[pct-l] Compressing/Stuffing sleeping bags

[jjolson at uwyo.edu (Jeffrey Olson)]

A couple years ago I bought a Golite Gust pack and a Nunatek Arc Alpinist
sleeping blanket.  The pack is huge for 20 oz - something like 4500 cubic
inches.  I put my blue foam pad into the pack to stiffen it, and all my gear
inside of that.  With five days of food the pack is still half empty, so I
put the sleeping blanket in a garbage bag and put it in last.  I have never
stuffed or compressed the down.

While on part of the CDT in the Winds last week, I saw a number of thru
hikers, who invariably used some form of the Golite Breeze or something that
looked like it.  These packs are tiny and the sleeping bag/blanket is
compressed.

I know that everyone arrives at their own system, and there is no right or
wrong way to do things.  I'm interested in just how important "not"
compressing down over five months is to the bag's continued being warm...

Jeff Olson
Laramie, Wyoming