[pct-l] Heavier Sleeping Bag versus Lighter Sleeping Bag & Extra Clothing

[Reinhold Metzger]

John,
If the weight is identical I would go for the lighter bag and extra cloth every time.
It gives you far greater flexibility to cope with changes in weather.
Cloth you can put on or take it off as needed.
You can wear it in the sleeping bag to compensate for the lighter bag.
It is more difficult to make a heavier sleeping bag compensate for lack
warm cloth on a cold day or if some of your cloth got wet.
The biggest problem with the heavier bag instead of warm cloth....it is difficult
to hike wearing a sleeping bag on a real cold day.

JMT Reinhold
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John wrote:

Hello All,

I figured it has been a rather long time since I posted a 'which do
you prefer' type of question here on the pct-l and with many a hiker
prep'ing for the 2012 hiking season, I figured it was time to start
them up again!

So the first one I am going to start with is a rather age-old
question. It does not have a right or wrong answer - HYOH after all,
right!

Do you prefer having a heavier sleeping bag (say, a 15 or 20 degree
bag) and only the lightest of clothing for when you are breaking
camp.... or, do you prefer having a lighter sleeping bag (say, a 30
degree bag) and than also having extra clothing (say for example, down
legs and a heavier jacket) thereby giving you the ability to
dual-purpose your clothing.

Personally I have gone back and forth on this. I have tried them both
over the last few years and can honestly say I do not really know
which I prefer more. In many ways I like having the lighter bag and
than extra clothing, as it gives me the ability to sit around camp
when the rare situation arises that I do not just setup the tarp and
go right to sleep.

Either way the weight is pretty much dead-weight the vast majority of
the time. Just a matter of not having to fiddle with extra clothing
versus having more options. In the end both options work out to
identical weights for me (within 2 ounces).

John B. Abela
HikeLighter.Com