I know. Am I really about to bad talk Hammock Gear? Well, just hear me out. I'll explain my experiences with my quilt and maybe we can figure out why it worked but wasn't as "amazing" as I was expecting it to be.
First and foremost, I own a HG Burrow 20*, +1 oz overstuff, wide, snap closed footbox.
I made the mistake of taking this on my recent Vermont Long Trail End to End without testing it first assuming it would be good to go. I don't normally do this with gear, but after reading all the rave reviews and expecting much warmer temps I felt confident the quilt would perform well.
So.. I hit the trail, starting at the Canadian border on August 13th. I gave myself about a month to do the trail and figured I wouldn't be out much later than the 2nd week in September at the most. Therefore, I could expect typical nights to be on average 45-70 degrees. I know that's a wide range of temperature for just a month, but New England is weird. However, these temps were well above the quilts rating therefore I was confident it would perform. The lowest temp I encountered at night was about 43*. However nights were consistently hovering around the 50* mark give or take a few degrees.
All though we brought our hammocks, we decided to stay in the shelters every night of the trip. The LT is setup for a shelter to shelter hike and they are not crowded/disgusting like most of the AT. Anyways, we stayed in shelters every night. I slept on my inflatable pad. A Big Agnes Air Core pad. Now, this pad has a relatively low R-Value.. something like 1.5 or so. I feel this did have some effect on my overall warmth but I only experienced a few nights where my body was a little cold against the pad. Those were the nights I was cold overall, because the pad wasn't insulating enough.
On 25 nights of the trail, I was only "comfortable enough to sleep" most of the trip. I had to sleep in my wool trekking socks, long johns, long top underwear, and micro fleece most of the time. I also wore my merino beanie most nights. I was often a tad too cold to get completely comfortable and only slept toasty warm 2-3 nights. When I was toasty, I was still wearing socks and long underwear, just no fleece.
The biggest problem I had with the quilt was getting the footbox warm. I don't sleep with cold feet. Well at least not in my zip up bags. The footbox would get warm enough to be comfortable but if I move my feet a little there would be cold spots all over. And then it would be like starting from scratch to warm up the footbox. I was wishing I went with a zipped up footbox the whole trip, figuring it would help seal up some of the heat I generated. I also cinched up the footbox and shoved one my surplus glove liners in the hole to seal it. Still, I only had toasty feet a few night of the trips. And that's when the night low was about 65 degrees. Most of the time I had to overcome my slightly chilly feet and just ignore it and fall asleep.
Secondly, I did need to get accustomed to sleeping with a quilt and getting the wide width was obviously the right decision. However I noticed that the down always liked to shift to the outside edges of the quilt and I had to readjust it ever night. I would spend a few minutes before bed readjusting down and lofting the bag only to wake up in the middle of the night with cold spots due to the down shifting to the edges again. I do toss and turn a little bit, but I also ordered the quilt with over stuff to counteract that. Drafts were something I needed to learn to deal with and tucking the quilt underneath me whenever I readjusted did mitigate this problem. That's just a truth one needs to accept when utilizing a quilt. However, if a draft got in my quilt.. my quilt would lose warmth very quickly and it would take a few minutes for my body to heat the quilt up again.
I also experienced durability issues with my quilt. And this one really did get on my nerves. I am gentle with my gear. I use ultralight gear, and know their limitations when it comes to "ruggedness". However, the materials used in HG quilts are very similar to other high quality down bags. I made it a point to be very gentle snapping and unsnapping the footbox on my quilt because the fabric did feel fragile. After only snapping and unsnapping the entire footbox two or three times, I teared the fabric right next to one of the snaps. As I said, I grabbed both sides of the button and never used the fabric to pull the snap apart. The tear was small, and I had to put a piece of duct tape over it so no down would leak out. I left the footbox snapped for the remainder of the trip cause I was worried unsnapping would cause more tears. I was gentle, and it still teared.
After about 17 nights in my quilt, I was fluffing it up and adjusting the down before I was about to head to bed. I noticed one of the stitchings on a baffle had come undone and it had come out about 4inches from the edge of the quilt. I left it be and that's how it remains today.
I hiked the trail with my brother and a sobo that started with us the same day. They had a 20* synthetic mummy and an old 20* down bag, respectively. They were never cold, slept in their underwear and used their bags like quilts most of the nights. We discussed how the loft on my quilt was not as good as either of their bags.
I stored my quilt in a 13L Sea to Summit dry bag so it was never overcompressed. My quilt never got wet during the whole trip.
In conclusion, my 20* + 1 oz overstuff, felt more like a 50* to me. Most nights I felt like I was pushing the limits of the bag and always needed to supplement warmth with clothing. I survived, was never close to hypothermia, but was not at all impressed with its warmth despite all the reviews I read that it was a furnace. I know, I'm one of few with a bad experience with a HG quilt. I also feel that if I had a warmer sleeping pad I would have been more comfortable most of the trip, however not by much.
In the end, I was cold and uncomfortable. I'm writing this review almost 3 months after my trip so it probably reads a little loosely. However, I rated it as one of the worst pieces of gear I brought with me on my thru hike. If I were to do it all again, I would have brought my 35* synthetic bag I had at home.
Any questions please feel free to ask, I would like to discuss my experience more with you guys.
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Originally Posted by markr6
) and he said, "To sleep on the ground." Since I had no intention of ever doing so, I went with the sewn footbox. I also didn't like the snaps because my feet also get cold, and having that hole down there just seemed inadvisable to me.
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