What do degrees mean for sleeping bags

Love the blog, and love Snowys — I have already spent an embarrassing amount ordering various bits and pieces from the store within the last few weeks.

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Back to top. Leave a comment: Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Your name Comment. Cheers Mark. There are a few other things that you can do to warm up your sleeping bag. As mentioned above, a sleeping bag is similar to a thermos: put something warm inside and the sleeping bag keeps it warm.

Similarly, if you put a cold object inside, it may very well stay cold. On particularly frigid nights or if we've had a long, taxing day and are feeling chilled, we'll do jumping jacks, sit-ups, or a couple quick laps around the tent before getting inside our bag.

If you enter warm, all your sleeping bag has to do is keep you that way. Alternatively, you can boil water right before bed, fill up a bottle preferably a plastic, hard-sided one like a Nalgene , and stuff it in your sleeping bag with you.

And perhaps our most popular and fun piece of advice: eat some chocolate. A calorie originally was a measurement of heat, and the more high-quality calories you eat before going to bed fats are best , the more fuel your body will have and the warmer you will sleep.

It's a tough job but somebody has to do it. The crux of the issue with sleeping bags is that just about every backpacker wants to cut weight and save money.

Warmer sleeping bags are heavier and more expensive, not to mention bulkier, so it's always a tough calculation on which temperature rating to choose. That said, unless you really know what you are doing, don't cut it close.

When choosing a bag, we look at the forecast and take the lowest expected temperature at night, then subtract 10 degrees to be safe. For example, in the Cascades of Washington State and the Colorado Rockies, two places where we frequently backpack, it's fairly common for the temperature to dip down to around freezing at night.

If the temperature dips unexpectedly, which happens frequently in the backcountry, we should be all good. And the extra 10 degrees shouldn't make us feel too hot, plus it's easy to unzip the bag at the top or shed a layer. That's a much easier scenario to deal with than shivering through the night and waking up cold and tired. Unfortunately, like many categories of outdoor gear, there is no "one bag fits all" temperature rating.

If you plan on doing some mid-summer camping at lower elevations or heading to the desert, a true summer bag with a to degree temperature rating may very well suffice plus it will be lighter and cheaper. And if you plan on heading out in the winter or participating in any kind of cold-weather climbing or mountaineering, there's no way around getting a true winter sleeping bag the temperature rating you need will depend largely on the activity and conditions.

But for the Swiss Army Knife of 3-season backpacking bags, we love the degree rating zone. We break down the EN and ISO ratings systems, why sleeping bag design and other factors matter, and tips to stay warm. Photo Credit. By: Rebecca Yaguda Last Updated: April 06, We use affiliate links and may receive a small commission on purchases.

Sleeping Bag Categories by Temperature Before jumping into how sleeping bags are rated, it's important to understand the categories, which are grouped by temperature ranges. Backpacking with a non-EN-rated Western Mountaineering bag How can you safeguard against sleeping cold? How Sleeping Bag Design Affects Warmth Beyond the actual temperature rating of a sleeping bag, factors like the shape, features, and age of the product all play a part in how closely it lives up to expectations.

Two roomy sleeping bags: the Nemo Riff and Patagonia In addition to shape, the style of a sleeping bag can affect its warmth. Getting zipped up in the Western Mountaineering Summerlite There is healthy debate as to how these factors impact warmth, but one generally accepted premise is that a lower muscle mass relative to body surface area can make you feel cold.

The Impact of Your Sleeping Pad on Warmth The temperature rating of your sleeping bag gets all the hype, but we are here to tell you that your sleeping pad matters a whole lot more than you might think. Cold conditions require a higher-R-value sleeping pad The key thing to remember here is that you are putting together a sleep system.

Other Tips for Maximizing Warmth Weather can be fickle, and no matter how prepared we think we are after all of the sleeping bag and weather research we've done, sometimes we get caught off-guard in the mountains. Layering up before bed can add a lot of extra warmth It's also important to understand how your sleeping bag works.

Final Thoughts and Our Degree Buffer Rule The crux of the issue with sleeping bags is that just about every backpacker wants to cut weight and save money. Blog - Camping Information. How Are Sleeping Bags Rated? Season Ratings Explained All sleeping bags should be advertised along with their ratings, which tell you how the sleeping bag should perform in certain conditions for a number of factors, such as temperature.

For more information view our sleeping bag guide. In January a new set of conditions were introduced by the EU to help regulate the testing standards for sleeping bags. These standards were created to bring testing procedures in line across the board and minimise differences between advertised standards and actual performance. There are now generally two ratings used for sleeping bags: comfort and season. Comfort ratings — what are they? Food Ideas. Screen Tents. Tin Foil Dinners.

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