Topic: The Best Backpacking Quilts of 2022 (Read 37 times)
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Why It Made the Cut
Four pad straps, a closed footbox, and a unique collar design make the Stone Glacier the best at keeping out unwanted drafts on chilly nights.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Product Description
Probably the biggest reason people don’t switch to sleeping quilts is that they are (rightly) concerned about drafts. If the quilt is 1) open on the bottom and 2) easy to toss and turn in, what’s to stop you from waking up in the middle of the night, shivering, with half the quilt off your body?
Just about all sleeping quilts solve this problem by incorporating some co*bination of underpad straps, a closed footbox, and the ability to cinch up the collar, but the Stone Glacier Chilkoot takes this a step further. Instead of stopping at two, or even three underpad straps, the Chilkoot has four. (Of these, two are removable, so you can save a couple of grams of weight if necessary.) But what really stood out to me about the Chilkoot was the collar. Most sleeping quilts have an adjustable drawcord at the neck so that you can cinch down the top opening of the quilt on especially cold nights, a feature that I tend to use as little as possible as it’s hard to find a middle ground between “so loose you might as well not have bothered” and “I feel like I’m choking.”
The Chilkoot has a light elastic band (emphasis on light) at the collar that conforms to your neck. Even better, it uses a magnet to close, a detail that I hope other quilt manufacturers will take note of. (If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night desperately needing to pee and spent what feels like five minutes groggily trying to find the snap-button or cinch cord at the collar of your sleeping bag then the utility of this detail will make perfect sense to you.)
While the closed footbox here is similar to the style of the Therm-a-Rest Vesper, it’s not going to feel nearly as cramped for one simple reason: this quilt is extremely long—after testing it out on my resident 6 foot 3 inch individual, I’m confident that it will easily fit someone 6 feet 5 inches or taller. Even when placed on the long version of the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir, the footbox hung off the end of the pad. (On especially cold nights, you can help insulate your feet from the cold of the ground by sliding your backpack underneath the footbox).
Why It Made the Cut
Long lead times are offset by a noticeably lower price point and the ability to select exactly the right size and fill power you need for your adventures.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Product Description
If you’ve been eyeing quilts for a while—maybe you even already own one—you probably are starting to get a pretty good idea of what you need. The height. The width. How warm you want your quilt to be. How much you’re willing to spring for a higher fill power to save a few ounces. If that sounds like you then you should look seriously at the Enlightened Equipment Revelation.
Currently, Enlightened Equipment offers their quilts in five different heights—which will fit everyone from 5 feet to 7 feet—and four different widths. You can choose temperature ratings in 10-degree increments, from 50 degrees Fahrenheit down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and between 850 fill power and 950 fill power (there is a significant cost increase with going with the higher fill power, although also a noticeable weight savings). You can even choose your own color.
Unlike the Therm-a-Rest Vesper and Stone Glacier Chilkoot, you can switch between having a closed footbox and a co*pletely open quilt (useful when it gets unexpectedly hot). The catch is that if you aren’t careful with how you close the bottom of the quilt (which has a drawstring, a clasp, and a zipper) then it’s relatively easy for a draft to sneak in.
Why It Made the Cut
Individuals who run hot may find some functionality in this sleeping quilt; otherwise, this is best suited for warm weather adventures only.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
If the whole reason you’re looking to purchase a quilt is that you’re tired of overheating in your sleeping bag on hot summer nights, then this might work for you—everyone else, pick something else from this list.
The trouble with this quilt is that the footbox doesn’t close up fully, making it closer to one of the best camping blankets than a quilt. The single cinch cord at the bottom just doesn’t cut it. Your only option here for keeping out cold air drafts is to 1) be a small enough person that there is no way the quilt would flip in the night or 2) not move much if at all while you sleep. Strangely, I found that when I flipped the quilt around and tried cinching up a footbox where, theoretically, my head was supposed to go, that this worked better, thanks to the presence of snap-button.
Why It Made the Cut
The spaciousness, draft control, and warmth of this two-person quilt makes it my go-to for backpacking with family members.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Product Description
When I first bought this sleeping quilt, I thought it would be something my husband and I would use on the occasional trip—when the weather was dicey or we were heading out for a winter trip. Sleeping that closely next to someone just sounded like a recipe for a restless night—surely we would fight over the sides of the quilt, or kick each other in the night, every shift on the sleeping pad letting some draft or another sneak in?
But it’s since beco*e our standard sleeping quilt (it’s even what I use now when heading out on short backpacking trips with our preschooler), and I’ve never slept better. The reason for this is a number of thoughtful design features built into the quilt. Like the one-person Revelation, the Acco*plice uses underpad straps that connect individually to two sleeping pads to help ensure that there are no cold air sneaking in on either edge of the quilt—this also means that there is no way for your partner (or you) to steal the covers. Next is the wide, tapered, closed footbox, which helps to keep out drafts while giving your feet someplace to go. But the real clutch addition here is the extra flap in-between your heads at the top of the quilt. This prevents a gap from forming at the top of the sleeping bag when your partner turns over, so you get all the benefits of their additional body heat, with none of the downsides.
