[pct-l] Has anyone thru-hiked with a Jacks R Better quilt?

[Scott Williams]

I used a 1lb, 20 deg. ZPacks sleeping bag/quilt on the CDT last year and
love it.  I had used a Western Mountaineering 20 deg bag on the PCT during
a pretty snowy and cold spring in 2010, and it was a great bag at 2lbs.
 But the ZPacks has it beat at 1lb.  It's a bit more than the $300 figure,
but it's a great bag.

With all the talk of quilts in the past few days, I thought I'd weigh in.
 I sewed several Jardine quilts in the early 90s, and got to really like
not being confined in a mummy bag.  Neither of them was built for the PCT
cold we had in 2010, so I got the WM 20 and most of the time, just used it
like a quilt.  The problem with that was that I was still carrying the
larger zipper, zipper baffle and hood, even though I didn't use them most
of the time.

The ZPacks bag has solved the problem of quilt vs mummy bag, by being great
at both.  Joe has created a foot pocket that is always there, but used a
very fine dress zipper to close the quilt into a mummy.  He's put the
zipper underneath so you rely on the insulation of your mattress and not a
long zipper baffle.  He's taken off the hood and used cuben fiber for the
down compartments, further lightening the load.  We spent weeks in the
Weminuche above 12 and 13,000 ft with plenty of snow and cold nights, and
it was a great mummy when I needed it.  Most of the hike, however, I used
it as a quilt and it was really comfortable.

As for sleeping directly on my mat, I use a NeoAir and while it's best to
have a barrier, it wasn't bad when I slept on it directly.  I usually sleep
in my clothes and just pull the quilt over me.  Very comfortable.

Quilt/mummy, that's the way to go.

Shroomer