Sleeping bag liners are designed to
be used in your sleeping bag, in order to keep the bag cleaner ,
and to add some insulating value as well. A typical liner
weighs 8 ounces and only brings the temperature rating down by
five to ten degrees. This isn't efficient! I'll wash the bag and
go lighter.
Another use for a sleeping bag liner however is use them in place of a
sleeping bag. It was a sleeping bag liner that weighed
just five ounces .
A Five-Ounce Sleeping Bag
It can keep warm as the temperature dropped to the low forties.
The key to your warmth is probably the fifteen minutes you spend
gathering dead, dry bracken ferns to build a two-foot thick
mattress, which we set the tent on.
Considering that if you stayed warm with only a light sleeping
bag liner in autumn, when it was a few degrees above freezing,
this strategy should work for summer nights in the sixties.
Using Sleeping Bag Liners By Themselves
Of course you should be careful backpacking with only a sleeping
bag liner. Done incorrectly, it could be uncomfortable to the
point of ruining your trip. Experiment near home first, and know
yourself and your environment.
There are a few tricks to this. You can breath in your sleeping bag liner
if it isn't too humid, and you'll be much warmer. Many "experts"
will tell you not to do this, because you will be damp in the
morning, but in a dry environment you will dry quickly once you
hit the trail. You can dry out the liner during a break.
Another trick is the one mentioned above - using a mattress of
dried plants. Use dead leaves, palm fronds, cattail leaves, some
tree barks, or grass. A natural mattress of this sort keeps you
insulated from the ground, which is what normally conducts away
much of your heat. If you try this, scatter the leaves in the
morning, so they won't smother the plants underneath.
There are some other tricks to try if you want to use a sleeping
bag liner, or if you just want to get away with using a lighter
sleeping bag. Essentially these are ways to stay warm. In other
words, these are good little tricks to know no matter what you
are sleeping in.
- Have a cup of hot tea just before going to sleep.
- Exercise a bit just before going to sleep - but not enough to
sweat.
- Cover your sleeping bag liner or sleeping bag with extra
clothes for more insulation.
- Sleep with your head slightly downhill. This takes some
getting used to, but it really works.
- Go to sleep earlier or later - experiment to see which works
best for you.
If you are warm when you get into your sleeping bag, you are much more
likely to stay warm through the night. It is just plain
difficult to get warm - especially in a thin bag - if you start
out shivering.
I'm not recommending backpacking with only a sleeping bag liner,
but it can work. I've gone out with just a bivy sack in my
pocket, but I'm not recommending that either.
Other Sleeping Bag Alternatives
They are hard to find, but there are "half-bags," which are
designed to come up to your waist. I once made one of my own.
The idea is that you wear your winter coat to insulate the top
half of your body. A down half-bag is an extremely light option
if you are bringing your down coat in any case. Experiment near
home to see what temperatures you can handle comfortably this
way.
If you are using a bivy sack as your shelter, you could skip
using a sleeping bag altogether. Wear your clothes to bed, use a
one-ounce hat, and try this only on backpacking trips when the
nights will be warm. Use the same techniques as described above
for sleeping bag liners.
If you try this with that four-ounce backpack and a four-ounce
bivy, your "big three" base weight would be 8 ounces. That's
super-ultra light backpacking!
Key Points
1. If done right, a lightweight sleeping bag liner can be used
in place of a sleeping bag.
2. There are tricks to staying warm that can enable you to use
lighter sleeping bag options.
3. Other options include a half-bag, or using a bivy sack like
the sleeping bag liner example.
Fats produce heat when they digest, which is why eating whale-blubber
keeps Eskimos warmer. If you want to stay warmer while you
sleep, eat foods that are high in fat, like corn chips, as your
last meal of the day. Arctic survival course used to teach you
to eat a stick of butter by itself, but there are more palatable
choices.
Tent poles broken? You can usually get by with sticks if your
tent has straight poles. A trekking pole may work too.
Otherwise, try tying the roof up to overhead branches.
Attach a couple alligator clips to the top of your pack, and
you'll always have an easy way to hang clothing to dry while you
hike.
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