Sunday, July 13, 2008

Ultralamina 15F sleeping bag.. my fail safe

sleeping bag packed, tight
the event dry compression bag at work
extracting the sleeping bag
So here is my new sleeping bag, all packed up in a sea-to-summit event compression bag. This should keep it nice and dry in case i fall in a lake or soemthing, which will hopefully never happen. As you can it packs really small, just about football sized. =) It's still a bit bulky but it's a -9C bag, so it should be a little fatter then normal. I also went synthetic over down because i'm sure somehow i'll get it wet and i don't want to freeze to death if that happens =P

the sleeping bag unfurled...
look at the water pool, looks good.
As you can see the sleeping bag is unrolled and lofts up. I poured a bit of water on the bag and you can see it roll off to the edges and pool in some areas. Not penetrating the surface at all, so excellent there. I got in there for about 30 minutes and i was cooking in there and had to make a quick exit to avoid sweating.

Last night Brisbane temperatures dipped below 4C, so i decided to test out my gear make sure it all works well. So my sleeping setup involved a emergency bivy ground sheet + OR downmat 7 short on top of the ground sheet + the ultralamina + backpack to prop my legs up. I really enjoyed the side zipper right by the face on the ultralamina, where i could chuck my head lamp in while i'm sleeping. The setup even uses the pillow that comes with the downmat, so very very comfy.

me sleeping on my verandah with my laptop =P
So i slept through 4 degree weather only in thermos and didn't feel the the temperature at all. My face took the brunt of hte cold but it was a minor annoyance as the rest of me was very well taken care off. This will be my winter setup and i'm confident that it will work very well. Worse comes to worse i supplement it with a down jacket and i should have no problems.

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