Sleeping system for 2

[Champion_Munch]

Hey all,

Planning on walking through the walls/OT area in late March/early April, will be camping with my partner. We will both be using S2S Ultralight insulated mats strapped together but unsure about the rest. Our goal is to try and save money and weight as much as possible, but not sure how far we could push it and remain comfortable. I think we are both slightly cold sleepers. We plan to use clothing as part of sleeping system (down jacket, thermal top and bottom, beanie etc).

I'm currently considering purchasing a single bag to use over us as a blanket, as well as individual sleeping bag liners (S2S thermolite?). Would this work or is it just a wild and crazy idea and too much cold will seep in from around the sides?? I guess the other option is to get two sleeping bags and zip them together, but this would certainly be more expensive/weighty. Or, slightly cooler sleeping bags and liners to bump up the warmth. Too many choices!!

I currently have a cheap Denali Lite sleeping bag (rated to 5C), but can't really see how we could use this as part of our system as it's not particularly warm on its own. Also have 2xSolace Beyond sleeping bags, which we used last time but are absurdly oversized and heavy. Any help would be great!

Cheers,
Munch

[clance]

I have been up in the woj on numerous occasions, it can get very cold at night any time of the year and you need to be prepared for that. I was there last year in late march- during the day it was warm and sunny at night it got cold enough to freeze all the lake edges, I had a bag rated to minus 7 comfort, I was comfortable in that so I guess it's fair to say that it was getting down to around that kind of temp.
Sorry bit of a long story but my point is that whatever sleep system you come up with it'd pay to ensure it can cope with sub zero conditions

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

[Hermione]

I don't have any experience with this kind of system , we use separate mummy bags. I think it might be difficult to make decent weight savings while still being warm enough. The WOJ (like most of Tas) can be cold any time of year, maybe even snow. Have you done much walking in cold weather? Coming from somewhere warm it can be a bit of a shock, it was for us coming from WA. It's nice to at least be warm in bed. I think Enligjtened Equipment make a double quite but I'm sure it's expensive. You could maybe think of just hiring a couple of sleeping bags, if they were any lighter than the ones you've already got.

[paul_gee]

As you're probably aware, the 'common' set up people would use in your situation is two warm sleeping bags and maybe a couple of liners.

But in the interest of weight and price, you're right to think creatively but that might only take your so far. Don't cut corners as the last thing you want is to have yourself a very cold night or two to ruin your trip or worse.

There's a bloke around these parts that makes custom quilts. I am sure if you check out enough sleeping bag threads you'll stumble upon him. He might have something that will suit. Not sure about his prices.

Depending on your budget, there are some well-priced cold-weather bags around the place. And of course you can fashion yourself more warmth by adding clothes and liners.

The hiring idea is a good one if you're not likely to use the bags very often.

[Moondog55]

The combination of 2 LW summer bags and an extra large double quilt would work well and is Roger Caffins preferred option if you read his bushwalk pages
The Denali is a little on the small size to use as a 2-person Overquilt as there would be no footbox
Underclingmike could perhaps get time to make you a dedicated double quilt, he has talked bout the possibility; or if you had time and a sewing machine a DIY in Climashield is another possibility or you could add a footbox to the existing Denali bag [ although I do think it is still too small; as in not wide enough for two cold sleepers] and it would be almost as easy to make a proper overquilt from scratch.
There are a lot of LW possibilities depending on either your skills or your budget. The WM bag for sale here would be a cheap way of getting a decent LW bag to use with this system and that with a Climashield quilt would be good to 0C and a little lower depending on clothing if the bag is big enough that is.

[Champion_Munch]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I agree that renting a bag would be a neat idea, but we will be walking for ten days and arriving in Launceston and departing from Hobart, so not sure how well that would fit in. Over ten days it may get fairly expensive. Can anyone recommend a good supplier for hiring?

Another option could be to buy a bag and sell it after the trip, since we may not get back to tassie for a few years and they may end up sitting around unused....unless we can find use for them up in qld. What kind of bags would you all recommend for this kind of trip, particularly ones with potentially good resale value?

I saw the quilt thread, they look super cool but from what I can see he is not looking at making double quilts for the time being, so we may be out of luck on that one.

