Thursday, April 2, 2009

Down Sleeping Bags Provide Superior Comfort And Warmth


By Sam Bradford


There have been many advances made in the area of sleeping bags, since the days when cowboys used bedrolls to sleep. Today many materials and designs, that are quite high tech are used to provide you with warmth even on the chilliest of nights. Below are some things you should think about when trying to find your next sleeping bag.

You will probably go on at the very least one camping trip in which the temperature at night will turn chilly. You would be wise, because of this fact, to purchase a sleeping bag which has a rating for the lowest temperature range that you would experience on your outdoor adventures. In the summer you may only need a sleeping bag with a +35 degrees and over rating.

For the higher altitudes in the warm summertime, or the spring or fall months, the bags probably need to be a +10 to +35 type rating. The wintertime adventure seekers need to look at the range of -10 to +10 for the rating on bags. Now for the ones going on the long cold weather expedition type trips, they will need the warmest bags of all with the -10 or lower type rating.

You need to know that these ratings are just estimates for the lowest temperatures the bag will work to warm you at. So just use these numbers to steer you in the right direction, everyone feels the cold at different levels. You may get so warm that you don't like a lot of blankets on you when you sleep, if this be the case then go 10 degrees less warm on your sleeping bag (or the +35 rated). But if you get cold real easy then go 10 degrees warmer.

The most critical section on your sleeping bag is by all means the insulation. The sleeping bags today either have down or synthetic insulation in them. They each have there pros and cons. Down is the one that does best in the warmth given compared to what it weighs.

Down is nice, light and very easy to compress to roll the bag up, but gives you fantastic insulation. How do you think geese can be so warm and fly too during the cold weather? Reports show that down is durable over the long haul and even can insulate after you using the bag for years.

But don't sell the synthetic bags short though, the ones being sold today are very high quality and are still being improved upon. This type of bag is a bit heavier to carry weight wise, but has higher performance when wet than down does. Yes the one big con or negative point about down is that when it is wet it is no longer able to insulate you.

So for those wet condition type trips definitely reach for the synthetic sleeping bags. Another thing to remember is that while you will find people allergic to down the synthetic has a reputation of being hypoallergenic. Down will cost you more than the synthetic, which is more reasonably priced. You can have your budget and your fun!



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