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Are the experienced bivi folk using down or synthetic sleeping bags?
I already have a couple of very good down bags, thinking of a bivi bag atm and wondering if I can risk the down bag getting wet.
synthetic.
snugpack softee here.
once used a down one on a polaris.
it got wet on the 1st day, i spent 10 cold wet hours in it.
Down here. Lighter, better insulation and packs down smaller.
Stays in Alpkit bivvi bag and gets rolled up and stuffed into Alpkit dry bag and strapped on to the handlebars. Down is crap if it gets wet, so don't get it wet. Simples.
SSP
Down - but it does have a less than warm toe box after a damp bivi canoeing 🙁
The warmth and light-weight benefits of down outway the problems of keeping it dry.
Shaggy is testing a cool-sounding synthetic/down bag made by Alpkit at the moment:
I slept outside in my new hot pink prototype bivy bag and –40 rated Devkit sleeping bag. Both preformed exactly as predicted: The sleeping bag was far too warm and the bivy bag was not breathable enough! The sleeping bag system is awesome. Basically, there is an inner down bag and an outer synthetic layer which means the bag will be a lot warmer when it’s damp and the dew-point will be outside the down so it should stay dryer anyway. The next bivy bag is going to be made out of Event fabric so the breathability will be sorted. It’s good and light and the ideal size to fit around the sleeping bag allowing the down to fully loft but not to big in order to minimise weight.
-40 might be overkill for UK use though 🙂
All you have to do with a down bag is keep it dry - which isn't actually as hard as you think. I've used a down bag on plenty of Polarii and mountain marathons, and all the top guys use down bags for weight reasons. The water repellant outer on my bag does help a bit when sleeping in a single skin tent with associated condensation problems!
I've used down most of the time on Polarises etc. It's a lot more cosy to sleep in I think, and the dryness wasn't really an issue for me. Even on a wet polaris, I just peeled off damp clothes and since I use good wicking stuff my legs were only damp not soggy. So when I get in the bag I warm up and dry off pretty easily. Then again that's using a double skin tent (always do) and a silk liner in the bag - which probably helps a lot.
Down all the way for me, as said above with a little care, a good bivi bag and roberts your mothers brother.
I do have an old army bag for by the roadside, straight out of the pub/camp site trips. It can get trashed and there is no problem.
But the rest of my three bags are all down.