Thread: Sleeping bag

I worked with two guys who took standard old Kiwi tramping gear to the dry valleys in Antractica several years in a row. Mangy thin synthetic fairy down sleeping bags, bush shirts and Olympus tents. At first I thought this was madness, but there is more to it. One of them had a sleeping bag so thin it should not have been considered a sleeping bag.

Position your tent well. Eat a very high calorie dinner. If you have a stingy dinner after a day in the hills, you will freeze. Just pack butter in there like you are on an Antarctic crossing and you will be toasty. Keep your gear dry. You read a lot of hunting stories of guys with sodden gear and this need never happen, but it requires discipline. Your dry gear stays in your pack liner, you strip off wet gear outside the tent and leave it there, you put dry gear on inside the tent. In the morning you get up and put the wet gear back on. Wet stuff never comes inside the tent. The moisture will end up everywhere no matter what you do.

I bought a Kathmandu down bag 20 years ago and it has finally reached the point I can sleep in it zipped up. It has never been wet and has spent more than a year total in West Coast and Fiordland bush. If you went for 2 weeks a year that would take 20 years.

Have seen some shocking campsites from hunting parties in Fiordland. Maybe the worst are ones where water streams under the tent. Turns the tent into a form of refrigerator.

Originally Posted by Tussock

I worked with two guys who took standard old Kiwi tramping gear to the dry valleys in Antractica several years in a row. Mangy thin synthetic fairy down sleeping bags, bush shirts and Olympus tents. At first I thought this was madness, but there is more to it. One of them had a sleeping bag so thin it should not have been considered a sleeping bag.

Position your tent well. Eat a very high calorie dinner. If you have a stingy dinner after a day in the hills, you will freeze. Just pack butter in there like you are on an Antarctic crossing and you will be toasty. Keep your gear dry. You read a lot of hunting stories of guys with sodden gear and this need never happen, but it requires discipline. Your dry gear stays in your pack liner, you strip off wet gear outside the tent and leave it there, you put dry gear on inside the tent. In the morning you get up and put the wet gear back on. Wet stuff never comes inside the tent. The moisture will end up everywhere no matter what you do.

I bought a Kathmandu down bag 20 years ago and it has finally reached the point I can sleep in it zipped up. It has never been wet and has spent more than a year total in West Coast and Fiordland bush. If you went for 2 weeks a year that would take 20 years.

Have seen some shocking campsites from hunting parties in Fiordland. Maybe the worst are ones where water streams under the tent. Turns the tent into a form of refrigerator.

So Tussock just to clarify, and if I am not mistaken, you recommend stripping off outside the tent when in Antarctica and leaving the removed clothing outside overnight, then dressing ones self in these 'aired' clothes upon rising ??

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

So Tussock just to clarify, and if I am not mistaken, you recommend stripping off outside the tent when in Antarctica and leaving the removed clothing outside overnight, then dressing ones self in these 'aired' clothes upon rising ??

Nothing to do with Antarctica. Antarctica is dry. When in the South Island bush you generally come home dripping wet as a matter of routine. No raincoat will stop that. You take the soaking wet clothing off, you leave it in a heap in the vestibule of the tent, or better, hang it in the fly if you have one, then you put it back on in the morning.

I have seen a few grins as guys tried to get into frozen thermals.

Not trying to lecture the experienced guys, but I have seen lots of guys with a fair bit of experience drag a shitload of moisture into the tent. It all ends up in your bedding and dry gear.

Originally Posted by Tussock

Nothing to do with Antarctica. Antarctica is dry. When in the South Island bush you generally come home dripping wet as a matter of routine. No raincoat will stop that. You take the soaking wet clothing off, you leave it in a heap in the vestibule of the tent, or better, hang it in the fly if you have one, then you put it back on in the morning.

I have seen a few grins as guys tried to get into frozen thermals.

Not trying to lecture the experienced guys, but I have seen lots of guys with a fair bit of experience drag a shitload of moisture into the tent. It all ends up in your bedding and dry gear.

I know and agree with what you are saying but it can be hard to leave gear out of the tent on a freezing night. In fact dealing with wet gear is the biggest problem on trips. Some tents are much worse for condensation than others.