UKH

Off out camping over New Year so decided only doing it if I'm warm. So top of my Chrustmas list is a down sleeping bag. Female and suffer from cold feet...what's the best?

In reply to Solar:

If you're a female then you can sew!

Make 'foot cosy socks' out of an old fleece.

In reply to Solar:

Alpkit bags are excellent value for money and have a range to suit most wallets.

In reply to Solar:

Thanks. Alpkit look good. Sadly I failed to learn to sew . Know there are some female specific bags though and wonder if worth it?

In reply to Solar:

PHD do smaller versions of most bags - but it'll depend on how good you've been this year for Santa to bring you one.

Just took delivery of an Alpkit 700 and it seems pretty good at first glance.

We don't tend to buy male /female bags in our house as we use them interchangeably depending on who's doing what. But I doubt we're using them at their limits (much - OH almost froze to death at -5C in a vango venom 300, where me and the kids were toasty in alpkit bags).

In reply to Solar:

A Sigg bottle that you can use as a hottie. Stick it in a walking sock or it'll probably burn you.

And of course a down bag. As others have said, Alpkit are very god for the price.

In reply to Solar:

I cannot recommend wearing a super thick pair of socks in a sleeping bag highly enough. A pair of 7 season winter socks may do you more good than getting a burly sleeping bag - and for the cost, definitely worth a shot. In my experience socks have made the biggest difference between a comfortable nights sleep, and a crap one.

In reply to Solar:
"Know there are some female specific bags though and wonder if worth it?"
A female specific bag is usually just a little bit warmer than a normal blokes bag with supposedly a slightly different fit.
One thing to watch out for is the length of the female bags is a little shorter, so if you are relatively tall for a woman (5'10'') you may find them too short. I know this from experience after telling my ex to get the womans mountain hardware lamina 20 bag which turned out to be a bit short ( I noticed this but never mentioned it for fear of death).
Alpkit bags are pretty good, I have a pipedream 600 (I think) that I got on offer for £125 and it's been pretty good, although be sure to get a good mat, this is very important with down sleeping bags, because the down gets squashed under your body and has almost no insulating properties. For this reason a hybrid down/synthetic bag is my favourite.

In reply to SenzuBean:

I cannot sleep as readily with socks on. I can sleep, but just more fitfully.I understand your point, but for me socks on the feet is a negative to some extent. Even when going up Denali, I had to strip down to the minimum in my bag(a tee-shirt or inner thermals are just about acceptable in really cold conditions). I would prefer to put my coat over the bottom of my sleeping bag.
(Mind you we had to dry our socks inside our bags on Denali, and I had to have my contact lens bag between my legs to stop the solutions freezing)

In reply to Solar:

The alpkit bags are very good - very happy with my old SkyeHigh 700 is brilliant.

In reply to Solar:

Better than socks are down booties, PHD do some fab ones, you can hardly feel them on but are dead toasty.

In reply to Pedro50:

Had some in Greenland this last Spring - definitely a nice comfort boost. Don't underestimate how much difference a good sleeping mat can make, as well.

Specifically on bags: another vote for AlpKit from me.

In reply to bouldery bits:

I was looking at that, but it is too short for me as I'm 6'2"-6'3". It was not obvious that they did a longer version, but I'm willing to be told otherwise(I emailed them with the question)

In reply to veteye:

Yeah, you might struggle! Plenty enough length for me but I'm a short a*se.

In reply to bouldery bits:

They replied saying that an XL will soon be on their catalogue and that I will be fine with that when it does arrive.