Does anyone own a Kelty cosmic? Thoughts on the temp rating?

[Lardtazium]

EDIT: Talking about this bag, the kelty cosmic 20: http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/Backpacki ... ic-Down-20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Thanks for the reminder dpage.
Also seems kelty has released a new version which is red/blue, but the numbers all look the same.


Hi all. Just had a chance to use my kelty cosmic when the temps hit the low 30s.

I'm trying to get a gauge of what's going wrong here. It's my first bag ever, and I'm not sure if it's just not a warm bag/inaccurate rating, or maybe I'm a cold sleeper, or perhaps my tent or pad is the issue.

Slept outside silverton last night. Temps were low enough for a bit of frost to be inside my water bottle in the morning. I woke up several times at night feeling real cold. Cold feet, cold legs, cold butt. Torso was all fine.

Bag was of course zipped up all the way. I was wearing a light merino shirt, a fleece, lightweight long underwear, and lightweight poly/wool socks. I had an uninsulated big agnes air core as my pad, and the tent is some random coleman tent I've owned for a while. However, the tent was definitely NOT letting in a breeze that I could tell last night.


So, anyone have this bag? Does it do you well below freezing? Or is that EN rating on it pretty off?

[dpage]

The Kelty Cosmic comes in several temperature ratings. Which one do you have? The BA Air Core is rated to 35 degrees according to the website.

[highpilgrim]

Temps were low enough for a bit of frost to be inside my water bottle in the morning. I woke up several times at night feeling real cold. Cold feet, cold legs, cold butt. Torso was all fine.

Bag was of course zipped up all the way. I was wearing a light merino shirt, a fleece, lightweight long underwear, and lightweight poly/wool socks.

The body protects the core, where all the critical organs are. It shuts down blood flow to the extremities in order to do that. Heat loss is often greatest from the head. Start by wearing a hat to bed. Breath into the bag when you need to to raise the internal temp.

You seemed to do the rest right, so you might just need a warmer bag.

[gspup]

Slept outside silverton last night. Temps were low enough for a bit of frost to be inside my water bottle in the morning. I woke up several times at night feeling real cold. Cold feet, cold legs, cold butt. Torso was all fine.

Bag was of course zipped up all the way. I was wearing a light merino shirt, a fleece, lightweight long underwear, and lightweight poly/wool socks. I had an uninsulated big agnes air core as my pad, and the tent is some random coleman tent I've owned for a while. However, the tent was definitely NOT letting in a breeze that I could tell last night.

There was a recent sleeping bag thread with some insight...basically ratings will be all over the board. Your bag was rated to 30, the temp dropped to 20 where I was so you probably went below the temperature limit of your bag. Those ratings can be for survival not to keep you comfortable. Get a warmer bag...15 or 0 deg. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to figure this out, especially in colorado.

For comparison, I camped at 10,500' from Thursday night to Monday morning with my old North Face 0 down bag with a therma-rest pro lite - not insulated. The temps were probably similar to what you had. I slept with wool socks, merino bottoms, merino t-shirt, down hoodie, and merino beanie every night and was comfortably warm.

[oldschoolczar]

I have a Kelty Cosmic Down 20-degree bag. I would not want to sleep in it if the temperature drops below 30. I'd be freezing my ass off. Below 40, I need a hat/beanie, socks, and smartwool long underwear (with a fleece over top) to be fairly comfortable. Although mine is 5 yrs old now. Might've been a bit warmer the first couple years. Despite not being as warm as I thought it'd be, it's a good summer bag and it's worked out well for me. Just need to be aware of the limitations...

[Scott P]

In the past I had some Kelly bags and the always seem overrated when it comes to temperatures. I was cold at 13F in my -15F Kelty bag and I don't usually sleep coldisorders in other bags. It sounds like they still have the problem of being overrated.

[AyeYo]

There was a recent sleeping bag thread with some insight...basically ratings will be all over the board. Your bag was rated to 30, the temp dropped to 20 where I was so you probably went below the temperature limit of your bag. Those ratings can be for survival not to keep you comfortable. Get a warmer bag...15 or 0 deg. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to figure this out, especially in colorado.

That was my thread and after reading the replies there and doing lots of my own research - sleeping bag ratings are a joke.



