by Ben Gorman

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

Camping, anyone?

With all the technological innovations appearing in so many areas of our daily lives, you might predict that the formerly simple act of selecting a sleeping bag would be fraught with difficulty. You might, for example, worriedly anticipate having to learn all manner of arcane technical details in order even to understand the range of choices available. The good news is, it's not all that hard!

In fact, though advances in materials science and manufacturing processes have brought considerable change to some camping gear, sleeping technology has remained fundamentally unchanged for a number of years. That's not to say that innovations haven't occurred, but they've been more incremental than revolutionary.

The available choices of insulating fill material is a case in point: it's still pretty much a choice between goose down and synthetic fibers, a choice that campers and packers have faced for a generation. Refinements and advances have been made, to be sure, but nothing that's particularly earth-shattering to the casual observer. So I offer this brief guide to selecting a bag for your needs.

The bag characteristics of concern to most people include:

- temperature rating (comfort)
- fill type (synthetic or down)
- weight
- size (compressibility)
- price

A fine starting point as you shop for a sleeping bag is to use the manufacturers' temperature ratings as a guide. Look for a bag rated to keep you comfortable in the coldest nighttime temperatures you anticipate experiencing. Sleeping bags are rated according to the ambient (outside air) temperatures at which the average sleeper will remain comfortable inside the bag. For example, a 35-degree (F.) bag will keep most people comfortable at temperatures down to 35 degrees. The temperature-rating divisions can be somewhat arbitrary, but most bags will fall into the following minimum-temperature ratings:

35-40 degrees F.
30 degrees
20 degrees
10 degrees
0 degrees
-10 degrees (Brrrr!)

A bag rated to 35 or 40 degrees F. is generally acceptable for summer weather or mild 3-season use. As you consider a bag for your camping style or preferences, remember it's better to buy a colder-rated bag than you think you may need. Weather conditions can change rapidly and unexpectedly and there are few camping experiences as unpleasant as being too cold to sleep comfortably- especially after a hard day of hiking!

Are you a "warm sleeper" or a "cold sleeper"? Generally speaking, women tend to sleep cold; that is, they will tend to

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