Polarguard3D vs ThinsulateLiteLoft

What are the pros and cons of these two fill materials for a bag to be used for 6 months on the AT?

Where did you find a Liteloft bag? They've been off the market for years. Liteloft was the Greatest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on Mankind. I and many other people bought Liteloft bags because the industry (except North Face, to their credit) went over to this insulation. And magazines such as Backpacker turned in rave reviews based on (supposedly) months of field testing. The result? A friend of mine who runs a backpacking shop told me that people immediately started demanding their money back. They were COLD in those bags. And I took my Moonstone Optima up to an alpline lake on my ranger district (I was in the Forest Service at the time) and I was freezing at, well, freezing (32 degrees F). This is a bag that was rated to 15. I never got my money back because I bought it at wholesale. No one makes Liteloft bags anymore that I know of. Stay away from it! And Backpacker magazine has never explained why its testers were mysteriously warmer in their bags than everyone else who spent good money on worthless sleeping bags. There are many very good 3D bags out there. Buy one. Good luck.

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What are the pros and cons of these two fill materials for a bag to be used for 6 months on the AT?

I copied Glyns comments to Woods of Canada to see their response. This is what they had to say "Your message really took me by surprise. We have built over a quarter of a
million sleeping bags insulated with 3M's Thinsulate Lite Loft and continue
to do so. This gives us, through our dealers and consumers, considerably
more research experience than otherwise available. Contrary to other
manufacturers who have used Lite Loft, we took 3M's advice and have followed
their manufacturing specifications, i.e. we have perimeter stitched all bags
rather than quilting or shingling. The result is compact, lightweight
affordable bags which continue to be well accepted in the market.

You will have to make a decision with which you are comfortable, but we are
certainly confident in Thinsulate Lite Loft and our own products."

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Where did you find a Liteloft bag? They've been off the market for years. Liteloft was the Greatest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on Mankind. I and many other people bought Liteloft bags because the industry (except North Face, to their credit) went over to this insulation. And magazines such as Backpacker turned in rave reviews based on (supposedly) months of field testing. The result? A friend of mine who runs a backpacking shop told me that people immediately started demanding their money back. They were COLD in those bags. And I took my Moonstone Optima up to an alpline lake on my ranger district (I was in the Forest Service at the time) and I was freezing at, well, freezing (32 degrees F). This is a bag that was rated to 15. I never got my money back because I bought it at wholesale. No one makes Liteloft bags anymore that I know of. Stay away from it! And Backpacker magazine has never explained why its testers were mysteriously warmer in their bags than everyone else who spent good money on worthless sleeping bags. There are many very good 3D bags out there. Buy one. Good luck.

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What are the pros and cons of these two fill materials for a bag to be used for 6 months on the AT?

Hi. I'm glad you are doing some research. The note you got from Woods was interesting, partly because I've never heard of them (and I've been involved in outdoors pursuits--including several years in the Forest Service--for most of my life), although I did look at their website after reading your response to my warning. Now, I don't want to knock their products, and perhaps they have found a way to make LiteLoft bags warm. But no one, but NO ONE in the industry can possibly be unaware of the LiteLoft controversy and the way all US manufacturers stopped using the insulation, despite what they implied to you. I went to Yahoo just now and entered the search terms "LiteLoft" and "cold" and got this verrrry interesting article. I would urge you to read it. Then have yourself a good scotch: http://www.wiggys.com/html/julyaug00.html