Adult Sleeping Bags

It doesn’t matter whether you are an experienced backcountry camper looking to lighten your pack or just a person who enjoys hanging out and spending a few nights sleeping under the stars, a sleeping bag cover is just what the doctor ordered. A quality, breathable and waterproof sleeping cover, also known as a bivy bag or bivy sack, provides the perfect outer shell and eliminates the need for traditional tent.

Any sleeping bag cover should provide a protective shell that will keep external water out, help keep bugs away and lessen the impact of chilling winds. The key to finding the right bivy bag is to look at the type of material used to make it.

Inexpensive sleeping bag covers are often made of treated nylon or canvas that form a great seal but does not breathe. Although this type of bivy bag provides the protection, it creates issues since the water vapor you perspire is trapped inside leading to a damp and sometimes chilly bag by morning.

Quality materials such as Gore-Tex is both waterproof and breathable therefore keeping the dew out but allows your perspired water vapor to escape keeping you and the bag dry. This is a very important consideration for backcountry campers who often use a compact sleeping bag filled with down since down’s warming feature decreases substantially when wet.

While a material like Gore-Tex provides all the features you really want in your bivy sack, they do tend to be fairly expensive. One less expensive type of sleeping bag cover is constructed with a treated, non-breathable bottom and a breathable top layer that allows water vapor to be emitted.

Three other components you should consider to round out your lightweight backcountry sleeping system includes:

1. Some type of sleeping pad or lightweight mattress;
2. A waterproof tarp to build an emergency rain shelter; &
3. Bug netting to insure your protection and comfort.