Bushwalk Australia

Hi all

I’ve only done a few overnight trips on foot using borrowed gear and cheap/heavy stuff.

I’m about to buy an Enlightened Equipment Revelation quilt and retire my aldi bag that is too short for me. It will be a 3 season quilt, and I’ll look into a dedicated winter quilt another day.

I’m a bit stuck on temperature ratings. I understand that I can just look up the averages of temperatures im likely to encounter, but I thought I’d ask for some real world experience. I live outside of Sydney and will likely be hiking around the coast and Blue Mountains predominantly.

What temp ratings would you recommend? I was considering their -1 degree Celsius quilt, which they say is a “limit” rating. I suppose that puts comfort rating at about 5 degrees Celsius.

Thanks

Will you be doing any Outback winter touring or any snow camping?
Have you read up on layering quilts yet?
If you get a bigger quilt you can layer up inside it to get a lower rating but my own experience is that quilts are not as warm as a bag [ others do differ tho and I sleep cold] so I would personally pick a quilt one rating warmer.
If you pick one rated to 0C you would probably be OK at 5C.
Winter/snow can be tackled by layering a LW synthetic quilt over the tp of the down one and you get a boost of 10 to 15 degrees that way depending on how warm the added quilt is and how good your mattress system is, you will need a warm hat or balaclava so take that into consideration.
Anything below 10C and I'm in a sleeping bag so not a really experienced quilt user

If you are going to camp in the blue mountains over winter you will need a quilt with a comfort (not minimum) rating of 0c. (Or under if you're a cold sleeper)

I'm a very cold sleeper and use a -8c quilt at 0c temps.

You can boost a quilts warmth with a hooded down jacket.

Don't forget a mat with a r value of atleast 3.

Ideally you want a summer bag/quilt as well for mid October-mid April. Something in the 10c comfort range.

Hi In our current weather along the coast you can sleep comfortably without a bag or quilt! If it gets a bit cooler than 20 degrees overnight then a raincoat or puffy jacket and leg thermals are handy to have. Assuming you are sleeping on some kind of mat.

Rest of the year comfort 5 would likely be fine, in the Blueys comfort zero. Any time you can ad a UL puffy, beanie, socks etc. and a thin ccf foam mat to boost insulation from the ground.

The quilt you are looking at would be great for this modular approach.

Not sure if this helps, because we are all different, but for the Blue Mountains outside of Winter I have been comfortable using a sleeping bag with comfort rating of 4 degrees C and a limit of zero. If it is warmish it is draped over me like a quilt but other times it's fully zipped with the hood drawn tight. In Winter I use a sleeping bag with comfort of -1, limit of -6, but I have found it to be borderline.

Your proposed choice for 3 season use sounds fine, but I have no knowledge of that particular brand, and how true to rating it is.

-1 limit quilt is fine for BMs, except winter as others have stated.

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Perhaps a 0 C rated comfort quilt if you are warm sleeper, a wider version especially if one is a side sleeper as the bum pokes out and gets drafts.

I picked up a used Sea to Summit 8 C comfort rated sleeping bag and it does well enough wearing extra layer fleece top and is very light weight at 400g. The sleeping bag concept is still a lot more effective at warmth efficiency per weight ratio with air voids reduced vs a quilt. I have a -2 C Undercling Mike quilt which is also very good.