Down Home Sleeping Bags

Could be wrong, Pitter, but I think they're long gone. Are you looking for a bag to meet specific requirements?

Thanks. No I still have two of their bags. The first one they made for me in 1986. Just wondering if they were still around.

Stephenson Warmlite is still up in Vermont or somewhere like that.

ahhh sleepin bags, we used ta call em "Fart Sacks"

I seldom use military nomenclature these days.

Roger funny you mention that. I also have a light blue Warmlite 2R.

Hah! So do I Pitter, with drop front and side windows. The drop front in invaluable for sticking in sleeping bag and the other bulky stuff.

I'm going to admit that I love the tent and the converta pants, but the bag was just too complicated to work with in the middle of a dark night.

Wow there can't be many of us! I love mine for the huge space and light weight. Everything fits inside for those stormy nights. I sent it back once for a re-coat and it was a lot more waterproof afterwards. Used it all over the Wind River Range. I don't think any tent maker to date has bettered Stephenson's space to weight ratio. That three layer bag would have been way too heavy for me to shlep around.

Exactly. I use a Marmot bag (forget the model) that opens as a double bag with a zip in ground sheet. The air matress goes inside the bag so you can't fall off, and I wear longies and a watch cap at night. That's in the San Juan section of the southern rockies. Obviously, the wind river range is cooler, but I've never spend a night in the mountains without frost on the outside.

"Frost on the outside" now that's what I really miss. My Down Home bags have a beautifully designed hood that you can close down leaving just a small air hole for your nose on the coldest nights. Problem for me now-a-days is I'm in a country where you can't just trapse off to the mountains where the frost is because the damned guerrillas will get you but I sure do miss it.

As to other obscure (cult) backpacking gear makers there was that German or Austrian family in the East that made custom hiking/backing boots. Can't rember their name.

Don't know where you ran accross Stephenson's. My introduction was through the 1970 Whole Earth Catalog.