The best backpacking sleeping bags for your next camping trip

The sleeping bag market is pretty crowded with dozens of manufacturers and thousands of options to choose from. Admittedly, any selection of one bag to be “the best” will be fraught with controversy, so I want to explain my criteria first.

To meet my “best of” categorization, I was looking for the best all-around combination of warmth-to-weight ratio, compressibility (smaller is better), overall weight (less is better), and essential features like a cinchable hood, full length zipper with draft tube, and neck baffle. It also had to be affordable, which I know is a relative term.

The REI Magma 30 sleeping bag fits the bill. The designers stuffed the Magma 30 with almost nine ounces of water-resistant 850 fill power goose down (almost 10 ounces in the long bag) into a well-constructed and well-designed bag weighing under 20 ounces that’s perfect for three-season backpacking use. This bag delivers the same (if not better) performance than other premium bags that cost hundreds of dollars.

It’s also comfortable. The girth is 63 inches at the shoulder and 57 at the hip, so you won’t feel like you’re inside the belly of a boa constrictor. We dug the zipper cover, anti-snag zipper, and full-length draft tube. One of the ways the Magma 30 delivers the warmth performance it does is due to the contoured and cinchable hood and generous neck baffle to keep the cold drafty air out and your body heat in. The full-length zipper adds great versatility to the bag allowing the sleeper to vent during warmer temps. The Magma 30 also packs down to an impressively small 3.8L in the stuff sack and can be further compressed to 2.6L.

REI also really thought through the smaller details in the Magma 30, like the triangular zipper garage keeping the zipper off of your face, the trapezoidal footbox, and the long pull tab on the interior side of the zipper to ease zipping and especially exit. Lastly, we love that the Magma 30 comes with all these features and REI’s 100 percent guarantee for less than $350. If that doesn’t make this the best backpacking sleeping bag to beat, I don’t know what does.

To find the best value bag, I looked for one that was relatively light (under two pounds), compressible (under eight liters), warm (30 degrees or better), and under $400. Seems like a tall order? I found one: The Mountain Hardwear Bishop Pass 30.

This three-season bag impressed me with its high warmth-to-weight ratio, 10 ounces of 650 fill down insulation, #5 snag-free YKK two-way zipper with full draft tube, cinchable hood with draft collar, and durable materials and construction. It’s also a bit wider than your standard mummy bag and has a contoured foot box and, thus, is a bit more comfortable and less restrictive when you move around.

Of note, part of the cost savings is due to the fact the bag does not come with a compression sack, so you’ll need to purchase that separately. I recommend a waterproof stuff sack since the bag is down-filled. It does come with a stuff sack and mesh storage bag. I also appreciated the glow-in-the-dark zipper pull, interior stash pocket, hang loops, and sleeping pad loops. If you get your significant other a matching one with opposite hand zipper configuration, they’ll zip together.

I’ve been a fan of Marmot sleeping bags for years. In fact, when I retired my 20F synthetic Sierra Designs bag, the Hydrogen 30 is what I purchased. I’ve taken this bag all over the world and use it for spring, summer, and fall treks to the backcountry. It’s kept me warm in the Northern Cascades, in the saddle of the Grand Teton, and while sleeping in a hammock atop mountains along the Appalachian Trail. (For winter, I use the Marmot Lithium 0F bag.) Over the past six years, I found the Hydrogen 30 delivers a solid combination of warmth, compressibility, and comfort (relative) in a well-made, durable design that weighs in under two pounds.

The Hydrogen 30 is a premium bag with a thermally-efficient curved box baffle design made from 13 ounces of 800 fill down and uses 100 percent recycled fabrics. Marmot treats the down with a water-resistant treatment called Down Defender which gives it better performance in wet conditions and helps it to dry out faster. The interior of the bag is 30D nylon and the shell is 20D Pertex nylon which is wind-resistant. The full-length zipper has a draft tube to keep the chill out and a cinchable hood with neck baffle. The hood also has a small second zip that runs down a few inches to allow the top to be folded down to ease entry and exit and provide additional venting options. Near the neck is a small zippered storage pocket ideal for your cell phone or other items you don’t want lost. The foot box is 3D-designed to ergonomically fit your feet and increase warmth. It also comes with a mesh storage bag (to keep your down fluffy) and a stuff sack, and has two hang loops for airing the bag out when you get home.

If you’re looking to buy one sleeping bag to cover a wide range of overnight outdoor conditions, from winter to summer, and aren’t super concerned about weight, take a look at The North Face One Bag.

