Recently an acquaintance asked me to help him find a suitable down jacket for backpacking when nighttime temperatures could dip down to 20° F (6.7° C). He wanted a 900 or higher fill power garment because, “The higher the fill power, the warmer the garment.”
But is this true? All things being equal, not really. The most important factor is the thickness of the insulation, not fill power.
In this post I will explain fill power, insulation thickness, and the difficulty of shopping for suitable equipment because the equipment manufacturers (clothing, sleeping bags, and quilts) try to confuse us with worthless marketing instead of useful facts.
Continue reading Down Fill Power Explained — Is it an Important Measurement?
While getting ready for my next backpacking trip, I came across a Campmor zipper pull, the last of a couple dozen I bought in the ‘80s. Campmor may not be a household name for many backpackers, so I thought I would share some history. The hit single Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), was released by the British duo Eurythmics in 1983. 1983 was also the year Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker III was written. Walker III, along with Backpacker Magazine, put the mail order company Campmor on the map and in the minds of backpackers. A journey into the past. Sometimes we need to visit the past to understand the present and even predict the future. 