The R Rating of Your Sleeping Pad
Again: you must have an appropriately rated backpacking sleeping pad when using a quilt. If you’ve been using something that is rated to a 2 or lower, especially if its closed-cell foam—look at upgrading to one of the best backpacking sleeping pads. An R-rating of 3 is a good benchmark for trips in the summer months, while a 4 or higher is a better bet if you plan to use your sleeping quilt during the shoulder seasons or in the alpine.
Temperature Rating
Anyone who has ever purchased a sleeping bag with a temperature rating knows these are a bit of BS. And how could they not be? What’s co*fortable for one person in 50-degree weather will leave another person shivering—different bodies just naturally produce different amounts of body heat. At least with sleeping bags, there is some kind of standard that the brands adhere to (look for the acronyms EN or ISO—the European and American third-party ratings, respectively), meaning that you can at least be sure you are co*paring apples to apples. Sleeping quilts, however, are even more of a mess, as there is no agreed-upon standards that manufacturers are bound to. Everyone is just kind of winging it, based on their own in-house protocols (some of which are very good, of course).
That’s all to say that you should not purchase a 20-degree quilt if you are planning to head out into temps that are actually 20 degrees Fahrenheit—not unless you know your resting body temperature is closer to “surface of the sun” than a standard 98.6 degrees. The temperature ratings are meant to signify the lowest temperature at which it’s safe to use a given sleeping bag or sleeping quilt anyway, not the temperature at which you are going to be co*fortable (or, you know, actually sleep). I typically use a 20-degree quilt for the summer months and a 10-degree quilt in the winter.
Fill
The best backpacking quilts are made from down for one simple reason: It still has superior warmth-to-weight ratios co*pared to synthetic fill (and if you’re looking at backpacking quilts, cutting weight is likely one of the reasons). With down, the higher the fill power the less you’ll need to reach your desired temperature rating, and thus the less your sleeping quilt will weigh. But the difference between, say 850 fp and 950 fp for a sleeping quilt might only be a couple of ounces but cost upwards of $100. Consider your priorities when choosing which one is the right pick for you.
Material
The majority of backpacking quilts use nylon to encase the down, often with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish on the part of the quilt that is exposed to the outside air (the shell). Where most differ is in the level of thickness of the nylon—measured in denier—which can be anywhere from 7D up to 20D.
Baffle Design
While most people are restricted in the amount of shuffling around they can do in a sleeping bag, your new-found ability to actually get into a co*fortable position in a backpacking quilt co*es with a small problem: you can inadvertently shuffle the down to one side of the baffle or the other, resulting in cold spots on your quilt that can impact how warm you are. Be wary of sleeping quilts with co*pletely horizontal baffle designs.
Storage
Some sleeping quilts co*e with co*pression sacks, but it’s not necessary to use this feature; in fact, you can skip the stuff sack entirely and squash your backpacking quilt to the bottom of your bag before piling other items on top (just be careful that you don’t snag anything on your bag). Like with down-filled sleeping bags, it’s best to store your sleeping quilt in a larger stuff sack at home, as this will extend the longevity of your quilt.
Footbox
Some sleeping quilts have a fully enclosed footbox while others allow you to switch between a closed footbox and a co*pletely open quilt—useful when you expect to oscillate between warmer lowland and colder alpine temps during a single trip. The disadvantage of closed footboxes is that they make the quilt less versatile (if, say, you hit a spell of unseasonably warm weather; the disadvantage to adjustable footboxes is that they add a bit of weight (through a cinch cord at the bottom as well as a zipper).
Straps
Most, although not all, quilts have straps underneath them, which are used to secure the quilt to the sleeping pad. In my opinion, these are necessary to keep drafts out.
I’ve used sleeping quilts for hundreds of nights over almost a decade, in conditions ranging from blazing summer nights to surprise September snows, while winter camping and cowboy camping above treeline. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about what makes for a negative quilt experience (the wrong sleeping pad, drafts sneaking in) and how to optimize your experience for the best night’s sleep possible.
For this story, I looked at both quilt manufacturers that have been around for years as well as those produced by the biggest brand names in outdoor recreation gear and newer entrees to the marketplace.
Backpacking quilts are an excellent choice for side sleepers because they restrict your movement less than both mummy bags and traditional rectangular sleeping bags and, in warmer environments, can be opened up to allow for as much range as motion as you would have in your bed at home.
Quilts are not warmer than sleeping bags so much as they can provide more warmth per ounce of weight in your pack, if paired with an appropriate backpacking sleeping pad. It’s strongly reco*mended that you test your quilt setup at home before taking it out into the field for the first time.
There are a number of things you can do to improve your sleep experience while backpacking, including choosing a co*fortable backpacking sleeping pad with an appropriate R rating for the conditions you expect to find yourself in, choosing the right backpacking quilt for your needs, based on the above reco*mendations, which will allow for a greater range of movement while sleeping, and choosing one of the best backpacking pil*ows.
Most people who make the switch from the sleeping bags to the sleeping quilts never look back, for one simple reason: There is so much more versatility to the best backpacking quilts. You’re no longer restricted to the dreaded “mummy” position (can even dedicated back sleepers doze off like that?) or forced, in warmer climes, to choose between having the right side of your body enduring an unco*fortable draft while the left side sweats. After that, the weight savings start to seem like an added bonus, rather than the primary reason you looked at making the switch in the first place.
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