My girlfriend and I like to backpack, but my gear wasn’t really up to snuff. Especially my Craigslist acquired sleeping bag. I paid less than 20$ for it, but it had to weigh 10lbs, and took up 2/3rds of my backpack. All that extra weight resulted in one of the nastiest heel blisters you have ever seen. So when my birthday rolled around, I made sure that I upgraded in that department. After a good bit of research I found one bag that repeatedly turned up on almost every lightweight hikers list. It was the Western Mountaineering Highlite. Coming in and exactly one pound, and packing down to the size of a loaf of bread, it has single handedly made it possible to drop down to a smaller pack and drop 8 to 10 lbs off my backpack’s weight. It is rated to 35 degrees, but from what I have read is capable of keeping you warm to lower than that, especially when used with a good pad (I got one of those too). I say “from everything I’ve read” because I haven’t actually used it yet, but we have a trip planned in early April so I will chime back in with an update when I return.

[tags]backpacking,hiking,camping,sleeping bag[/tags]