Hi, in November I am leaving for 3 weeks in Nepal, and will be trekking to Mera Peak on an organised commercial trek sleeping in tents the whole way. The base camp is 5800 m I believe, while the first night of the trek will be down around 2800 m. Rather bizarrely when I researched the minimum November night temperatures for Lukla (the nearest town to the first night) some references suggest 0 C, others -10 C. Go figure!

I am a somewhat cold sleeper and am pretty much sold on the Mountain Hardwear Wraith bag, as I do like their gear, and I'm hoping it will be easy enough to send out to where I live in Australia. I feel it would be a good bag for the higher elevations, and I've heard people using the bag for Everest Base Camp with good reports. What I'm really concerned about though is what it will be like at the lower elevations, and if I'd just roast in it? While the trekking company can supply a bag as part of the organisational package, for obvious reasons I'd prefer to be sleeping in my own gear. While I'm quite comfortable in day hikes and have spent a lot of time in the snow, I'm a complete novice when it comes to tent camping. Nothing like throwing one's self in at the deep end I guess I asked the trekking company about bringing this bag, and they replied it was "a good bag", not exactly a wealth of information there, hence why I thought I'd seek other opinions. At my job I sometimes sleep in bunks not dissimilar to berths on smaller boats, and normally sleep in a silk sleeping bag liner. I would expect to be using that in Nepal too.

Thanks in anticipation of the help with this. If the opinion is that it's NOT the best choice for this purpose, I'd prefer if possible that comparisons might be made from the Mountain Hardwear range. The reason is I'm reasonably familiar with their range, and it may possibly save confusion that may arise if myriad more brands are introduced that I then have to figure out what the temperature rating is of their bags etc etc.

Cheers,
Pete

What I'm really concerned about though is what it will be like at the lower elevations, and if I'd just roast in it?

Just unzip the bag and use it as a blanket if it's too warm, plus unzip the tent door/windows (if you are staying in a tent). Standard mountaineering procedure.

Thanks Scott, I used to find when using my current bag (no idea what it's rated at as it was custom made for me, but it was a very good bag in its day) in conditions where it was far too warm, unzipping it just led to me freezing my nuts off where it was unzipped, while continuing to roast away elsewhere. That is a mummy style though not even as contoured as something like this MH bag. Sorry it may seem like a pretty obvious solution, but keep in mind that it's been many years since I've done this type of thing. I just have not such pleasant memories of nights with my bag fully unzipped trying not to over-bake and rolling during the night (I normally sleep on my side) to have my butt collect popsicles, while my other side sweltered. Admittedly they were probably conditions where the bag was a really bad match to the conditions. I recall it being bad enough for the occasional nights but it would just be miserable if I had 3 weeks of that. I'm guessing something like the MH Wraith wouldn't be such a mismatch to the conditions I described, and I could pretty easily control the temp?

Pete