When you choose your sleeping bag system for winter, you need to think where you use it.
You can have the world warmest sleeping bag ever made, but if you don’t have a warm winter sleeping mat, you will have cold during nights. So please make sure you have also a warm sleeping mat for winter. You can check what sleeping mats we have used during our journeys from our sleeping mat product section.
There are two ways for staying warm when it comes to sleeping bags. One is to have one big warm expedition sleeping bag. It can be down or synthetic. This works well on shorter trips. The other option is to have a combination of winter down bag and more light synthetic sleeping bag. This combination works well also on short trips but especially on long expeditions.
Advantages for having two separate bags are firstly that it is easier to manage condensation. Most mornings you will have condensation water dropping inside of your tent canvas regardless of how good your tent’s ventilation is. These water drops on a long trip can make your sleeping bag damp. When you have a system of two sleeping bags and the outer sleeping bag is synthetic, it is easier to dry this bag and you will keep your main down sleeping bag dryer. Condensation in the tent comes from different reasons and in this article we are not concerning that subject. Still one important point regarding condensation and any sleeping bag system is that you shouldn’t use bivy bag or waterproof cover on top of your sleeping bag since doesn’t let your sleeping bag breath well. Bivy bag also creates an air gap between your sleeping bag’s outer shell and the bivy bag liner. The result is that on top of your sleeping bag’s shell layer you will see a bit of water drops in the morning.
In two bag system, it is easier to dry two bags instead of one big sleeping bag. It takes less time and more moist one is always the outer layer. You can also adjust the sleeping temperature much better with two bags. If the night is warmer, you can just use one sleeping bag or open the inner one just a bit.
It is important for the synthetic sleeping bag to be wide enough so it can accommodate the down bag in a way that the down bag doesn’t get squeezed.
Try to air your sleeping bag whenever it is possible, specially windy and sunny days are perfect for this.Two sleeping bag system, like referred earlier, is ideal for long expeditions. Usually skiers or hikers are able to stay nights in cabins once in a week when getting sleeping bag dry is very possible. But if you are planning to go ski touring and not having possibility (or you don’t want to) stay indoors or in a dry place even at once, having two sleeping bags might work better. It is a good way to cover a good night sleep anywhere.
