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| Post Number: 31
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Dave Senesac 
Group: Members
Posts: 3027
Joined: Jun. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 6:36 pm |
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Quilts sound like a good choice for some types of sleepers though would not be for this person. Generally I sleep well at night outdoors as long as it is quiet. And am not too bothered by uneven surfaces or positions.
As an old guy and backpacker I've had a list of sleeping bags through the years. Some are down, some synthetic, some for warm conditions, some for cold, some expensive, some really cheap. My current 3-season backpacking bag is a 15F Marmot Pinnacle and my winter bag a decade old -5F REI elements both with high loft goose down. I'm a light sleeper that does not move while sleeping though rotates from side to side or to 3/4 back each time I wake up. Also as a thin wiry person, I have a rather cool body temperature.
For most of my backpacking years as long as ambient is not too cold, I have tended to use down sleeping bags fully unzipped blanket style just laying atop a pad and tend to prefer my feet out in the fresh air. But if I get into even a zipped up down mummy bag with cold feet, they tend to stay annoyingly cold for two or three hours unless I do something directly about warming them up first.
In the old days all my pads were the usual synthetic foam though only in the last decade began to use a Thermorest style pad including the short length NeoAir I now have. As night air cools I increasingly get inside a sleeping bag and zip it up. If temperatures are cold, I'll immediately get inside a mummy bad fully zipped and cinched up in order to bring the inside of a sleeping bag up to a comfortable temperature and then start unzipping it. And that does occur quite a bit during the winter up in near zero degree temps as I am a resort skiing enthusiast that a fair amount of times doesn't bother with motel rooms and instead sleeps in my vehicle especially during nights during storms at resort parking lots where there is an advantage to being the first in lift lines.
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...David
http://davidsenesac.com
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| Post Number: 32
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| Post Number: 33
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LiteMan
Group: Members
Posts: 241
Joined: May 2012
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 7:12 pm |
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(Tigger @ Nov. 13 2012, 6:04 pm)
QUOTE
(LiteMan @ Nov. 13 2012, 2:45 pm)
QUOTE
(Tigger @ Nov. 13 2012, 2:13 pm)
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(LiteMan @ Nov. 13 2012, 9:50 am)
QUOTE (Also, i know meditative techniques to raise my body temp at will). Why bother with a sleeping bag or quilt at all....? Because who wants to meditate every time it's cold outside or they become cold? Because you can...Talk about ultralight backpacking.
Yeah i see the advantage there, but again i'm not that skilled or practiced to rely only on that. Maybe with a lot more practice i can do it, but a wise person recognizes their current limits.
This is becoming quite the tangent--i should stop talking about this.
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| Post Number: 34
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| Post Number: 35
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Woodswoman
Group: Members
Posts: 6440
Joined: Aug. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 8:46 pm |
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I have a Golite Ultralite 3-Season 20 degree 800-fill down quilt that I absolutely LOVE! I don't winter camp, so this quilt is perfect for me. It has a foot box, so my feet stay nice and toasty. I've never gotten cold with the quilt.
I like a quilt because I am a side-sleeper, and turn from side-to-side all night. It's hard to do in a mummy bag. Also, I don't like the feeling of confinement in a mummy bag. When I did use a mummy bag, I never zipped it up and used it like a quilt anyway, so why bother having a zipper jabbing me in the face or Velcro bugging me all night?
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"Ah, Colorado: the one place in America where people wake up earlier on weekends than workdays."
~Mark Obmascik
"In the high country that we love, trails are steep.
We climb each mile, breath by breath,
and at the threshold of pain, bliss overtakes us.
~Michael Hannon"
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| Post Number: 36
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| Post Number: 37
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| Post Number: 38
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LiteMan
Group: Members
Posts: 241
Joined: May 2012
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 9:44 pm |
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(toesnorth @ Nov. 13 2012, 9:13 pm)
QUOTE
(LiteMan @ Nov. 13 2012, 7:12 pm)
QUOTE This is becoming quite the tangent--i should stop talking about this. Nah, it's Ray's thread and he won't mind. You can learn that stuff places other than Tibet, by the way. I learned bio feedback at the University of Washington in the 70's and I still use it today.
That's pretty cool Toesnorth, what got you into that to begin with? Btw i completely agree with you. I found out about this body heating thing by accident and spontaneously. 5 years ago, my wife and i attended the Gateway Voyage program at The Monroe Institute in Faber, VA for our honeymoon. It was middle of summer and quite hot and humid out, but they kept the buildings inside super cool via the AC (so there was quite the contrast between the inside and outside). So, often, when you're laying down and meditating, you felt pretty cold and needed thin blankets.
One night i had stayed up very, very late talking to some fellow group participants and since they woke us up very early for our first meditation ("sound experience" as the trainers there call it), i figured i would be dead tired and sure enough i was--i thought about sleeping through it, but decided i would try to stay awake.
I had blankets on because i was cold having just woken up (where you sleep is also where you meditate), but after a couple of minutes of doing the "toning" (which Easterners might call "chanting"), i became VERY hot, had to throw off the blankets and still felt quite hot. It was odd, one second i was cold and the next i was heating up to the point of sweating doing no physical activity whatsoever and having just woken up a few minute before.
Besides the heat thing, after the meditation i felt like i had a full nights of good rest and then some. I've had some other "heat" experiences during meditation since then--usually spontaneous, but i know i can "re-create" it if i want to. My wife Becky has also experienced this during meditation.
I figure it probably is similar in some ways to what the Tibetan Monks do, except that they deliberately try to raise their body temps in their "contests" or to show Westerners there is more to our reality than our mainstream beliefs and perceptions allow. It's not something that i have tried to consistently practice though, but it might be a good skill to develop more fully.
Funny enough, a couple of days ago before this conversation got brought up, i came upon "Iceman" who is a Laplander who made a Guinness world record for running a half marathon above the Arctic circle, during mid Winter with no socks, no shirt, and no pants. Apparently he practices something like the meditation the Tibetan Monks do. Here is an interesting youtube video about him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=madoDvtKEes
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| Post Number: 39
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toesnorth
Group: Members
Posts: 2500
Joined: Jan. 2007
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Posted on: Nov. 13 2012, 10:01 pm |
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Bio feedback is physical, not metaphysical. I learned it for pain management primarily..
I was also a Buddhist for many years and the meditation taught to me was not for physical control, but for mental, emotional and physical well-being. AND, monetary. We were actually encouraged to chant for money if we needed it. And, it worked.
Or, I was lucky. 
Either way, meditation and bio feedback can work well for many.
Use it wisely, grasshopper.
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"Failure is never as frightening as regret."
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| Post Number: 40
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LiteMan
Group: Members
Posts: 241
Joined: May 2012
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Posted on: Nov. 14 2012, 1:36 pm |
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TDale, sounds like you are a natural at this stuff. Imagine what you could do with a lot of practice?
Toesnorth, i hope the biofeedback helped/helps with the pain management. I appreciate you going into some of your background. I will try to use it wisely. My deepest intention with meditation is to improve myself, to become more truly Loving & positive so that i can have a more positive effect on others/the Whole.
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| Post Number: 41
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Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