Op, your best bet is sticking to EN rated bags, because at least you're comparing apples to apples, kind of. I froze my ass off in my Marmot "20 degree" bag in anything below 45 degrees. Those non-EN rated bags are giving you "you'll probably survive a night at this temp" ratings, not "you'll be happy and comfortable at this temp". The EN bag ratings actually specify comfort, low-limit, and survival ratings. You'll want to look at the comfort rating. I ended up going with a 0 degree low-limit rated bag that has a comfort rating of like 15 degrees. That'll be plenty warm for 9 months of camping.

Pads also matter. I had the same BA pad and it is absolutely not sufficient for anything other than warm weather camping. With that pad, my "20 degree" bag was freezing below 55 degrees.

[Lardtazium]

There was a recent sleeping bag thread with some insight...basically ratings will be all over the board. Your bag was rated to 30, the temp dropped to 20 where I was so you probably went below the temperature limit of your bag. Those ratings can be for survival not to keep you comfortable. Get a warmer bag...15 or 0 deg. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to figure this out, especially in colorado.

That was my thread and after reading the replies there and doing lots of my own research - sleeping bag ratings are a joke.



Op, your best bet is sticking to EN rated bags, because at least you're comparing apples to apples, kind of. I froze my ass off in my Marmot "20 degree" bag in anything below 45 degrees. Those non-EN rated bags are giving you "you'll probably survive a night at this temp" ratings, not "you'll be happy and comfortable at this temp". The EN bag ratings actually specify comfort, low-limit, and survival ratings. You'll want to look at the comfort rating. I ended up going with a 0 degree low-limit rated bag that has a comfort rating of like 15 degrees. That'll be plenty warm for 9 months of camping.

Pads also matter. I had the same BA pad and it is absolutely not sufficient for anything other than warm weather camping. With that pad, my "20 degree" bag was freezing below 55 degrees.

Looked over your thread. Have you found a new bag yet? STP has some rated pretty low for a decent price. And then take another 25% off that too.

No idea how accurate the ratings are though. http://www.sierratradingpost.com/s~slee ... perPage=24" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Trotter]

There was a recent sleeping bag thread with some insight...basically ratings will be all over the board. Your bag was rated to 30, the temp dropped to 20 where I was so you probably went below the temperature limit of your bag. Those ratings can be for survival not to keep you comfortable. Get a warmer bag...15 or 0 deg. I'm not sure why it's so hard for people to figure this out, especially in colorado.

That was my thread and after reading the replies there and doing lots of my own research - sleeping bag ratings are a joke.



Op, your best bet is sticking to EN rated bags, because at least you're comparing apples to apples, kind of. I froze my ass off in my Marmot "20 degree" bag in anything below 45 degrees. Those non-EN rated bags are giving you "you'll probably survive a night at this temp" ratings, not "you'll be happy and comfortable at this temp". The EN bag ratings actually specify comfort, low-limit, and survival ratings. You'll want to look at the comfort rating. I ended up going with a 0 degree low-limit rated bag that has a comfort rating of like 15 degrees. That'll be plenty warm for 9 months of camping.

Pads also matter. I had the same BA pad and it is absolutely not sufficient for anything other than warm weather camping. With that pad, my "20 degree" bag was freezing below 55 degrees.

Looked over your thread. Have you found a new bag yet? STP has some rated pretty low for a decent price. And then take another 25% off that too.

No idea how accurate the ratings are though. http://www.sierratradingpost.com/s~slee ... perPage=24" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd recommend this particular bag

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/selkba ... ing-bag%2F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AyeYo]

I ended up blowing my budget out of the water with this bag, which Backcountry had for $400 shipped.

http://www.nemoequipment.com/product/?p=Sonic%200%20Reg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Happy with it so far, but haven't put it to a real test. I like the shape though and the build quality is 10/10. I was hot while literal car camping (in a car, not near a car) on a night into the upper 30s with only shorts, tee shirt, and no socks or hat, but that's hardly a real test.

Fiance got a Marmot Teton women's specific bag from Backcountry Gear for like $280. She hasn't tried it out yet, but it looks nice, was EN comfort rated for like 11 degrees, and probably has more loft than my bag.