[pct-l] sleeping bags

[Steel-Eye]

Good afternoon, Neil,

In my opinion, compression sacks not only add cost and weight, and require
time to use, but the repeated compression of down is damaging to its loft.
One noted writer of PCT hiking, and an ultra-lite guru, states that the
first compression of a new sleeping bag causes a loss of 18% of loft, and
each subsequent compression reduces loft by an additional 3%.    Based upon
that algorithm a new bag with 5.00" of loft would be reduced to 0.20" of
loft at the end of 100 days .. a fairly quick PCT hike .. and would be
further reduced to 0.04" thick after 150 days.  I think that's total
baloney, but I can't prove it.  Suffice it to say that compressing will
cause undesirable and unnecessary damage.

I never compress my sleeping bags, nor even sack-stuff them. I just poke
them loose in whatever space remains in the pack, and doing so doesn't take
long.  As a result, my pack usually looks full regardless of the consumables
I have on board at the time.

Steel-Eye



^^^^^^^^^^  Serious hikers gather at:  http://www.aldhawest.org/  ^^^^^^^^^^



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <neilp at cwo.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 5:09 PM
Subject: [pct-l] sleeping bags


> hello folks, I am training to hopefully thru hike the pct in 2009 and was
> wondering what temp. rated bag most folks have or are going to carry? and
> is a compression sack for the bag a good idea to save space or is this
> just
> more weight and not a good idea. thanks
> -Neil
>
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