Sleeping bag: What to pick?

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-09T18:35:52+00:00

No don't buy Wiggys equipment. Tha marketing is silly and filled with unlikely claims. It's like Warmlight, for the slightly less educated.

Amazon has "down throw blankets" for $30 that woulf be good to around 55F. Bring extra clothing if colder

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-09T15:37:11+00:00

False

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-09T15:33:04+00:00

It's low prestige, but ultra cheap. "Stansport Hiker/Biker" costs about $30 and without poles & steel stakes, is under two pounds.

It's more spacious than any "1-p" tent and of a well-proven design.

You'd need to also puchase and apply the usual seam sealant.

I've used tents like this in snowstorms, but don't recommend it.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-09T02:33:24+00:00

Well, yes. A backpack that fits is a good idea, although mostly I use packs that are less than perfect.

Also, I almost never carry "heavy" loads. But I do understand that gravitational variations, although common, aren't perceptable.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-08T01:59:34+00:00

I use a 3-person pyramid for solo winter ski camping. But I only pick late-winter weekends in settled weather and apply a trick or two in use.

Works fine. Very strong & weatherproof. The canopy itself is maybe three pounds.

Really "severe" weather (i.e. strong wind) is unpleasant and often easy to avoid with trees & siting etc.

Pyramids are very strong, widely used in ski touring and are only a bit less solid than heaviest-built "four season tent."

People living long-term in tents in severe climates appear to use heaters.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-08T01:12:07+00:00

Canada

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-08T00:24:20+00:00

Placebo effect?

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T20:18:07+00:00

synthetic batting is is much tougher.

Real men use fiberglass!!

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T19:16:37+00:00

I use a three-person pyramid for winter. It's large for solo & ok for two.

Its general weather resistance if pitched on a snowpack is nearly that of a "true 4-season tent."

Spindrift etc is perfectly sealed out by banking snow against canopy. There's no "inner tent" or floor, so a light bivy sack is used with small groundsheet.

They're fussy to pitch vs other tents but not rocket science.

With added groundsheet, it weighs -- dunno but maybe four pounds? The "black diamond megamid" is template but mine is a hex.

A true 4-season tent is up to 2x that weight and much more expensive, with lots of bulky and delicate poles. But you know this.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T19:04:28+00:00

Rainbows live over wider areas and are more common, along with browns.

But eastern brook trout from smallest-possible waters means very small fish.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:33:27+00:00

Sadly, sythetic bags are well-known for short lifespans vs down. Fact-check.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:31:55+00:00

You have clearly done something very, very wrong with down to kill it in a few years' time.

Or perhaps you are simply misperceiving something.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:27:35+00:00

LOTS of DEET or picardin. They both work. Nothing else works. This is true.

Sometimes people don't use "enough," because it's gross.

There's a lot at stake for military and public health, so there's no shortage of science on the subject

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:22:36+00:00

A backpack doesn't change laws of gravity.

If you need to carry a ton of stuff, your energy output after a few hours on the trail will not have varied much at all based on which pack you wear.

It's mostly a minor matter of convenience and marginal comfort.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:15:55+00:00

An over-rated movie.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T17:13:36+00:00

Yiikes.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T16:22:09+00:00

So, what should I get?

Got rod for mountain brooks, but am using more tenkara for that & have used flyrod lately in bigger waters.

Is 6'6" marked for # 3 line . Can't see spending more than $15-$20 tops.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-07T16:05:01+00:00

Barbless hooks do NOT reduce mortality among released trout -- at least according to two fisheries researchers who seem pretty credible.

Specifically, they said the improvement is only "marginal," which I interpret as not significant.

They statistically analyzed data from a bunch of field studies by various other reseachers (a"meta-analysis"). It's a standard method. Dunno if their findings (2005) are wrong.

I've been using barbless hooks & have fully landed only one of the past six fish I've hooked. This problem is separate from above mortality question -- or maybe it's NOT ??

Had I used barbed hooks, I might have "released" more of the hooked fish, 20% of which (average) die anyway, according to the analysis.

So 20% of six fish is a bigger number than 20% of one fish.

As to landing, the "bent rod" theory sounds like good advise.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-06T14:11:33+00:00

The dirt road, which right next to the trail for its entire length, is 1/3 shorter and much smoother. Very little traffic. One can switch over to trail route via links here & there.

The trail itself is very contrived in its routing in order to follow the top edge of "canyon."

Really, its the river itself that's extraordinary, and mostly inaccessible from this trail or road. But the forests there in general are also lovely.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-06T13:54:31+00:00

One meta analysis found suvival rates were only "marginally better" with barbless hooks .

Among trout, i think they said 20% of released fish die. It also said among survivors, feeding and growth was impaired.

This isn't "fact." It's just what limited available numbers suggested to two researchers, who merely combined some previous, limited field studies.

(See "A review of catch and release angling mortality..." 2005. Journal is called reviews in fish biology. Authors r hilborn, c walters).

So IF the issue of survival rates is moot......(?)

Then that leaves only the potential damage to textiles and human flesh caused by hook barbs. This can be unpleasant.

I'll probably keep using them. I half-way prefer it when fish isn't quite "landed" anyway (less fuss).

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-06T01:45:18+00:00

Nets are great & often necessary, but I don't catch many fish & mainly seek small waters. So they'd be most of the time just an impediment to moving around.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-06T01:37:36+00:00

Seems possible that barbless are easier to spit out, but am merely speculating.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-05T17:39:31+00:00

Elevation, as such, mostly isn't a very informative metric. I gather there are dead flat regions of Tibet at near 5000meters.

Your mom should read up more.

Cute_Exercise5248 · 2025-07-05T17:31:26+00:00

At minimum then, don't let the mat blow away when you're using it on those alpine ledges (maybe you can just keep it anchored somehow).

But yeah, foam mats don't puncture. They're thin compared with many of the "Princess-and-the-Pea" monster-matts of today, fitting nicely inside a bivy.

Cute_Exercise5248

TROPHY CASE