Dropped $340 on a down quilt for the Sierra and it saved my butt on the Rae Lakes loop

Beth Clark · 2026-10-03T12:35:06.081354+00:00

I was using a 3 pound synthetic bag for years and kept waking up cold at 10,000 feet on the Rae Lakes loop. After freezing through two nights at Dollar Lake last summer, I finally bought a 20 degree down quilt for $340 from a small shop in Bishop. The thing packs down to the size of a football and weighs 22 ounces, so my base weight dropped almost 2 pounds overnight. On my next trip over Kearsarge Pass I slept warm in a t-shirt while my buddy shivered in his old bag. Worth every penny, but now I'm paranoid about getting it wet, so what are you all using for a quilt liner on wet Sierra trips?

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Dropped $340 on a down quilt for the Sierra and it saved my butt on the Rae Lakes loop | Backpacking Routes - Babble Community