The temps in Yellowstone over Christmas will be around 5 Fahrenheit for highs and -10 Fahrenheit for lows. That’s about -23 Degrees Celsius for my Canadian friends. My bag is rated for 0 Fahrenheit or -18 Celsius. Its all in your head though, right?
In another lifetime, I recall the owner of a surplus store trying to sell me a sleeping bag she claimed was so warm – “you could put raw eggs and bacon in at sunset and have a fully cooked breakfast by morning.” There was also a large hole in the bag which she claimed was from “heavy combat use.” I guess that was code for “campfire spark.”
Fortunately for her, I was a kid with birthday money, burning pockets and a dream – plus, I needed a sleeping bag for an upcoming camping trip and I wasn’t leaving the store empty handed. A minute of negotiating bought me the bag and I even had a little money left over to piss away on something else.
I found out a couple of weeks later, my bag was the equivalent of an old moth eaten towel. As an extra kick in the frozen nuts, the duct tape that I used to put over the “heavy combat use” had come off during the night and whenever I moved it looked like a whales blowhole, but with feathers instead of water.
Many years later and having adult money in my pockets, brought me to my newly acquired and thoroughly researched -18 degree Nemo bag. I’m hoping to find consolation in this one. But if its another dud, I’m not complaining because as Hunter S. Thompson once said – “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
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