[pct-l] Sleeping Bags, Down vs Synthetic

[chwillet at indiana.edu (Christopher Willett)]

Others may disagree with me on this, but I thought I'd offer a
contradictory view.  I really don't think you should worry too much. 
Here is my weather report for the trail this summer.

For the first 700 miles of hiking, you'll be 
crossing some very dry land indeed.  While it is true that the Idyllwild 
area can get some storms when thruhikers are passing by (like this 
year), the chances are you'll see very little precip, unless you 
start somewhat early.  I started May 9 and got about 5 minutes of rain 
near, of all places, Mojave.

The Sierras have about the best
mountain weather in the world and, I think, the greatest danger your 
bag has of getting wet comes from falling in a river.  No precip 
between Kennedy Meadows and Tuolumne this year.  This was June 10 to 
June 21.  On June 21, I got about 2.5 inches of snow in the early 
evening just before Benson Pass.  No problems there.  When it was 
time to stop hiking, I put up my tarp and got under it.  Bag didn't 
get wet.  From then until southern Oregon, no rain at all. I got 
about 20 minutes of pounding rain the night before Crater Lake, 
but I was under my tarp and more 
or less dry.  A few bits of misty rain in Washington, and that 
was that.  Now, I finished on Aug.21 and so avoided a lot of 
the weather related problems that people finishing a month 
later had.  I put up my tarp about a dozen times during the
length of the trail and only needed it 4.

So, I would say go with a down bag and don't stress.  
Or, go with a synthetic.  Just go.  You'll have a great time.

Chris

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Sean Crookham wrote:

> I have been thinking long and hard about the pros and cons and whether I 
> will use a down or synthetic bag on my hike next year. Down is the obvious 
> winner in the weight vs Heat retention category. I know I will have at least 
> 1 pound excess weight due to synthetic. However, synthetic will retain heat, 
> even when wet. This seems like a huge issue to me because I've heard and 
> read so many horror stories about hikers with wet sleeping bags. It would 
> seem to me that for the sake of morale and comfortable rest that synthetic 
> is the winner.
> 
> I think that the exhaustion, low morale, discomfort and even illness that 
> could be attributed to a wet sleeping bag makes me choose synthetic over 
> down. What are everyone else's thoughts on the subject? Also does anyone 
> know of any low weight quality synthetic bags out there?
> 
> Thanks,
> Sean
> 
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----------------------
Christopher Willett
Department of Mathematics
Indiana University
831 East Third Street
Bloomington, IN. 47405-7106
(812)-855-1883
chwillet@indiana.edu
mypage.iu.edu/~chwillet