Sleeping Bag - or - Wool Blanket

I follow several outdoor sites, some are back packing, some are survival/bushcraft, some camping.

It seems that some folks live and die by a 100% wool blanket, and others never or rarely mention one. The wool blanket crowd will tout that it holds 80% of its heat even when soaking wet.
I can see that my Marmot down bag would not do that, but at the same time why would I let it get soaking wet in the first place??

A Sil Tarp, sleeping bag & pad, combination are, going to weight about the same as a Heavy wool blanket (not an 80/20 nock off), if not less. So where is the great value, or draw back of either??

I'm just trying to get a good fix on the two schools of thought.. What are you guys thoughts??

Even a relatively cheap sleeping bag is superior to a wool blanket. There is no comparison. A down bag is incomparably superior. If you are paying attention, you will not let your down bag become wet. It happened to me exactly once in hundreds of nights spent in tents.

A woo; blanket is very traditional and it is certainly better than nothing.

If you can put up with the slightly greater size and weight, a good synthetic sleeping bag is hard to beat. It will keep you warm like a down bag, but will insulate even when damp like wool.

I just added a synthtic sleeping bag to my office kit. It seems both comfyier and warmer. I keep one of each (synthetic bag and wool blanket) my trunk and take both camping. I always sleep in my bag and put the wool blanket on top for extra warmth. That said, I wear a wool blanket around the campfire and it's nice and toasty in the winter.

How easy it is to keep a down bag dry depends a lot on what sort of climate one is camping in. In dry areas it is easy enough to keep a bag dry. Likewise in very cold cold areas like the arctic or high mountains. In coastal forests, such as one finds in the Pacific NW, BC, and coastal Alaska, keeping dry is a lot more challenging.

In those situations, no matter how carefull one is, over the course of a camping trip gear gets progressively damper and damper. Transitioning from outside the tent wearing wet raingear to getting into the tent always brings in at least a few droplets. Condensation inside the tent is also an issue. Wind blowing rain into the entrance when entering or leaveing the tent can be a real pain. Really strong winds can blow rain up under the fly, and be a serious issue. Snow camping in relatively mild conditons (at or just below freezing) is also a situation where it is hard to keep dry.

For all of the above reasons, I have almost entirely gotten rid of down gear and replaced it with synthetic. Synthetic insulated gear is also generally less expensive, and easier to maintain. Where one can be sure that it won't get wet, down has its virtues. It is lighter weight, and stuffs more compactly than synthetic.

Wool blankets are good insulation, but tend to be heavy. They work OK for in a car kit or other situation where one doesn't need to backpack them.

Synthetic bag, hands down. add a tarp and a pad. Wool is less warm for its weight. Much less.

I've experienced the condensation issue with a down sleeping bag, on a 7 day hike across the Bailey Range in the Olympics, through alot of rain and humidity I picked up probably 4 pounds of condensation in a ~4 lb down bag. And I was definitely sleeping colder at the end of that trip than I was at the beginning, too. Still, the best solution to 'de-condensating' the bag was alot of airing out, and a few overnighters in the much drier and warmer Eastern Washington. I don't think that bag suffered any permanent ill effects, like down clumping or loss of insulation value.

Judging by your avatar, you have an ATV and you camp in northern boreal forests. Wool blankets are OK in milder weather when in apark using cots and a tent, but I would advise a sythetic sleeping bag of the proper size and weight for the expected conditions when in the big woods. Cotton duck cover, flannel lining, and hollo-fill insulation works for me. I do carry a good wool blanket in each of my vehicles for emergencies.

During winter/cold weather hikes/camping,I wear silk for my 1st layer with merino wool socks/gloves,Merino wool or fleece for the 2nd layer,& 3rd usually a Polyester or Nylon shell/pants of some kind,having a wool parka/mittens for back-up stowed in pack.Synthetic mummy bag(hollow-fill) for sleeping under my vulcanized military poncho w/woobie.I used to have a Woods down bag many yrs ago,It got wet twice for the many yrs I used it,I can still recall those 2 trips vividly!As I age,I still have no problem humping 40+lbs as a standard,a small price for comfort-IMHO!If you are wearing wool while sleeping,there is no need for feathers.

I presume that you are referring to Dave Cantebury and his Wilderness Outfitters video's - amongst others?

Wool blankets have their place. Particularly if you are using a fire to keep warm.
Under most circumstances a synthetic sleeping bag of the appropriate rating is the better choice. Except around an open fire, where there is a risk of sparks igniting the bag.
The big issue that I have with the wool blanket idea is that it presumes that ability to make and maintain a fire.

They are also heavy and have a rather high volume to weight ratio. I am sure that most of you have watched the You Tube videos of someone being cold water immersed and then struggling to get and stay warm whilst drying - or trying to - their clothing out. I am sure that one is not the only person who considers it better to put extra clothing in a dry bag? That way if you do have the misfortune to suffer an immersion event, you can strip off the wet clothing and don dry immediatly. Which vastly improves your chances of avoiding a hypothermal event.