Cheers,
Munch

[Moondog55]

Something I suggested for some-one else is to go to K-Mart or Target and get a cheap summer doona, use it in Tassie and then give it away on the way home

http://www.target.com.au/p/tontine-i-m- ... 4602_white

http://www.target.com.au/p/essentials-s ... 7_nocolour

One of you carries the doona the other the two LW sleeping bags
5 minute hand sewing will add the drawcord at the end to gather it and you can use a simple button and loop to hold it
While bulky it has the advantage of being cheap

[johnk1]

Ian from mountain bike Tasmania is good to hire gear from. $60 per week for sleeping bags I think

[Hermione]

Hey all,

Planning on walking through the walls/OT area in late March/early April, will be camping with my partner. We will both be using S2S Ultralight insulated mats strapped together but unsure about the rest. Our goal is to try and save money and weight as much as possible, but not sure how far we could push it and remain comfortable. I think we are both slightly cold sleepers. We plan to use clothing as part of sleeping system (down jacket, thermal top and bottom, beanie etc).

I'm currently considering purchasing a single bag to use over us as a blanket, as well as individual sleeping bag liners (S2S thermolite?). Would this work or is it just a wild and crazy idea and too much cold will seep in from around the sides?? I guess the other option is to get two sleeping bags and zip them together, but this would certainly be more expensive/weighty. Or, slightly cooler sleeping bags and liners to bump up the warmth. Too many choices!!

I currently have a cheap Denali Lite sleeping bag (rated to 5C), but can't really see how we could use this as part of our system as it's not particularly warm on its own. Also have 2xSolace Beyond sleeping bags, which we used last time but are absurdly oversized and heavy. Any help would be great!

Cheers,
Munch

This might be an ignorant question, but what sort of overnight temperature do you generally have in South East Queensland? If that's where you do most of your walking. Both your sleeping bags are quite heavy, the Denali Lite is only about 20g lighter than my winter bag (for Tasmanian type winter not Western Australia), I think it unfortunately comes back to the old adage "cheap, lightweight, durable, pick any two". You could save some weight and space ( but not money) with a couple down sleeping bags that you could perhaps still use in Queensland, extending their temperature range with a down jacket/other clothing for use in Tasmania. Although I don't know that it will be easy to find light weight bags that also zip together. Are you really set on having a double bag? I just find individual mummy bags more efficient for bushwalking, if we're car camping then I just take a doona. Moondog's idea about a cheap from quilt from K-Mart or the like is good as far as cost saving, but looks like it would take up a lot of space in your pack. Also remember that this sleep system will need to go in some sort of dry bag. Anyway good luck with whatever you decide, it's always interesting to see how other people solve these problems so let us know what you come up with.

[Champion_Munch]

Moondog, your suggestion sounds good but I am completely incapable at sewing anything.

Hermione, SEQ gets to low single digits in winter (Girraween goes sub-zero) but generally camping is around 5-15C. Considering getting a couple of S2S Trek Tk1s to zip together, thoughts?

[Hermione]

Pretty similar similar temperatures to where I live then. The S2S Trek1 is maybe a bit light on fill for me (I'm a very cold sleeper), but you should be able to make it work if you're prepared to wear other layers to bed. I use a mummy bag with about 450 - 500g of 800 loft down, for winter in Western Australia and three season use in Tasmania (like I said I get cold). S2S make decent bags, plus it's probably a much more useful bag for where you live. One thing I don't like about it, according to the specs it has side baffles with a 60/40 fill ratio, this means 60% of the down on the top 40% on the bottom. I prefer continuous baffles because you can shift the down around, more on top if you're really cold. I can't quite figure out what that would mean when they were zipped together. The long zip is a plus for warmer places like Queensland since if you're too hot you can open it out to use as a quilt. One more thing about the trek1, since it's a tapered rectangular bag you've got more space to heat up, not sure how this affected if you are zipping them together. A couple of times when I have been caught out with cold weather, I've found I could warm up my bag using something like a Nalgene drink bottle as a hot water bottle. It's easy to get bogged down trying to choose a sleeping bag though, as long as you know the overnight temps in Tasmania at that time of year may well be below 0 and are prepared for that you should be ok. Plenty of people use sleeping bags well outside the manufacturers' temperature ratings by wearing layers etc.

[Champion_Munch]

Thanks Hermione. Ended up getting two of the S2S Trek Tk1.

[Moondog55]

Thanks Hermione. Ended up getting two of the S2S Trek Tk1.

Should take a kilo off your backs and if you need to go lower you can still layer a big quilt over the top

[Hermione]

Like Moondog, I'm sure you'll appreciate the weight savings. You should get many years of use from them too. Enjoy your upcoming trip to Tasmania, I'm quite jealous!

[Moondog55]

Here ya go
For those really cold nites
Shame that it isn't really good high fill power down tho

http://www.nemoequipment.com/product/?p ... ver+2P+25L