Hello, I am a big fan of winter camping and have a few warm sleeping bags but they are all mummy-style which I find uncomfortable and restricting.

Does anyone know of a company that designs cold-weather bags that are rectangular-shaped? Thank you!

Warbonnet
Jacks R Better
Hammock Gear
Underground Quilts

I own quilts from all but Warbonnet and they are all amazing companies in product and service.

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"It's healthy to be dirty" - Lars Monsen

I've always used army surplus bags. I'm not sure about American military sleeping bags, but the Canadian ones have three layers - an outer layer, inner layer (both down filled), and then a fleece liner. You can use as many or as few as you need, which makes them very configurable to the exact circumstances.

I've slept outside at -40°C in one (coulda been -50 or -30), on a picnic table, so from personal experience, they're quite warm when they need to be.

As an added bonus, place your clothes for the next morning between the liner and the inner, and they're toasty warm when you wake up, and you don't even need to crawl out of the bag to get them on.

They can be a bit restrictive when you use the whole kit'n'kaboodle though, and like most army surplus gear, anything but light. Generally though, mummy bags are what you want for winter. The less dead space the better.

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You sort of mentioned it but army bags suck if your broad in the shoulders. I’ve owned the Canadian and American cold weather bag systems. Both are way too small for me. I’m 5’8” and 250lbs.

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"It's healthy to be dirty" - Lars Monsen

Not exactly rectangular but these are goose down so they compress well. Good prices for goose down. I have a non-hooded barrel from them and it's great. Mine is a -5 and for me, I call it a -2.

https://www.taigaworks.com/collections/ ... -mb20-mb30

https://www.taigaworks.com/collections/ ... 8474483743

Another vote for a barrel bag.
Rectangular is too inefficient and a mummy is similar to sleeping in a culvert.

Spend the money and check the measurements so you only have to do it once and it performs the way you need it to.

I use a MEC Cygnet (-10C down) and a MEC Nomad (0C synthetic) as an overbag in the extreme cold.
Both of these are barrel shaped.
The down is able to be redistributed where needed when needed.
I take this setup out down to -15C.

For the rest of the year I use just the Cygnet as a duvet with just 12" of the footbox done up.

A complimentary item to ensure a great nights sleep is our Exped Downmat 9LW.

Is that the one with black outer and orange inner? Bought one of those back around 2008 with a dividend cheque. Good bag, good quality but minus 10 is a stretch. Maybe with a good R value pad inside a bivvy sack?

Mummy bags put me in claustrophobia-ville. Rectangular still leaves me wanting room to spread my legs but seems to be the best of both worlds. Picked up one of the Woods minus 35s on sale a few years ago for car camping but the huge volume needs another bag inside it to make it warm.

So hoping we can get back to winter camping this season without another lock down. Had a number of trips cut short and cancelled in 2020/2021.

"Is that the one with black outer and orange inner?"

Just the opposite, orange on the outside and black inside.
... and ya, -5C is the cutoff for that bag by itself and it has to be done right up with most of the down on top.

Thanks, this one looks very interesting: https://www.wiggys.com/sleeping-bags/hu ... eping-bag/

Some of the other suggestions were appreciated but didn't really match up with what I am looking for. I don't sleep in a hammock in winter so the quilts won't help unfortunately and the barrel bags from Taiga look almost identical to the shape of my Mountain Hardwear bags.

This sleep system would be for -20c and colder. For anything below -25 I plan this year on having a bag with a -1c rating inside of a -40c bag but I am imagining how restrictive that will be. I tried the -40c bag out last year in -25 and I didn't keep warm, how disappointing. I also have a new vapour barrier to try which I suspect would make a pretty big difference but I also imagine sweating inside the barrier as being not a good outcome.

What mat are you using? You'd need something with at least an R6 rating to get the full value from your bag.

Quilts are not just for hammocks, an extra wide quilt works fine on the ground. I use a 3 season quilt over a 3 season bag to -25.

Feathered Friends and Western Mountaineering make bags in a whole range of widths to suit different needs. Don't get a synthetic bag unless you are happy hauling something around that's the size of a small cow!

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http://www.canoepaddler.net

I have a Thermarest xtherm, it is R7 and I usually have another foam mat under that. I have heard of Western Mountaineering, I have some down pants from them that are great, I will check them out thanks!

Pad is plenty warm enough.
Keep an eye on MEC gear swap, they come up occasionally.

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When it came time to finally replace my old Woods 3 star, I opted for a Chinook "The Beast". Nowhere near the quality of the old Woods, but plenty warm for moose base-camp, where the criteria is not so much about relative temperature as it is outlasting your hunting buddy in the resistance to start the morning fire.

moving to more appropriate forum


Barbara

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