12:58 p.m. on March 19, 2012 (EDT)
My wife and I have used an old “Therma-nest” sleep system for what, 15 years now?
Got it at REI early in our marriage.
It’s a somewhat-hopefully-rated 20 degree extra long rectangular synthetic bag. For a 20 degree synthetic bag it’s quite light. I reckon they were figuring on the heat of two bodies in there. Anyway, the bottom is a synthetic sheet of sorts that has pockets and elastic straps on the bottom to hold two regular rectangular 72”x20” full sized therma-rest pads, and a zipper that matches the sleeping bag. It isn’t exactly an ultra-light arrangement, but it does save the weight and bulk of one sleeping bag.
My wife uses an REI Morningstar backpack and her standard load is the bed – The two therma-rest pads, and the one sleeping bag with the bottom sheet zipped on, which fits in its own stuff sack. This mostly fills her pack as you can imagine, which is a good thing. Keeps her from loading her pack up to heavy. I’ll carry the tent, stove, and food.
This arrangement has worked out very well indeed for us for many years. Sleeping together is sooo much warmer than sleeping apart and uh well, there are other fringe benefits also…
They used to come in regular length and the extra long version. For some reason we got the extra long version which was a stroke of pure genus on my part, I’m only 5’7” and my wife is 5’8”, but the extra material lets ya wrap it around yer head for more warmth.
We’ve used this sleep system oh, March through October, down to around 20 degrees I reckon. Only one really chilly night in it that I can recall, which we spent on the shore of an ice bound lake in a strong wind. We still slept pretty good though. Usually this has been a fantastic sleeping arrangement.
Last summer in an experiment to save weight, we substituted Ridge Rest pads for the usual and heavy inflatable therma-rest pads on a five day / four night trip. Boy was that ever a mistake!
I’ve come to really hate those ridge rest pads, yeah they are light but they are very uncomfortable and cold. I have foisted ‘em off on my nephews, who don’t know any better!
But anyway, if yer traveling with yer mate I can’t possibly imagine why you’d not want to share a bag.
Our old “therma-nest” bag needs to be retired now. Sadly, they don’t seem to make this fine product anymore, so I think we’ll make a Ray Jardine style two person quilt.
We’re already quite used to sleeping with just the pads beneath us and we do like to cuddle, so for us I figure it should work OK. I quite like the blue closed cell foam pads available at Wal-Mart for under ten bucks, bulky but light, cheap and very warm, so I’ll probably use two of ‘em for the bottom layer.
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