sleeping bags for winter camping or sleeping on Kilimanjaro

People often find getting a new sleeping bag a confusing and stressful task, I have been asked loads of times about sleeping bags and to be honest there is no right or wrong answer as it is a very personal thing. There are however a few things we can do to make a sleeping bag work in just about any conditions. when I have been camping at altitude for instance on Kilimanjaro or on the cairngorm plateau in winter my base sleeping bag is a Rab Alpine 600 which I find to be warm enough in almost every condition that I have found myself in. should I find myself feeling cold I top up my bad by pulling my down jacket inside and using it as a floating blanket inside my sleeping bag. My partner prefers to use a synthetic 3 season bag with a light 1 season bag inside she will argue that not only is this a cheaper option but reduces dead air spaces within the bag. My opinion although she is right I feel the increased weight penalty of carrying two synthetic bags around is not justifiable when there are lighter options. I am not being obsessive about weight for nothing as you will read shortly.

Something that a lot of people don't give sufficient thought about in my opinion is their sleeping mattress. I always use a Thermorest Trail Pro the extra thickness gives much better insulation from the cold ground than thinner mattress and it levels out little humps and bumps that little bit better. unfortunately there is a small weight penalty for the extra thickness but I argue if you are going to all the bother of insulating above what is the point of having a cold back! there has been a few arguments at night between my partner and I as she try's to steal my mattress during the night as she has been suffering from the cold due to the conductive properties of the ground through a thinner mattress. The temperatures have used this setup range from -18C in Scotland to -20C on Kilimanjaro.

Something that I always do and others have laughed at me for this but before I go to bed I run round the tent a few times just to get some heat up but not enough to start sweating just as if you do this you will quickly warm up when you get into your sleeping bag.

I will stop there as I fear I might make more questions than answers