Less is less, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. This is especially true when you’re carrying everything you need to live for a week on your back. In many cases, a backpacking quilt is all you need, and I’ve come to like them better than sleeping bags for all but the coldest of trips.

These quilts are not like the ones your grandmother gave you. Backpacking quilts are made of nylon and filled with down like a traditional sleeping bag, but they lie over you like a quilt, rather than wrapping you up the way a sleeping bag would. The benefit is twofold: A quilt is lighter, meaning less weight to carry in your pack, and in the right conditions, you just might sleep better too.

The Best Quilt for Ultralight Summer Trips

For summer trips, when I want to go as light as possible, Enlightened Equipment’s Revelation Quilt is my top pick. I have the 40°F version, which weighs just 19 ounces. Unlike many manufacturers, Enlightened Equipment does not do a dual temp rating of comfort and lower/extreme limit. Instead it picks a number in between and recommends on its website that most people “use a quilt 10 degrees warmer than the lowest expected temperatures.” My experience with the Revelation suggests this recommendation is solid. I’ve found the Revelation keeps me warm down to around freezing, provided I am wearing a base layer.

The Best Sleep System for Shoulder Season Trips

When the temperature dips below freezing, I turn to Zenbivy’s various sleep systems. In my neck of the woods, freezing temps can extend into June and start up in early September so I spend a lot of time in Zenbivy quilts. I’ve tested every model the company makes and part of the beauty of the Zenbivy system is you can mix and match different quilts and sheets according to what works best for you.