[pct-l] Re: Gear Tradeoff -- Tents versus Sleeping Bags

[Bighummel@aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
moak writes:

> The question is how many cold nights do you want to spend in a synthetic bag
> because it's lost it loft

In 9 consecutive days and nights of cold rain in the Nth Cascades, my
original Polarguard bag got thoroughly wet and never lost its loft.  That is
the benefit of synthetic insulation, NOT DOWN.  Synthetics retain their loft
when wet.

, how much money do you want to spend year after year replacing bags with a
> minimal service life,

Huh?  Minimal service life?  I still use my original Polarguard bag after 25
years and about 3 washings.  It has lost some of its insulation quality, but
still keeps me warm down to the mid 30's when originally designed for 10 to
15 degrees.  I'd say that that is phenomenal service life!

My original down bag was useless after about five trips and I never even
tried to wash it.  I know that it was probably a bad one and had low quality
down and yada, yada, yada.  and how many extra pounds do you want to lug
around over an endless number of

> trail miles, all for possibility that you may spend a couple of wet nights
> out.

I recognize that the PCT is, for the most part, a fairly dry environment
trail.  However, in wet years and always in the Nth Cascades, you can
generally count on a lot of rain, often in consecutive day - cold weather
storms.  In these situations I'd rather have a synthetic bag thoroughly
soaked in a soaked tent for day after day, then a soaked down bag in a tarp
day after day, regardless of the amount of experience I have.

Greg "on a soap box" Hummel.