Big Agnes Cross Mountain Sleeping Bag

If you aren't used to a sleeping bag, you can become frustrated by having it roll off your mattress pad. Big Agnes solves that by leaving the insulation out of the bottom of the bag and having a pocket to insert your pad into. Similarly, you can stuff a fleece or down jacket in a pocket to create a pillow. The result is a bag that sleeps comfortably - you can even roll over in it easily. The zipper design keeps out drafts. This is a great 3-season sleeping bag.

Big Agnes eliminates weight while keeping the pad attached to the bag. The pad slips into a sleeve on the bottom of the bag, and there is no padding or insulation on the bottom other than that provided by the pad. This is great for those who like to roll over at night.

The zipper is well protected inside baffles that ensure that outside air doesn't leak in through the zipper. Up at the head, there is a built-in pillow pocket - you can stuff your jacket into it to use as a pillow, or stuff a pillow into it. You can use the drawcord to further enclose yourself in the bag on cold nights.

The bag it is coated top and bottom with DWR to repel water and keep you dry from condensation in the tent or a rainstorm leaking through.

The Cross Mountain bag has Polarguard 30 fill and is good for temperatures down to 40F. For temps down to 15F, there is an Encampment bag. I found the Cross Mountain bag to be perfect for the mild temperatures you can expect at the Avon 3-Day Walks. The bag comes in both regular and large sizes.

For a pad, you can use any 20" wide pad such as a Therma-Rest, or get one of Big Agnes's REM pads. I highly recommend an insulated self-inflating pad such as those as opposed to an air mattress. One caveat - you do need a pad when using a Big Agnes bag because it lacks padding on the bottom.

Get the Big Agnes compression girdle so you can easily deflate the pad while still in the bag and then compress it down tiny to fit into your luggage.