.

My wife simply couldn't fit a synthetic bag and her gear in her pack. I didn't want to drape a huge pack on her, but it was her gear or her sleeping bag. Not both. So I had to carry her bag in a dry bag on back of my pack.

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

We went with Valandre. Odin Neo (Small). Incredibly warm 4-season mountaineering bag. Little over 4lbs, but 40oz of fill in a 5’6” bag!
She sleeps cold, so saving a 1/2lb on something ultra-light was not something she was interested in gambling on. She’s had it 3 seasons, 2 of which it got well below 0 for multiple days in a row.

 

[Wetwork]

Thought I'd have a easy reply til I saw "backpacking"....So's if she gets cold easy, and since you didn't mention you were zipping your bags together I'd say go with power. Get her electric socks and a vest and whatever else you can solar charge during the day. The best jammies ever made? Hot water bags? Packing in means light weight and that equal cold to me. K2 is one thing...hunting with your ole'lady is another. Got to make that fun.

I freeze, I'm a skinny SOB. I have to wear tons of clothes (sweats, longjons, hoodie). I use a 10lb canvas covered bag (not backpacking in a tent) with a heavy blanket draped over my bag. I drink a shot of Nyquil, When I wake up I walk out of the tent do a spin-kick knocking the pine cones off trees and then I take a leak. If I didn't have all that crap to keep me warm, I'd probably wouldn't wake up.-WW

 

[ljalberta]

Good point by wet work. Heat water up and throw it in a bottle and put it in her back. It’s incredible the heat they dump off to get a bag all warm for sleeping.

 

[BigNate]

I went with a Wiggys bag. They are great but might not be as light as some.

Also the sleeping pad can be a huge factor. I've had a couple different ones that weren't woth carrying, and a couple that were ok. You can put fir branches down first, it helps quite a bit.

 

[PRC_GUY]

Do you look at Kuiu 0 degree sleeping bag?

 

[EJDXT21]

I have the Big Agnes Anvil Horn 15 degree bag. It's 650 fill, has a good outer water resistance and the down is treated in case it gets soaked. I have only slept in it in around 26 degree weather and it was comfortable to me, and that's just sleeping with socks, lightweight pants and my base layer top. You could definitely wear puffy clothes and or add a warm water bottle or hot hands for added warmth. It can accommodate regular or wide sleeping pads. My wife used it when she hiked up in the Smokies and said it kept her very warm, but it didn't get that cold either, maybe in the 40's while she was there. You can find good deals on this bag.

 

[sndmn11]

The pad is critical.

There seems to be a lot of good bags available;
USA made = Feathered Friends and western Mountaineering for down, Kifaru might be it for synthetic

Nemo's Sonic is spec'd well, the Stone Glacier and Kuiu bags seem to be well liked, and many of the backpacking companies have good bags as well.

My wife has found Western Mountaineering's short Antelope with some foot overstuff to work for her in the summer to the end of November to be just fine on top of Klymit's insulated static v luxe XL in a tent with no stove.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Western Mountaneering. If you’re concerned about wet conditions, their GWS series is fantastic. I’ve slept with just a tyvek sheet on the ground and a small tarp overhead in thunderstorms. The GWS has done its job every time so far. Never got the down even close to wet. We were surprised by an Idaho downpour this season and quickly got a tarp overhead. Again, the GWS did its job and the down never got wet. I was dry and warm all night.

Sleeping pad is key if you’re ground sleeping. Get a quality pad with a high R rating. Try the setup out now while it’s winter in your backyard when you can simulate high country cold nights.

I get cold really easily so get a bag with a temp rating well under the outside conditions (0 degree bag for 20 degrees outside). Remember that theee bags ratings are based on “survival” temp not comfort.

 

[EJDXT21]

Thermarest makes a women's version of the Neoair Xlite that has a higher R value, (5.4), vs the regular Neoair Xlite, (4.2) .

 

[mlgc20]

My youngest daughter (12) sleeps very cold and does a lot of backcountry camping/hunting with me. I got her a Mountain Hardwear Phantasia 0. That bag is awesome. It only weighs 2lb 10oz and packs very small for a zero degree bag. I paired that bag with the women's version of the NeoAir Xlite. The pad is as important as the sleeping bag IMO. My daughter can sleep comfortably in the single digits with that setup.

 

[sneaky]

The better bag companies will have bags sized appropriately for women. Last thing you need is a bag that's too long with a lot of dead space in it. WM, FF or PhD out of the UK for top shelf down bags, synthetic you're looking at Kifaru, Wiggys, or a backpacking bag from MH or TNF or Nemo. Valandre is another great down bag that was already mentioned as well. I'd set a budget and then get the best one that fits that budget

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Fowlman]

Thank you everyone for the large amount of help.
I do not get cold easy so the bag I use is not even very good but I am ok with it.
But for her I will be looking at a bunch of these bags and pads.
I think we can get away with treated down.

Thank you for all the help everyone.

 

[*zap*]

I think if you want treated down the stone glacier has done well with moisture...

I found the video below to be interesting: