Picking Camping Sleeping Bags

Video Transcript

"A sleeping bag is a really really important part of your backpacking trip. If you don't have a good sleeping bag you are going to be uncomfortable and you could even get hypothermia so what you need to do is find out what temperature it is going to be getting down to where ever it is that you are going. My sleeping bag says that it goes down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It says it right on the back so typically you can take it almost always at whatever the lowest temperature it is, you don't want to be in the sleeping bag at that temperature because even though it says it goes down that low it is not going to be comfortable. Something you can do to keep you warm at lower temperatures is you can get sleeping bag liners made out of either cotton or the silk ones usually give you about 8 to 10 degrees more of warmth so the sleeping bags that you go backpacking with are typically going to be something that is called mummy bag style which means that they taper down to the foot and they have more padding in order to keep your feel warm and up at the top they have almost a hood that you can bring around your face if you need to and a drawstring that you can tie really tight because it does get really really cold up there. These sleeping bags are made out of synthetic material so they can pack up really small, they are extremely light, I think mine is just a couple pounds and they draw extremely quickly. I think that is another important factor because if your sleeping bag gets wet you're going to be cold all night long. So be sure that you buy a quality sleeping bag that goes down to the temperature that you need for your trip."