Sleeping Bag

Finally took the plunge and bought a sleeping bag. The process took a while and I'm glad I didn't just buy something straight away. There are so many different manufacturers and types of sleeping bags on the market; narrowing down the product that you want becomes incredibly difficult and confusing.

First there came Down vs Synthetic
During the whole process, I switched between wanting a synthetic and down sleeping bag at least 3 times. In the end a -5 degree synthetic sleeping bag would do the same job as a -5 degree down sleeping bag, except it would pack larger and weigh more and therefore cost less (bad,bad,good). A down sleeping bag would be lighter, pack smaller and cost more (good,good,bad).

Of course, that's a big generalisation, but in my eyes, those three factors mattered the most to me, other factors such as getting the sleeping bag wet didn't bother me so much.

So I ended up allocating AU$250 to purchase a sleeping bag, which for this price gets you either
a) An awesome synthetic sleeping bag
or
b) An entry level down bag.

I came across a site which mentioned using down quilts instead of regular sleeping bags to save weight and I immediately began to research the idea of using a quilt. The Golite Ultra 20 down quilt kept popping up and so I began reading the reviews, it seemed no one could really say a bad thing about it.

The quilt matched my criteria, rated to -7degrees (although from what I've read, -7 is a bit generous), weighs ~540g, packs down to the size of a 1litre water bottle and costs sub $250. What? I want one!

The only problem with this damn bag is finding a retailer that had them in stock! (at a reasonable price) In the end, I bought one off Ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk for $248 including shipping. So now its just a matter of waiting for it to arrive and testing it out.

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The last few nights I've decided to test out my brand new Exped downmat 9 for comfort. So far so good, I put it down next to my bed (leaving myself the temptation of a comfier mattress), but I didn't really feel the need to go back up.

It will take a while for me to get used to it, I tend to sleep on my side, and doing so on an air mattress is different to say the least. Hopefully I'll be tired enough day after day that I won't have to worry about how I'll sleep.

The inbuilt pump on the mat is simple and easy to use. Took me ~1.5 minutes to inflate.