In this design, The North Face created a unique and versatile system to provide the user with three bag configurations: winter (5 degrees Fahrenheit), spring (20 degrees), and summer (40 degrees). They do this by an ingenious layering system consisting of an anti-compression Heatseeker Pro synthetic filled bottom (back) layer, an 800 fill ProDown midlayer, and a synthetic-filled Heatseeker Pro top layer that can be zipped together. When the base and top layer are used, the bag is rated at 40 F. When the base and down midlayer are used, the bag is rated at 20 F; when all three layers are used, the bag is rated at 5 F.

The One Bag comes with other great features. The compression sack is fleece-lined on the inside so that it can be inverted and filled with extra clothes to serve as a pillow. The hood is roomy and will accommodate a pillow inside, and people who sleep with their arms over their heads won’t feel constricted. The down layer can also be used as a stand-alone quilt and has a snap so you can fashion a superhero cape out of it when lounging in camp — just watch out for those bonfire sparks. The One Bag comes in regular and long sizes and comes with a mesh storage bag. The design details are well thought-out and it’s well-built out of quality materials. The one gripe we have about the system is its overall weight due to the fact it has four times the amount of zippers as a normal sleeping bag and uses synthetic insulation (which is heavier than down) in the base and 40F components.

When you’re looking for a great sleeping bag to take backpacking, you’ll want to focus on finding a bag that’s lightweight, very compressible, and has a high warmth-to-weight ratio. Typically, these are mummy-style sleeping bags that have a body-conforming shape to reduce weight, and a cinchable hood to help keep the heat in. Backpacking sleeping bags are made either from down or synthetic insulation with down bags being lighter, more compressible, and more durable than synthetic fill.

We were super impressed with Western Mountaineering’s SummerLite. The bag is a continuous baffle design and weighs in at 1 pound 3 ounces featuring a full-length #5 YKK zipper with insulated draft tube, and cinchable hood (many ultralite bags eliminate the hood to save weight). It’s a warm bag with 10 ounces of 850 fill down that provides four inches of loft and cut to a mummy shape to eliminate excess material. It’s a tighter fit, so if you like a roomier bag, this might not be the one for you.

The design of the bag is well thought-out and it’s made from quality materials. Being a two-way full-zip bag, it’s pretty versatile too and allows the sleeper to vent at both the bottom and top of the zipper. For an ultralight bag, this is a great compromise between warmth, weight, and roominess — but like all ultralight gear, be prepared to pay more for the advanced materials and design that takes pounds off your back.

If you’re camping and don’t have to haul your sleeping bag very far, there’s no need to go all out and get an expensive, lightweight, mummy-shaped down sleeping bag. In this case, it makes more sense to look at rectangular or semi-rectangular shaped bags that allow for more room to stretch out and are filled with less expensive synthetic material that will continue to insulate when wet and dries out faster.

For frontcountry camping, I recommend the REI Siesta Hooded 25 sleeping bag. It’s not the lightest (almost four times heavier than an ultralight bag) or most packable, but it is warm and roomy. As a rectangular bag, it’s more comfortable and the insulated hood helps keep your head warm on colder nights and will retain an inflatable pillow. The 120 gram polyester synthetic fill is rated to 25F and the bag is stitched with an offset quilt construction to hold the insulation in place and prevent cold spots. The two way anti-snag zipper allows the sleeper to vent from the shoulder or the feet and REI placed a smaller off-side shoulder zipper to allow the front of the bag to be folded forward to allow the user to sit up comfortably. The company also included a small interior stash pocket. The recycled polyester shell is DWR-treated and the bag includes a stuff sack.

These are great features, but the best part of this general-purpose frontcountry camping bag is that it won’t break the bank. Use it for tent or RV camping.

I generally sleep pretty warm in my Marmot Hydrogen 30F bag, but two trips broke me: a 9F morning atop The Priest in Virginia, and a 3F night on a ridgeline in Pennsylvania in December. Sleep deprived and a bit miserable, I resolved to get a proper winter bag. I was so happy with the performance of the Hydrogen for three-season backpacking that I went out and bought a warmer Marmot bag, the Lithium 0, and I haven’t so much as experienced a shiver since.

The Lithium is a premium certified water-resistant 800+ fill power goose down bag that will keep you alive in below zero temps. This minimalist design constructed from ultralight fabric features smooth, curved baffles, a multi-baffled cinchable hood, neck baffle, and snagless insulated draft tube along it’s full-length zipper. The 61-inch shoulder and 56-inch hip girth provide you enough room to move about while keeping excess fabric volume to a minimum. The bag also features a secondary fold-down zipper opposite the main to provide additional venting and a small zippered interior stash pocket. The Lithium 0 is fairly light for a zero bag at 2 pounds 9.5 ounces and packs down well due to the high-quality down and lightweight shell. The Pertex Quantum shell is windproof and water-resistant, but you’ll still need to make sure to keep the down insulation dry for optimum performance.

This bag is best suited for winter long-distance backpackers and alpine mountaineers. It comes with a mesh storage bag and stuff sack.