The Compact Sleeping Bag
The compact sleeping bag is designed with the hiking camper in mind. Being highly compressible makes this sleeping bag the ideal choice for any backcountry camping enthusiast. High compressibility means less room is taken by the sleeping bag leaving more room in the backpack for essential items like food, clothing, and other camping gear.
Most experienced hikers, as well as backcountry campers choose a compact sleeping bag with down filling. Down filling as a number of distinct advantages over synthetics since down is highly compressible, light in weight, very comfortable, highly breathable and extremely warm. After reviewing all the positive features associated with down fill, it’s obvious why it is the choice of so many backcountry adventurers.
Just like most things in life however; down filling is not without its potential issues.
When down-filled sleeping bags become wet, they also become effectively useless. As a matter of fact, wet down bags are not only useless but they can be dangerous. Wet down loses all of its heat retaining ability when wet and can also enhance the potential for inducing hypothermia.
In order to take advantage of the advantages down offers, it is imperative that your down bag be kept secure and dry. This is most often accomplished by using a high-quality compressible stuff sack. Though you might start get concerned over the additional weight, don’t be. The compressible stuff sack only adds a few ounces while making your sleeping bag even more compact and therefore an excellent compromise.
One other thing to keep in mind when evaluating down filled bags. Always note both the rating of the down fill power rating (where >500 is good and >700 is excellent) and seek out a compact sleeping bag with a water repellent shell.