Backpacking Quilts

The Classic bag with the hood and the back panel removed — the same down weight, the same 900-fill, half an ounce lighter. That half-ounce difference is the most useful single data point on this whole site about what a hood actually costs, and the answer is: almost nothing, because the down that would be under your back has already been left out of the bag. What you are really choosing between is a hood and a draft-free back, versus the freedom to stick a leg out.

Best for: Side sleepers who move all night and want nothing pinning them

The Flicker answers the quilt-versus-bag argument by refusing to pick: a full-length centre zip and a drawcord footbox mean it closes into a hoodless bag on a cold night, opens as a quilt on a mild one, and lies flat as a blanket in a hut. Because the zip runs down the middle rather than the side, the closure sits over your chest where you can reach it, and there are no pad straps to fight. Sixty-two inches of wrap width is generous, and 14.7 ounces of 950-fill down sits inside a 25.5-ounce total.

Best for: People who cannot decide between a quilt and a bag

The quilt that made quilts mainstream in America. Enlightened Equipment builds every Revelation to order in Minnesota across five lengths, four widths, six temperature ratings, two fill powers and three shell deniers, which is thousands of combinations and the reason this entry lists one representative build rather than a size run. The Revelation's distinguishing feature against the otherwise-identical Enigma is a zippered and drawcord footbox that opens completely flat, so the same quilt covers a 20-degree night and a 60-degree one.

Best for: Buyers who want a quilt built to their own measurements

Katabatic's pad-attachment system is the thing the rest of the quilt world copies, and the Flex is the model built around it: the quilt clips to two cords that run under the pad, and it can slide and roll with you while the edges stay sealed. That is the whole answer to the standard complaint about quilts. The Flex adds a zippered footbox to the formula so the same quilt opens flat into a blanket on a warm night, at the cost of an ounce or so over the sewn-footbox Alsek. Katabatic publishes single-side loft (2.75 inches here) and exact fill weights per size, but no lab rating.

Best for: Quilt sceptics — the attachment system is the reason to try one

Same temperature and nearly the same fill as the Flex 22, with a sewn footbox instead of a zipped one. That saves about six-tenths of an ounce and a litre and a half of packed volume, and removes the only moving part on the quilt. If you have never wanted to open a quilt flat — and most people who own one never do — the Alsek is the better of the two.

Best for: Three-season backpacking where the quilt never needs to open flat

1000-fill down is the highest fill power available at any price, and the Pulse is the only item in this catalogue that uses it. The result is a 2.3-litre packed volume — smaller than a one-litre bottle and a bit — and 18 ounces for a quilt with a published ISO lower limit of 23 °F. It is also $550, which is the most expensive quilt here, and it is the only quilt in the catalogue with a lab figure attached. Whether 1000-fill is worth the money over 900 is the sort of question a spreadsheet answers better than a salesperson does; the honest answer is that the last hundred points of fill power buys about an ounce.

Best for: Thru-hikers optimising packed volume above everything

Zenbivy solved the quilt draft problem differently from everyone else: instead of strapping the quilt to the pad, the quilt clips to a fitted sheet that is already on the pad, so the seal moves with you and there is a hood-like head end built into the sheet. It is the most bed-like sleep system in this catalogue. Zenbivy publishes a limit-and-comfort pair of its own — 25 °F and 35 °F for this model — but does not claim ISO testing, so treat those as the maker's figures rather than lab ones.

Best for: Quilt users who have never got the drafts under control

Katabatic's three-season quilt, and the one most of its customers should probably buy: 30 °F, a sewn differential-cut footbox, 19.8 ounces and a 4.5-litre packed size. The footbox is closed rather than zippered, which is lighter, warmer and smaller-packing than the Flex — the price is that it cannot become a blanket. For summer and shoulder-season trips in the mountain west it is the quilt that shows up most often on gear lists, and the loft figure (2.25 inches per side) is published so the rating has something behind it.

Best for: Summer and shoulder-season trips in dry mountain country

The quilt version of Exped's Ultra bag: 850-fill RDS Muscovy down, a recycled 10-denier shell, 18.5 ounces in the middle size, and — unlike the bag — no ISO figures at all, just a 32 °F number of Exped's own. That is worth knowing, because the hooded bag it shares a shell with tests to a 43 °F comfort rating, and a quilt is if anything harder to stay warm in. A 58-inch wrap width is generous by quilt standards and the three lengths cover most people.

Best for: Summer quilt use where a wide wrap matters more than a lab number

Nineteen ounces, 900-fill goose down, a 10-denier shell and an EN comfort figure of 32 °F. The Vesper is one of the very few quilts from a mainstream brand that publishes a lab rating at all, and the number it publishes is worth reading carefully: a bag called a 20 that tests to a 32 °F comfort rating is a bag most people will feel cold in at 20. That is not a Therm-a-Rest problem, it is what the 20-degree label has always meant, and the Vesper is one of the few products honest enough to show its working. The SynergyLink straps are the good kind — they let the quilt float rather than pinning it flat.

Best for: Gram-counters who still want a published lab rating

The Vesper's argument made in cheaper materials: same shape, same straps, same EN comfort rating of 32 °F, but 650-fill duck down inside a 20-denier shell instead of 900-fill goose down inside a 10. That costs seven ounces and saves $150, which for most weekend backpackers is the right side of the trade. The thicker shell is also more forgiving of the way quilts actually get used — dragged half-off the pad, sat on at breakfast, stuffed wet.

Best for: First-time quilt buyers who don't want to gamble $460

One of exactly two quilts in this catalogue with a published ISO comfort figure, and the only one where the limit lands exactly on the number in the name — 30 °F limit, 39 °F comfort. Nineteen ounces of 850-fill down that zips into a closed footbox for a cold night and opens flat into a blanket for a warm one. Sea to Summit's ratings discipline is the reason to buy it rather than a cottage quilt at the same price: you know what you are getting before you sleep in it.

Best for: Summer and shoulder-season quilt users who want a lab number