Therm-a-Rest

Vesper Quilt: 20F Down

First time quilt user

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Size Bought:

Long

This is the first quilt I owned. I have used in 32F night and paired with high R rating sleeping pad and feel warm and cozy. It packs light and only a little larger than my 30F sleeping bag. Putting it back to the compress bag will take some effort though.

Light, with cold spots

I have used my Vesper 20 for several months now and for the most part, it does the job keeping me warm over 35 degrees. It is very lightweight and compresses down beautifully in my backpack. But if I hold it up to the light, even after a good shake, I see lots of blank spaces where down should be. I don't know if it is a characteristic of hydrophobic down to clump together like this, but it is disappointing, given how much I paid for it.

Excellent Ultralight Quilt

Compacts to 3L for Uber ultralight yet with a good pad its a great three season quilt and with extra layers and your puffy can allow you to survive a sudden early season snow storm. That’s versatility!

Did not push it to

Did not push it to its limit, but so far so good. For its size, it kept me warm.

Comfortable addition to my sleep system

Pairs great with the NeoAir® XLite™ NXT Sleeping Pad. Great system to layer. Packs small in the stuff sack. Happy with my decision to purchase. There are lower cost options if your not concerned about saving weight.

Regular is NOT long enough for a 6ft person; otherwise good

Bought a Regular based on the incorrect description the manufacturer provides. I found it clearly incorrect in that with a pad in the quilt, it can momentarily stretch to cover my shoulders but will naturally relax to cover only my upper torso, not my shoulders. So, i bought a LONG which I'm about to test. Aside from the regular size being too short (unlike any sleeping bag I've ever bought), I like the bag. It is relatively light, the sleep system relying on a pad to insulate from the ground works, and the 900 fill down insulates well. I figure the quilt will be adequate down to at least the mid-30s (assuming I'm wearing cloths as these ratings do assume). Likely lower if I use a fleece liner and a thin bivy cover around the bag. But you'd better protect your pad if you camp in prickly areas in other than warm temps, as the system assumes the pad will keep you warm on the underside.

Comfy and fluffy, but always has empty spots with no down

Fluffy and comfy, but you can see several areas where the down doesn't cover when you hold it up to light, so there are cold spots. No matter how much you try to shake it to fill in all the empty spots, it just creates other empty spots instead. It would help if the baffles were smaller.

Light, but not warm enough

I bought this quilt because it is advertised as being quite light, and was hoping that being rated at 20 degrees I could get by down to 30 degrees or so. With just a baselayer and warm hat, that was not possible for me. Mid 30s I wore a wool baselayer top and bottom, hat, and down puffy with the hood on to get by. After comparing the actual down fill weight with competitors quilts with comparable ratings, it's no surprise it didn't meet my warmth expectations. There's just not enough down in there to be a 20 degree quilt. I also had a little bit of a hard time distributing the down evenly throughout the baffles. There were quite a few spots where the inner and outer fabrics were touching with no down between them, no matter how I tried to shuffle it around evenly, it was like there just wasn't enough down. Other than that, overall build quality is decent, and I kind of like the pad attachment system, and the snap/cinch around your neck works well. I'll keep it for very mild temperatures, but going to upgrade my cooler/cold weather system.

Well tested

I've had my Vesper 20 for 3 years now, bought for late autumn to early spring escapades. I've twice used it to -6C, the second time on frozen ground that had been -10 for a week (rare in the Scottish lowlands). It was a bit marginal but I could wear my lightweight down jacket under it without stretching the down, as you would in a sleeping bag, and I was warm enough. I got the long version and I'm 185cm. I can lie completely covered by it! Used many other times in less challenging temps but in plenty of rain and condensation, and its great - drys very quickly. I don't use the straps, just throw it over me like you would a duvet. The sewn in footbox works better than the draw cord on the Cumulus quilt I also have. I might even buy another for summer!

GREAT! needs slightly larger stuff sack

LOVE IT! Light and warm with more freedom of movement than a sleeping bag. can’t get it to fit into the stuff sack that came with it, (I had other people try too) so I’m using a slightly larger one.