Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting WIGGY'S SLEEPING BAG'S

I'm not the one who spouted off about peoples opinions/experiences being viable based on locale.

No issue here.

Starting to understand why these threads get so heated, its not the equipment, its the participants!!!
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AC, you don't sound like you ever climbed Marcy in the winter. I've been on top in winds right at the 80 mph mark and have been out in weather many nights that were sub zero there. Only time I ever got the start of hypothermia was on top of Mt Washington, NH in an August snowstorm. I've also been in the AK bush. Truth of the matter is severe weather can kill you anywhere, anytime and I assure you AK doesn't have a corner on the market as you'd find out if you ever spent any time in the Montana backcountry.

Mostly I found the people that bought Wiggy's bags from our shop here in Bozeman were "hunting/survivalist/para-military" types that really weren't clued in to the climbing/backpacking world and were just making a step up from Cabela's.

The bags work well enough, no doubt. We sold boatloads of em... as I said however, there are so many solid and better choices out there why would you want to support a guy that acts like this?

Not me...

My wife, a 5th grade teacher, would give all of you a timeout. Give it a rest guys.

I'll rest when I'm damn good and ready thanks.

Its all good.

NOTE TO SELF:

Dont reply or participate in Wiggys threads!

For Sale...seriously. Where are all the Wiggy fans?

Any serious offer considered. I can send pics too.

I own a down bag and somehow survived. Those that have seen it can attest to the loft. Oh sure I only hunt and camp in the seemingly topical lower 48. Anything above or below room temperature scares me. I am working up to the mid 50's and one day with luck I will get the courage to attempt 40's. But seriously who really cares what bag someone uses. I need a better synthetic bag but want the lightest one possible that has enough room for my fat backside. The cat's meow is a fantastic bag for the temp rating but need a zero bag. Still I like the cat's meow.

Without getting into the AK versus Lower 48 debate, I think this debate really belongs in the Alaska section as most of the arguments for needing a Wiggys bag seem to be more related to camping in an Alaskan situation where the weight of the bag is less of a factor due to transportation by bush plane, float plane, boat, canoe and maybe by backpack. I have a heavy 12# large rectangular Eddie Bauer down bag, supposedly good to -40 for those times when I don't care about weight.

Light weight and compactness are a much bigger issue with backpacker-mountaineers. I lived in Fairbanks for four years after my Yukon River trip and did a lot of wilderness camping, mostly by canoe. Mostly in interior Alaska where extreme cold is a greater factor. It seems to me that the combination of slightly above freezing rain and high wind is a very specialized segment of adverse conditions and is the one situation where a synthetic bag is probably more appropriate.

I had never heard of Wiggys before this thread so I can't offer any opinion on whither his is the best Synthetic bag, but it seems like those that need that kind of bag are able to look past his questionable personality and just appreciate the bags he makes. But based on those emails Brad posted he seems like a border line jerk to me and I would look at other synthetic bags first, but if there wasn't anything as good, I might hold my nose and buy one of his, if he'd let me.

Most of the people that are complaining about the tone of this thread, simply complain about the "tone". I've been berated enough because of it. It also seems as though most of the people who hate the tone, don't seem to have had the whole history of this issue behind them.

Nonetheless, all I've tried to do was explain, specifically, what the shortcomings of this gear is as I experienced and why alternatives have not been the failures that all the fear mongering suggests.

Entirely lost on this crew, is the notion that a company owner (banned from this board) lurks through the posts here, then sends emails to individual posters accusing them of making false statements. I'm pretty sure a $1400+ order would be pretty hard to lose.

You guys can accuse me of "sitting at the kids table", but you don't want to acknowledge the goofy tactics that are used to push these bags, or the idea that someone can find faults in them.

I'm done posting anything about these guys, their gear, or their tactics (clearly, to everyone's pleasure). It's plenty good with me that they are the new favorite flavor around here; guess it runs in cyles. Learned a lot about character, though.

I think that Glacier John and Brad have hit this nail right squarely and I also agree with Chawn. The situations I have seen with Wiggy and his antics have totally turned me off from ever buying anything from him and I find his obvious lurking on this and other boards where he has been banned, seems like most of them, to be indicative of the kind of jerk he usually is.

I think that the new Kifaru Slick bag, which a charming lady at Kifaru told me two days ago, will be shipping in about 2.5 months, is likely to be the new benchmark in synthetic bags. A 0*F bag that is warm and wet-proof while weighing only 2.75 lbs. is about perfect for hunters in ANY cold, wet environment, IMO and dealing with Kifaru is a pleasure, while JW, well......

