Hyperlite Mountain Gear 20 Degree Quilt Review

The Hyperlite Mountain Gear 20-Degree Quilt is an easy-to-use ultralight backpacking quilt insulated with premium DWR-treated 1000 fill-power grey goose down. It’s a basic quilt with a closed-foot box, neck drawstring, 2 pad attachment straps, lightweight fabric, and baffled construction. It’s unique in that it uses 1000 fill power down, but is significantly more expensive than comparably specced 900 and 950 fill power quilts such as the Enlightened Equipment Enigma, the Hammock Gear Premium Burrow, and the Zpacks Solo Quilt.

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Specs at a Glance

• Temperature Rating: 20F | -7C
• Weight: 20.10 oz. | 570 g
• Gender: Unisex
• Shoulder Width: 58″
• Length: 72″ (66″ and 80″, also available)
• Footbox: Sewn
• Zipper: No
• Draft Collar: No
• Pad Straps: 2
• Colors: Silver w/ black liner
• Down Fill Weight: 14 oz
• Shell and liner: 7D Micro Ripstop Nylon

The Hyperlite Mountain Gear 20 Degree Quilt is a backpacking quilt that’s insulated with DWR-treated 1000 fill-power grey goose down. It’s made with a very lightweight and breathable 7D micro-nylon ripstop shell and interior liner that feels silky against the skin.

Down Insulation

Fill power measures the lofting power of goose down which is its ability to trap air. To measure fill power, one ounce of down is compressed in a small glass cylinder. When the weight is removed, the down’s ability to spring back can be measured.  Down with a higher fill power rating is more resilient to compression, lofts better, and can trap more air.

That said, 1000-fill power is the best fill power down money can buy. But how much better is it than 900 or 950 fill power down? The difference is pretty negligible in terms of warmth, compressibility, and weight at these fill powers, besides the obvious wow factor of having a 1000-fill power-down quilt. When shopping for quilts, we recommend weighing other performance factors such as features more since they’re likely to have a more serious impact on performance and comfort.

For example:

• foot box – sewn or drawstring
• draft collar
• differential cut
• side elastics (also called dynamic tension control)
• box baffling vs sewn through
• pad attachment system – ease of use, reliability
• width – regular or wide
• overstuff (good for humid climates)
• fabric weight
• fabric colors

Quilt Features

The 20-degree quilt has vertical baffles over the chest and horizontal ones over the footbox to keep the down where you want it. The footbox is sewn shut, which means you can’t vent it if you get too warm. People commonly get drawstring foot boxes at this temperature rating so they can use the same quilt in warmer weather or open it up like a blanket, but if you sleep cold a closed footbox is the way to go because it eliminates any chance of cold leakage.

The quilt comes bundled with two optional pad attachment straps that loop around your sleeping pad (inflatable pads work best with quilts). The sides of the quilt attach to the top of the pad attachment straps to keep the quilt on top of you at night. You can also slide the sides of the quilt closer along the pad attachment straps so they lie closer to your body: this helps reduce the amount of dead air under the quilt that you have to heat up so you stay warmer.

The neck of the 20-degree quilt has a small low profile buckle that snaps closed behind your neck and a drawstring at the neckline above your chest so you can cinch it tight and prevent heat from escaping. I usually just slide in and out of the quilt from the top rather than releasing any of the pad attachment straps lower down.

The quilt does not have a draft collar or the option to add one which is a highly desirable feature at this temperature rating. A draft collar eliminates any gaps between your neck and upper chest and the top of a quilt, much like a scarf at the top of a winter coat. The assumption is that you’ll wear a warm puffy when using the 20-degree quilt in cooler weather to compensate for the lack of a draft collar, as it will fill in any gaps around the neckline.

The 20-degree quilt is available in one color: silver with a black liner. Both are made with a very lightweight 7d micro-nylon ripstop which is comfortable against the skin but is very easy to tear if it comes into contact with a zipper. You’ll want to pack this quilt in a stuff sack like the side release stuff sack it comes with and not one of Hyperlite’s packing pods, which do have zippers.

Recommendation

The Hyperlite Mountain Gear 20-degree quilt is an ultralight backpacking quilt that is insulated with DWR-treated 1000-fill power RDS-certified grey goose down. It’s designed for 3 season backpacking with a solid but basic feature set making it ideal for first-time quilt buyers who want to switch from a sleeping bag to a quilt because it is lower weight, easier to pack, or more comfortable for side sleepers. Make no mistake, this is a premium quilt that will keep you cozy, warm, and comfortable but it lacks some of the features and options that other quilt makers, who specialize in making backpacking quilts offer. Those features offer more flexibility across a wider temperature range, more sizing options, and more color choices.

While the 1000 fill power DWR-treated down that the 20-degree quilt is insulated with is nothing to sneeze at, it’s really not significantly better than the high-end 900 or 950 fill power down used by other backpacking quilt manufacturers. When shopping for a backpacking quilt, we recommend carefully considering the features that are most important to you as these will most likely have a more significant impact on performance and ease of use.

Disclosure: Hyperlite Mountain Gear donated a quilt for this review.