I was thinking of buying some wool blankets for backup emergency use. Lighter, higher-tech stuff is probably better for backpacking and planned excursions. When I was younger I was more into high-tech outdoor gear. Now my adventures are more modest.

And for the more mundane (but more common) around the town things, I prefer the lower-tech. Around town I don't wear expensive down jackets and the latest in breathable raingear. I wear good 'ol Carhartt coats. Tough as nails, very warm, highly water resistant, easily washable, horse hair doesn't get all embedded in them, ... just all around rock solid. But Carhartt stuff is not lightweight (which doesn't matter around town). I think of wool blankets like Carhartt coats. Low tech, heavy, but for common needs, hard to beat.

Carhartt is good stuff. No question about that.

Synthetic sleeping bag all the way. Down comforter for my bed at home. I have a wool blanket but never use it.

As far as clothing goes, I love my down vest. But almost all my stuff is synthetic, except for my wool socks and silk longjohns.

Different tools for different jobs IMO. I own down bags, synthetic bags, fleece sleeping bags, fleece blankets & wool blankets.

One nice thing about the fleece or wool blankets is that they store relatively compactly for long periods of time. I'm reluctant to compress a good sleeping bag for months at a time in order to keep it in the car without taking up half the trunk. I can keep a couple of inexpensive fleece sleeping bags (or wool blankets) in the trunk using the same amount of space that one synthetic sleeping bag would occupy. Now, when it gets really cold I'll throw a down or synthetic bag in the trunk but I won't keep it compressed too long without giving it a break and lofting it back up.

did a five day float down the Snake River years ago. weather was cold with flurries at night. we were constantly getting wet.

being a traditionalist i chose wool clothing, believing it could keep me reasonably warm when damp. so did a couple of buddies. we felt great in our expensive wool Filson gear.

others in the groups trusted synthetics (like polar fleece and gortex), usually in very fugly colors too.

well, did we learn!

we wool guys were stinking miserable the whole time, close to hypothermic. wind cut thru our clothes and they never dried in the least. we were cold and wet, day and night.

those we had laughed at seems comfortable the entire trip. in fact, when fully soaked, they just took off their gear, wrung it out, put it back on, and were warm again in minutes.

i came home and traded off my wool gear.

best i can say about wool is it's tough, fire-resistant, quiet and doesn't pick up body-odors as badly. but when it comes to cold/wet survival, i'm into man-made clothing now. and the same would go for sleeping gear: a synthetic bag over a wool blanket, any day.

The only advantages I think of a wool blanket is durability and fire resistance. They are near indestructible and heat resistant, but other than that, when it comes to weight,size or price, or comfort a fleece blanket or cheap $20 sleeping bag will beat it by a long shot. Either wool, fleece, or a synthetic sleeping bag can insulate when wet, but with wool, you'll be waiting 5x longer for it to dry. And if you have ever tried hand washing a down sleeping bag in a bathtub, you'll find out that it's not that easy to get it soaking wet. It takes a real effort to get the insulation saturated, since the shell is usually designed to be pretty water resistant. You could completely submerge it for 10 seconds then shake off the water, and chances are it will still be dry.

I do like merino wool for base layers, because it's true that it won't stink (as bad) after days of wearing. But that quality probably isn't very important in a blanket.

As I said above, I pretty much go all synthetic these days. The one exception is that I find I really like the "Smartwool" underwear tops and bottoms. I find it very comfortable against the skin, in smells better, and is warm. Because it is very thin, it seems to dry reasonably quickly, though not quite as fast as synthetic. The one drawback is that it is rather expensive.

(The usual disclaimer that I have no connection to the Smartwool company...yada...yada..yada.)

I have switched over to mostly wool clothing for traveling primarily because of the stink factor, but fire resistance is an added benefit. I've only tried a couple of different brands, but so far I like the Icebreaker brand. It is expensive, which is why I don't have much, but if I'm patient I can find them on sale for about the same price as synthetics. Also, I've read that wool can absorb 30% of it's weight before it actually "feels" wet, whereas some synthetics always feel clammy. I have noticed this before on wool shirts, the shirt will feel dry against the skin, but you can always tell when wool is wet because it gets HEAVY.

I don't know how well we can extrapolate from merino wool clothing to blankets, I'm assuming that it will share many of the same properties.

I forgot to mention that a fleece blanket really works better paired up with some sort of nylon/polyester shell to add some wind/water resistance. Otherwise it blocks wind about as well as a screen door.

I bought an Icebreaker wool T-shirt on sale recently and really like it. Haven't used it in a damp environmet yet but it does dry quickly and doesn't stink. Seems the thin wool/synthetic blend works very well.

