12 Pound Ultralight Challenge: Sleeping Update

Boy, did I sleep well! With well being a relative term, used to describe waking up chilled and then enjoying the sounds of the nearby freeway.

I slept through most of the night, but during the predawn time, I woke up a lot. First time I woke up my legs were cold. There was no pad under my legs and no pants on. So I put some extra clothes underneath my legs and put on my wicking pants.

Next time I woke, my upper body was cold, so I put on my long sleeve wicking shirt.

Anytime I woke up after that I just toughed it out. I played a little muscle tightening and relaxing game to warm up and eventually I feel back asleep.

With that being said, the night was a success! With just a few minor changes, this will work.

The first change from the original plan, that I actually did last night, is I replaced the emergency blanket with an emergency sleeping bag. I figured this would be a better route to go because the e-sleeping bag would not fall off me.

As for the changes from what I did do last night:

1. I'll wear my fleece and my wicking pants to bed. The wicking pants will add 5 ounces in weight. The fleece will add zero ounces, because I will be bringing it anyway. The fleece should be okay to sleep in, since the only time I will be wearing it will be in the evening and I won't be doing any actual physical activity in it. I'll be leaving my long sleeve wicking shirt at home.
2. Wearing my fleece to bed means I loose my pillow. I'll put my clothes that I'm not wearing (other than my zip-offs) in my stuff sack and use that as a pillow.
3. I'll put my zip-offs and my rain gear under my legs where my pad ends. This will provide a little extra insulation between my legs and the ground. I would like to use my pack for this, but my pack will not fit in my bivy.
4. I'm going to put the emergency sleeping bag inside of my sleeping bag liner instead of outside it. This will hopefully accomplish two things. One is that the emergency sleeping bag could do a better job of retaining my body heat. The other is that it will reduce the amount of airspace, since the emergency sleeping bag is larger than the sleeping bag liner.

Updated Recap (sleeping does not include the weight of the wicking pants, that will be covered in clothing):

• Sleeping System Total Weight: 24.5 (12.8) (a reduction of 18.1 oz)
• Shelter Weight: 26.6 (13.9%)
• Total Weight So Far: 51.1 (26.6%)
• Remaining Weight: 140.9 (73.4%)