Good morning! There’s nothing better than seizing the day after a delightful night of sleep. The design team at Sea to Summit have examined all those elements that may interrupt our slumber, and the resulting system is pretty special.

This is a base camp system, separate to the lightweight systems we use for our hiking and paddling trips. The big advantage is bulk reduction. The full size pillow all but disappears when deflated, and the mattress stows away to a similarly minute parcel. 

The Basecamp sleeping bag is filled with high loft down, similar to that of mountaineering sleeping bags. It’s super warm on the coldest of nights and yet still compresses well due to the high loft properties of the down fill.

Although it takes a moment longer than simply rolling out a swag with standard mattress, time is saved by not needing tie them on the roof rack, and the benefits are – increased comfort and versatility and reduced bulk.

The mattresses are more comfortable than most, and without the standard mattress our swags roll up really small. This means we can easily bring them off the roof rack and pack them inside our vehicles – less wind drag – or more room on the roof for toys! It makes air travel with a swag easy too.

We use the same sleeping gear in our tents. So when the weather is bad, or we’re settling in for a few days with the tents, we don’t have to carry extra gear, or fish out our sleeping gear from the swags.

This sleeping bag has a really room cut. There is plenty of room to turn from side to side within the bag rather having to roll with it. There are also straps that hold it in place on the mat to stop those claustrophobia inducing tangles. 

On warmer nights you can easily zip down on both sides of the bag to cool off. We use the stretchy Sea to Summit Coolmax liners to keep the sleeping bags clean. These are also great for the hot nights.

With these bags you are investing in quality. From the ULTRA-DRY Down to the YKK zippers everything is built to perform as well as to last.

The air cell mattresses inflates quickly with the 20 litre Air Stream. The Comfort Plus model that we use is actually constructed of two completely independent layers that you inflate separately. For normal use you can inflate the bottom layer firmer, absorbing the rocks, and then the top layer can be all about comfort. In an emergency, if one layer develops a hole, it’s possible to simply inflate the remaining layer some more and head back to sleep.

Less bulk and a great nights sleep – this system is working wonderfully for us.
 

To see all the technical details head over to Sea to Summit.

Mike Collister

Founder of Adventure Curated, Mike has spent his life outdoors. He has represented Australia as a slalom kayaker, guided whitewater expeditions in Nepal, and taught outdoor education and wilderness medicine. He’s paddled the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River in the wet season, across the Bass Strait and has explored many of Australia’s remote areas by 4x4.