Oh so worth it! In fact, worth every. single. gram.

[Brady]

I've finally got the time to do a review of my new HG quilt set. To do so in complete requires a small amount of background for me to wrap my own head around it.

All weights are from my digital scale.

I've always tried to keep my kit lightweight, at least according to my understanding since when I built my first kit there was no functional internet. I used this same setup for the next 18 years until I got into hammocking when looking into lightweight backpacking. When I was on the ground, this meant I slept on a roll of reflectix, carrying a tiny thinsulate sleeping bag, coffee can pot and 3 rock fire, stuff sac for pillow filled with clothes, and mostly the rain fly for my old Kelty tent, sometimes the tent, you get the picture. After way to many nights waking up cold and sore it was time for a change.

For Christmas 2012, my wife bought me my first hammock. A Warbonnet XLC. At first I used a Walmart pad and my wife's MEC down bag since she made me toss the ratty old thinsulate bag. Comfortable, yes, much better then the ground. But I wanted more, so I bought a JRB Sierra Stealth 498g (17.56oz) here on the forums, hoping it would be enough for me to be warm through the night with some supplementation for the colder trips. It was okay but since I head deep into the Canadian Rockies frequently, I was back to cool nights, albeit more comfortable. I always needed extra layers for my trips here in Canada.

Then as I started looking at UQ's, I wanted light, so of course looked for a partial UQ. Within days of starting the search, Leighlo decided to close up shop and I got one of the last 30F 48" UQ's before she retired the store. Awesome! I love this thing, especially with a weight of 388g (13.68oz). Together they made a nice matched set for summer...somewhere else. The alpine trips still left me quite cool, but this combination worked very well when the nights stayed above 12 Celcius. This is the limit I found I could comfortably use this setup with a cut down version of a leg pad from my old reflectix pad.

Here's a photo of the setup, although you can't see the pad or TQ.
20130731_083428.jpg

So now with 1.5 years of hanging, ~70 nights playing with these setups I had a functional but no perfect lightweight setup, at least one that would let me sleep toasty warm. Please let me explain that the JRB and Leighlo quilts are fantastic and well made, it's not the quilts fault. In fact, I wish my new Burrow had a head hold like the Stealth, but I digress.

Now recently fed up with being cool, I started looking at various TQ's. After much deliberation and discernment, and a ridiculous amount of forum reviewing...I choose to go with a HG Burrow:

20F Burrow, wide, snaps, standard length, 850fp water resistant down, and black/titanium grey in Argon67 with 1oz overstuff.

I pulled the trigger and started the wait. In the interim, a fellow forum member decided to sell the almost exact UQ I had been contemplating. The only difference was the colours. So I figured, well, Brady, you bought one, may as well get the other to go with it.

0F custom length Incubator, 900fp down (which I wanted) with 1oz overstuff, in Chocolate Brown Argon. But wait, they don't match. So I immediately emailed HG and discovered my TQ is ready to ship, but if I really want to change it, they'll put me back in the queue for a new quilt with the matching colours. Thank you Jenny!!!!! So I settled into another wait, this time for a "set". Within three weeks both were in my hands and strung up on the turtledog stand.

Here's the main reason I wrote this super long post, besides the photographic proof. I've always been a bit of a cheapo. That's part of why I used my former setup because everything was cheap, fairly light, and easily replaceable. Why I wrote this is because I have a feeling a lot of us take the cheap option, without regarding the longer term. Take pots and stoves, if I had just gotten the pot I wanted initially, or bought a stove instead of making it I would have spent far less money...but I can't deny I loved every minute of myog tinkering. If I had just bought the Burrow I would have saved a lot of cold nights and money in experimentation, same with the Phincubator. Okay, enough ranting, I could go on forever on this topic.

Almost at the end. Here's the improvements and pitfalls of each system.

Leighlo/JRB combo + pad = 932g (32.86oz). It is great for warmer weather and definitely light.

HG 0F/20F custom set = 1284g (45.29oz). Almost a pound heavier but no fiddling with the pad, no cold spots, and after seven nights in it, worth every gram.

And now the pudding...

0F Phincubator!


Side by side goodness showcasing contrasting inner/outers


20F Burrow!


In action with wife inside...or rather inaction.


The draft collars sealing the gap.


My wife, who crawled in to help me dial in the suspension immediately fell asleep and wouldn't come out for over two hours.