The wool blanket works,& it works real good.It has proven itself for a lot longer than any other fabric including silk!I personally wouldn't wear wool canoeing a fast river,I would have it stowed away for use off of the water & like everything else wool or not,normally you are going to do your best to stay dry,if it's raining you break out the poncho or rainsuit,doesn't take a scholar to figure that out!Many people have frozen to death with wool blankets but the majority of people have survived with the same wool blankets!Many of us are here today because of wool blankets,they definitely will alway's have a place amongst us!

I like to check out www.nwwoodsman.com, and I have spent a fair amount of time over at Dave Canterbury's site www.wildernessoutfitters.com (Great info there). I appreciate the teaching and passing on of primitive skills, or as Canterbury puts it "the tribal knowledge". I get that, its cool, its pracitcal, and its fun! Having said that part of being practical is acknowledging when something better comes along.. IMO anyway.
I like ferro rods, but I carry a lighter too, and use it as a first option.
I just never could get my mind around carrying a 4-6 lb wool blanket, when I could carry a sil-tarp, and down bag?? I can still light a fire if I need to... I thank all of you for your comments and thoughts, and for confirming that I am not just being naive on the subject.. Keep your comments coming, this is fun..

A four to six pound blanket.....really? For six pounds these days , you can get a fully enclosed tent and a separate bag that will give you comfortable, if not luxurious, shelter that will be good down to zero degrees or thereabouts.

I have been around long enough to appreciate the advantages that some new technologies give to the outdoors enthusiast. There are times and situations where "the old ways are best," but they are fairly rare and unusual.

Does Canterbury still use hemp rope for climbing, along with alpenstocks and candle lanterns?

No he's making candles out of deer talow & turtle shells... lol

I would not choose a wool blanket over a good sleeping bag for backpacking, but I would never discount the effectiveness of a good wool blanket. When I was a young infantryman (long, long ago) we did not get issued rucksacks. We had our Load Bearing Equipment (LBE) with a butt pack. We did get issued the old, heavy mummy sleeping bag. The problem was that the sleeping bag could not be effectively carried attached to the LBE. What many of us did was construct a modular, layered package for sleeping. If you start from the ground and move toward the body, it consisted of a poncho, Space Blanket, wool blanket and then a poncho liner. This could be rolled and attached much like you see in old WW I movies or even like a Civil War bedroll, draped over one shoulder. You could also roll other things up in it for easier packing. Our commander's concept was that rucksacks get packed full, and that makes it heavy and slows the soldier down. He wanted us moving as light as possible. While not the warmest or most comfortable, it did work for even near zero temperatures. Not a first choice, but an option. Of course, with the newer technologies in sleeping bags, this bedroll would actually be heavier.

Some of us can not get a decent rest in a sleeping bag (too constrainingand limits movement, etc) Depending on weather I use quilt/blankets for sleeping.
I find a wool blanket much more flexible and add layers as necessary to keep warm.

My first experiences with a mummy bag were a bit awkward. I felt constrained, etc., but after just a few nights I got over it. The greater warmth of a mummy, particularly with respect to weight, makes it well worth making the transition. I now sleep like a baby in a mummy bag and have done so for decades. Nothing else comes close when you look at warmth/weight ratios.

I haven't done cold weather survival yet, but I have researched it some, and this is what I have gathered, YMMV. There are trade offs here. The wool blanket is heavy, but if you use it as Canterbury does, it also doubles as a pack and cloak, spreading its weight around. The main advantage of using a wool blanket is that you can use it in conjunction with close proximity to a warming fire. The fire is great, as it will dry you if you are wet, and is relatively quick to set up, but requires alot of work in the form of wood gathering, and maintaining the fire, and some knowledge of firecraft and site selection, also a problem if the wind changes. A passive shelter, is generally more bulky, harder to set up, less comfortable, harder to keep dry in, but more wind resistant, rain resistant, and properly done, can survive colder temps. If I had my way, I would try to do both methinks, first a warming area with fire, and then a nearby insulated shelter in case the weather turned nasty.

Some thoughts,

C. Rowe

I can tell you from personal experience, that if you have a warming fire, you don't need a blanket at all, although a reflector of some sort comes in handy. Above timberline and in similar places, warming fires are hard to come by.

It is quite true that sleeping bags, generally constructed with nylon cloth or similar, don't go well with the sparks and embers generated by a fire.

My personal view is that an open fire, other than for emergencies, is an environmental no-no and all too often an accident waiting to happen. This varies a bit depending upon the location.

I use a wool blanket with my sleeping bag...

When hammock camping in the cooler seasons I put the wool blanket under my sleeping bag to compensate for the compression of the bag's loft.

When winter camping I use the blanket instead of or in addition to my sleeping pad.

Coldest I have been out in is -21F, in a tent.
From the ground up - Thermarest, Wool Blanket, winter mummy bag, summer mummy bag inside, with a fleece liner inside that. I was comfy and did not even melt the snow under my tent.

Don't put the blanket over your sleeping bag though... That was a very uncomfortable night.