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Why does nobody talk about how sleeping bag ratings are totally off?
I spent three nights in the Smokies last October with a 20 degree bag and froze my butt off at 35 degrees. Turns out those ratings are based on survival, not comfort, and I never knew that until a ranger at Clingmans Dome told me. So are we all just supposed to add 15 degrees to the rating or is there a better way to pick a bag? Has anyone else figured this out the hard way?
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ben_fisher3mo ago
Haha yeah, I learned that the hard way too.
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corap613mo ago
@ben_fisher same here honestly. What finally worked for me was just going with a mid-range brand that had good reviews for durability but wasn't trying to be flashy. I got a pair of those trail runners from a company that usually does work boots and they've held up way better than the expensive ones I tried first. Sometimes you just gotta ignore the hype and see what random people on forums are saying actually lasts. Gray314's got a point about the difference between comfort and survival ratings too, that's something I never paid attention to before but makes total sense now.
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