Functionality of Thick Down Bag for Winter Use?

[leiavoia]

Ok, so the one big advantage to using a sleeping bag is that you spend so many calories squirming into position that you are bound to be warm by the time you get in ;-)

As a frequent squirmer, i have a hard to with a full bag in a hammock or otherwise.

[SteveE]

Thanks for the input so far everyone. When I do my winter trips I usually snowshoe back a km or so with a sled so the bulk/weight of my gear isn't really a concern. I'm used to hot tenting with a wood stove so I'm used to lugging! I'm planning on getting a 0* underquilt to get me started. I likely won't try my first winter hammock if it's dipping too far down and will likely try all this at home before I venture off into Algonquin. My other plan is to car camp in the winter in the park and have a normal hot or cold tent set up but then try the hammock for a night and see how I fare and how my gear works or doesn't...

[OutandBack]

When I need my Western Mountaineering -15F SB I am using a pulk so its weigh and bulk is a non item. The stand to zip up then sit down tip has already been suggested.

[gunner76]

One uses a sleeping bag as a Top Quilt when in the hammock. If it has a foot box option great. If not you can create one by using safety pins.

[curlymaple42]

I just got my very own Loco Libre 0° TQ so last winter when i was brandy new at this whole hammock thing, I borrowed my wife's 0° LL Bean down bag. I zipped it up a foot or so and used it like a TQ. Went down to 14° with that setup, oh, I had a three season Wooki UQ under me. So yeh, use it as a top quilt!

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[kattdogg]

I sleep frozen as well, I have a minus 20 down sleeping bag that I use as a TQ, I just leave it unzipped and over me, that way it gives me material to snuggle into and wrap around me, because remember once insulation especially down gets squished it becomes useless. I know probably most of this is just repeating the same answers that you were given.
For under insulation there is UQ and pads, you can always use a pad and an UQ or you can stack UQ, I have to stack my UQs. I have a 20 degree made by Hammock Gear, and 2 diy quilts, nothing special just some down blankets that I did some overstuffing and slap some suspension on, but if you stack quilts remember to not compress them so usually the first quilt next to the hammock needs to be tight to it and then the ones over it looser. I think there are a few threads out there to stacking UQ. I know also that Shug did a video on stacking them.

[oldpappy]

Like many others, I prefer using a mummy bag when temps get below freezing. Like others state, once you develop the skill of getting into the bag and cinching it up it is quite cold draft proof.
If it's a relatively mild night just use it as a TQ - cold nights climb in and snug it up..
The getting situated process generates some nice warmth as well.

UQs are great as well, but I use what I have if it meets the need. For the dozen nights a year I camp below 20F I just cant justify an expensive winter TQ if my SB will work.

[adamthestallion]

I say do it! My cold-weather sleep system is a Western Mountaineering 20 degree down bag inside of a Hammock Gear 20 degree Burrow top quilt. I zip up in the sleeping bag the traditional way and then stuff my feet into the Burrow footbox and pull it up over my bag. The Western Mountaineering bag’s inside fabric is so slippery, I’ve found that if I wear a thermal baselayer top and bottom to bed, it allows me to easily wriggle around inside the sleeping bag while I’m getting zipped up and it takes 30 seconds to slide in and get the wrinkles out. An added benefit I’ve found of using a sleeping bag is that you don’t get cold spots around the edges of your body if you’re a tosser during night.

[Bigg Ugly]

I've used my Big Agnes 20 degree sleeping bag with a hammock many times. Too many, in fact. My problem is that I'm big. I started with a Hennessey Expedition, and then moved to a WBBB XL. I'm still a bit tight in the hammock, without a lot of squirming room. And my buddy who keeps convincing me to go "spring" canoeing on the St. Croix River always seems to pick the weeks that it drops below freezing. (With the requisite ice and snow.) Spring my a**!
I have a summer UQ system with a booster which is good to about 40 degrees, and I use a Big Agnes air mattress inside the booster, plus a space blanket inside the double layer on the hammock. I stayed pretty warm the night it dropped below 30. The problem is the sleeping bag. To be effective in that weather you have to zip up, as the Big Agnes, while a great sleeping bag in a tent, is designed to have most of the insulation on the top layer, since they, rightly, assume that compression kills the insulation on the bottom of the bag. It does NOT work well as a top quilt, and getting in the **** thing, and then zipping up, is a royal pain.
Before the next "spring" trip, I'm upgrading my UQ, and getting a TQ. I sleep cold, and I live in South Carolina. There's a reason I moved away from the midwest, and I like being warm! LOL