Is the winter Yeti the best underquilt for cold weather camping?

[Mule]

I know others have answered your question but I thought I should chime in here too. All of my quilts have been tested on my BlackBird and work just fine. There are also loops at various points on the quilts that allow for more adjustments if they are necessary.

Sorry about the late response but I am not allowed to play on HF as much as I used to. I am however getting good and staring at a presser foot...

~Stormcrow

Thanks, Stormcrow, I am looking at a couple of your quilts.

[BillyBob58]

Can you achieve a lower temperature range with the Winter Yeti? I know that I can stay very warm in my pea pod and MT.Washington 4 quilt. I was wondering if the Yeti was really as warm as they say it is suppose to be.

The Pea Pod is not as thick/lofty as a Winter Yeti or MWUQ4. So right there, I would expect either to be warmer on the bottom than the PeaPod. Assuming pad use for legs with WB Yeti, of course. Hence the 0-10*F MW4 rating ( about the same for Winter Yeti with pad?) and only a 20*F bottom rating for the Pea Pod.

In addition, the Yeti and MW and some others are Differentially cut, allowing them to be adjusted tight against the back. This can be a major benefit. With the Pod, you have to use some caution to not have it tight enough to compress loft, and not so loose so as to cause a big gap under you I find this easy enough ( with experience) to deal with. But not near as easy as just having the quilt nice and tight against your back.

But naturally, the full story is some what more complex. First and foremost, the Pea Pod is at least potentially a draft free approach, very much like a sleeping bag. And, at 38 oz ( new ones) there is a considerable amount of head insulation available with out adding a hood, as well as significant top side insulation to boost your TQ, or use alone when not super cold. The Non-snug design allows adding all manner of stuff to the bottom quickly and easily. ( space blankets , puffy jackets/pants, dry rain gear, quilts, pads, Garlington Insulators, etc), any of which can give a major warmth boost. This does not work so well with a snug design, which would compress the loft you added below. A 2.5" thick TQ used to fill any top gap would result in total TOP loft of 5", which should be some kind of warm indeed!

All of this makes the Pea Pod a major contender for extreme cold weather, IMO. However, if just comparing a Winter Yeti or MW4 to a Pea Pod by itself, I would think the former would be warmer on the bottom than the Pod, for sure. Probably by about the differences in rating. In my own experience, at about 11*F, I was just warm enough on the bottom in a Pea Pod plus space blanket. Didn't feel I could go much lower and stay comfy. At about the same temp in my JRB MW4 and nothing else, I think I was at least as warm and maybe a bit warmer on the bottom. I felt I maybe could have even gone a little lower. But, I got a little cool on top with a 20* Golite quilt and warm clothing. I was fine on top with a summer bag inside the pod, at least after I pretty much closed the pod all the way.

[Mule]

I have an order in to Stormcrow for a winter Ptarmigan, but I will have to wait for it to get here a while. Once it does get here I will be selling my SF for $250 the way it looks now.

[joggerjohn]

I got down to around 7 degrees with my Claytor hammock and Pea Pod. Any lower than that I would have needed a winter bag rather than the summer bag which I was using.. The pad which I slipped inbetween the two layers of the hammock helped keep me warm. I think that I could take this system down to zero degrees with the Claytor no net hammock.
The benefits of the draft free approach makes a big difference when the wind is blowing. With the Pea Pod I was able to eliminate of of the incoming draft from outside. I liked the way that I could store old dirty clothes garbage bags and even small quilts into the bottom of the Pea Pad. This certainly increases warmth. Yeah, the Claytor no net hammock and Speer Pea Pod work great together as a team.

[BillyBob58]

The Pea Pod is not as thick/lofty as a Winter Yeti or MWUQ4. So right there, I would expect either to be warmer on the bottom than the PeaPod. ...........

I should clarify one thing about that statement. The rated loft of the MWUQ4 is, I think, 4" single layer. And I think mine actually measures a bit more than that.

The Pea Pod has a relatively "measly" rated 2.5" of single layer loft, which should make it not nearly as warm as the MW4. And indeed it is not as warm on the bottom, as expected.

But, I find the Pea Pod to be the most conservatively rated product I have ever owned. The loft on mine is definitely a good bit more than 2.5". Laying flat on the floor, it really is a good bit more than 2.5", though this can be extra tricky to measure. Because the down is so easily shifted from top to bottom(EDIT: I mean: from either head or foot end to the middle). You can easily make it measure twice the rated loft in the middle, but that is not very applicable to field use.

On the other hand, in actual use on the hammock, with me in the hammock, I think the loft invariable falls back a good bit closer to the rated loft. And in fact under these conditions, I often have to make sure enough of the down is shifted down to the butt region, and not too much in the ends. But it is still easy for me to exceed the rated loft where it counts the most, some what decreasing the dif between this unit and some of the warmer ones.

[MedicineMan]

I agree the PeaPod is greater than the sum of its parts, kinda like a bumble who theoretically cannot fly the PeaPod is warmer than it should be....in my mind its the total or near total encapsulation (near total because of the required breathing hole if you're out for a multiday event where the condensation can add up)....saying this I must stress it is a statement about the latest gens...I've got a first gen which is much lighter and sewn through construction but it has its place too.

[Mustardman]

That's a myth - the hydrodynamics of bumblebee flight are well understood. If you use freshman level approximations, it might be impossible to explain, but it's not terribly difficult with more advanced techniques.

[joggerjohn]

I thought that loft of the Speer Pea Pod was suppose to be 5 inches. I must have gotten a special pea pod which was overstuffed with down. Or maybe I just don't understand how they exactly measure the loft.

[BillyBob58]

I thought that loft of the Speer Pea Pod was suppose to be 5 inches. I must have gotten a special pea pod which was overstuffed with down. Or maybe I just don't understand how they exactly measure the loft.

Correct, 5" TOTAL loft, like the loft rating of a traditional mummy bag. Both top and lower layer counted. But this would be a single layer ( or top layer only or bottom layer only) rating of 2.5".

I just measured it again on the floor, double layer: much closer to 8" (or maybe even more than 8) than to the rated 5". I'm still very impressed. It's obvious that this used as a traditional sleeping bag on the ground would be much warmer for many folks than the rated 20*F. I think this is explained by the fact that Ed Speer says he is a VERY cold sleeper, and the temp ratings at his web site are for HIM.

Still, even with all of this excess loft on the ground, I usually find that in actual use, with the Pod stretched out over a longer hammock, that the loft is obviously less than when measured on my floor ,especially near the bottom. Though I think that even though it falls back closer to the rated loft, it is still more than rated. But it is a bit more difficult to accurately measure loft when it is on the hammock on the trees.

[joggerjohn]

Yeah, I like the way the Pea Pod cut off all cold air draft. The Pea Pod was really warm when used with a 1.9 ripstop hammock sock.... being inside the pea pod and having the pea pod inside a hammock sock seems like an effective means of staying protected from the cold.