This is not the quilt that your grandmother gave you. Backpacking quilts are made of nylon and filled with down like a traditional sleeping bag. The difference is that they lie over you like a quilt, rather than wrapping around you like a sleeping bag. The benefit is two-fold: A quilt is lighter, meaning less weight to carry in your pack, and, as an added bonus, I sleep better than in the backcountry.
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Let’s face it, there’s a reason backpackers have nicknamed sleeping bags “mommy bags.” They are constricting at the best of times, suffocating at the worst. I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing about mom that I want to emulate, not even when I’m sleeping. So, like anyone else, I was ready to join the quilting race when it really started a few years ago. And yet, I didn’t. Maybe it was something like Stockholm syndrome; I finally agreed with mom and to be honest, I was a little nervous to leave my sleeping bag for the quilt. But then I did, and I’ll never go back. Or most likely never come back.
But first, what is the difference between a sleeping bag and a quilt? As briefly mentioned above, the quilt rests on top of you, not around you like a sleeping bag. Consider the burrito versus the taco. In this case, the sleeping bag/quilt is the tortilla and you are the filling. Would you like to be wrapped like a burrito? sleeping bag. Do you obviously prefer the taco experience better, with a warm, soft tortilla lying on top of you? You’re (probably) a quilting person.
The science here is that when you lie down in your traditional sleeping bag, your body weight pushes most of the bottom out to the side. The down you have left is so compressed that you’re not getting any real insulation from it – so why carry all that extra nylon and down? Enter the quilt. The quilt gets rid of the useless nylon and down layer, and lays over you like a quilt on your bed at home. Quilts typically weigh less than sleeping bags and are smaller to pack, making them very popular among backpackers trying to reduce weight and save space.
While I believe the reduced weight makes a quilt a great option for anyone carrying a light load, how much you prefer a quilt over a sleeping bag will depend somewhat on how you sleep. If you’re a fan of tacos, and the thought of wrapping a sleeping bag like a burrito makes you sweat, then a quilt is your happy, cozy future. Or, if you like to curl up into a ball, move around a lot at night, are a side sleeper, or want to share the cover with your tent mates, then again, the quilt is for you.
If you rarely move around at night, sleep somewhat like mom, you won’t mind a traditional sleeping bag and won’t share my enthusiasm for quilts.
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