With this Slick bag, one can make up a truely "safe" bivy camp at around 5 lbs. all in, if you choose your gear carefully. That is a hell of an improvement over what we had when I started this obsession and I am pleased that Patrick and Co. have brought it out.

Well, since this is dying, should we do "down vs synthetic", "synthetic vs merino" or "pf vs crf" again?????

Chawn,

You did fine, as far as I am concerned!

Kute, as to down vs. synthetic, I'm one that has a foot frimly in both camps. My bag use over the years has been about 40/60 in favor of down. Both have their place. In cold/wet I still think synthetics are a smart choice but I've never had an issue with a down bag other than loosing loft in very cold because of not using a VBL.

Years back I had a Snow Lion (remember them) Polarguard "expedition" bag... double layered, overlapping bats, double draft tubes, collar, etc. It was temp rated a -25F ... it was a VERY accurate temp rating .

I remember vividly one very clear night sleeping out under the stars in it. I had my trusty little thermometer (my favorite backpacking side-activity is checking temps) that registered -10F... I was stripped down to my skivvies in the bag and was still too warm!

My main gripes about synthetics are:

Narrower temp range
Weight
bulk
fill longevity

I agree, but, have mostly used down and never had any real trouble, except once by forgetting my bivy.

I remember SnowLion, I bought a Paul Petzoldt PG bag at that time and it worked very well under identical conditions in the Kootenays. But, it was a bear to stuff and carry in my Synergy pack and THEN I discovered the original Marmot and that was THAT.

At present, I have four topend down bags and will ALWAYS choose one as I find them more comfortable, my synthetics are only for my emerg. day hiking pack and hunting camps.

Each to his own, but, I doubt that any synthetic will ever quite match a WM, ID, Valandre or other really top end down bag....until the social engineers have found backpacking too dangerous and outlawed it, anyway!

LOL, yeah those warm PG bags were HEVAY and bulky! I never could fit it in my Synergy Works pack, even it a compression sack. It rode on top of my Jansport D3

What a torture device the Synergy pack was, eh?

Like you, I went with an early Marmot/Goretex shelled bag and never looked back.

You and I have owned a LOT of the same gear... you'll be pleased to know my circa 1978 Early Winters first generation Goretex bivy bag is still going strong!

It's the fact that there's a lot of people who like and use the Wiggy bags but some here cannot or won't accept that fact. Glad we have so many choices but it's to bad we can't discuss things without a pissing match interupting things.

I'm with Brad. There are applications where down works very well. I think of alpine environments, high elevations, extreme cold, any precipitation is going to be snow, weight and compression critical packing, etc. Synthetic is my "when in doubt" choice. It's not idiot-proof, but it is idiot-resistant.

We have 5 systems already, had I a need for more, I'd take you up on it, but trying to buy another down bag for my wife to use on backpacks in... the W are too bulky/heavy for that.

For arrival via anything other than foot I'll take my W every time thanks.

Jeff

AlaskaCub - The point being missed is that the panic button is a whole lot harder to press up here than below the 48th. How many times have we hunkered down because there will be no pick-up today or tomorrow or until this gale has run its course?

Then the bear comes in and destroys your camp...
Then the rain turns to sleet...
You could then maybe try to start a fire with your down bag to get some warmth.

There is no such thing as "the" Alaska bush. "The Alaska bush" varies in weather pattern, elevation and temperature about as much as the difference between the Carolinas, Missouri and Montana. Just as it would be pretty vague of me to say that I've hunted in Montana before.

What's misunderstood is that you are always a day's walk or two at MAX from a road in the lower 48, and you can be a month's walk from a road in Alaska. Or, out west, get on the horse and head to the barn.

You can't just call it quits and head to the truck the way some of us hunt up here. Others up here take campers with them, on the other hand, depending on just how much of Alaska a person wants to experience at one time.

There are guides who will not take the client UNTIL he is in a Wiggy bag, so they keep them on hand. A miserable client will turn a miserable tip when his guide doesn't give up the Wiggy bag to him. I've heard stories exactly like that.

On the other hand;

I've had clients march a guide into this store to buy the guide a Wiggy bag AFTER the hunt in which they both slept, well actually only the client slept, in the rain on a mountain for a couple days.

Great to hear about your wealth of experience, AlaskaCub. It sounds like a rich bank account to draw on.

Taylor