How much does the wind chill matter when looking at the rating of your sleeping bag?

I was finally able to try out my 10F EE Quit this past weekend and it got really windy.
I went with the Outdoor programs at my school so I had to use their tent. Some how the fly blew off twice during the night and it was pretty much a open screen tent underneath.

I'd say it got down to at least 20F before wind chill. Low said 17F looking online, but we were in a valley near a river, so not sure how much that would affect it. A cold front was coming in that night so it was fairly windy (5-25mph winds almost all night I would say.)

Long story short, I wasn't cold, but wasn't warm either. You think it was the wind that made me feel slightly cold in my quilt?

Edited by Mechrock on 03/08/2013 07:56:31 MST.

Indeed. The convective heat loss can be significant with cold wind. A bivy may have solved this issue or a shell made of wind proof fabric (Windstopper). Or a tent/tarp.

Everything you mentioned affects warmth:

wind
loss of fly
netting tent instead of solid fabric
valley (cold air settles in low spots)
river (humidity makes it feel colder)

Replacing the fly a couple of times might have warmed you up a bit from the activity.

What Daryl and David said.


Rocco, in my experience, the EE quilts are very conservative in their temp rating, so you being a little chilled isn't the quilt, but the way it was used: wind, loss of fly, etc, etc...

Also, what was your sleeping pad?

If there is any forced (wind driven) airflow against/accross your sleeping bag than yes.

Will be worse the more breathable you shell is.

I wasn't actually the one to go out and put back on the tent fly. Yeah, I was for sure warmer in the quilt than I was in my old 15F Big Agnes Grouse Down bag.

Also, now that I think about it, I think my old tent (Copper Spur 2) was warmer than when I started using my Tarptent Contrail.