[Philmont]: down bags

for 2000, i purchased a 20 degree, full mummy, synthetic bag by mountain hardware, heeding advice about avoiding down bags. it weighs 3.75 lbs. also, it is very, very difficult to wedge into the bottom compartment of my gregory shasta i-frame, without a compression sack and the additional weight that involves. this year, determined to save some weight and effort, i started exploring down bags. fortunately, we have an outfitters supply locally that employs only sales personnel with extensive backpacking experience -several appalachian trail through hikers, pacific coast and continental divide trail hikers, etc. one even carried a down bag at philmont as a youth. unanimously, they say that with proper precautions against getting wet, they have never had any problems with a down bag. as a result, i have purchased a 15 degree down bag that is slightly over 2.5 lbs and compresses by hand to about 2/3rds the volume of the bag compartment. i plan to use a "golite" stuff sack inside a plastic bag for extra insurance against rain. i surmise the bad wrap down bags have gotten is from youth who may be less careful with their gear and adults who don't want to end up with a youth who has an unusable bag - both of which i can understand and still agree with. good luck with the down. jackson morris

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Received on Fri Apr 11 09:22:09 2003