TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Review
The TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight quilts are quite possibly an actual game-changer in the hammock and UL backpacking community. The lightest of the lightest just got lighter! Trailheadz has quickly become a name synonymous with the lightest UL hammock gear in the hammock cottage community. SPOILER: These quilts are AMAZING!
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Gears Rating
You pay a premium for these quilts and with good reason. I’ve not found any quilts that check off as many boxes as the Ethereal’s do for those who are looking to get the lightest gear out there.
Where To Buy TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt
TrailHeadz.com or you may find one used on eBay
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt First Impressions
When John at TrailHeadz contacted me touting some crazy performance numbers on a new UQ design that he’s been working with I was, I’ll admit, a bit skeptical that a 16oz (1 pound) quilt would keep me warm down to 20°. The weekend that I was informed that the quilts were ready for shipping was smack dab in the middle of the USPS losing every package under the sun. So, instead of letting this happen to these mythical quilts, I drove the 6.5 hours north to the Trailheadz Farm to pick them up and test them out in Ohio in December. Just in case, I brought along my proven Cedar Ridge Outdoors Quilts as a backup. Getting the quilts in my hands I was speechless. They are incredibly light, to the point that it doesn’t seem possible that they will achieve the rated temps. They are very lofty and quite plush. The new .49 fabric from Dutchware is comparable to the softest silk that I’ve had in bedsheets. Within a couple of minutes under the quilts, I knew I was in for a nice warm winter of sleeping.
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Setup
The quilts are pretty typical as far as builds. The Ethereal baffles on the topquilt run horizontally while the under quilts baffles run vertically. The KAM snaps are reinforced due to the lightweight nature of the fabrics to facilitate ease of snapping and unsnapping. The biggest design feature that made me take a second look is that the underquilt does not run a typical primary suspension. Because of how light the quilts are it’s not a needed feature.
The quilts are built with 1000FP Hyperdry down. This is the highest Fillpower of down that I’ve seen used in quilts. It is extra fluffy and has become known as Unicorn Furr.
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Specs
- .67 10D Nylon Taffetta Inner
- .49 7D Nylon Taffetta Inner
- .5 NoSeeum Baffles
- RDS – Responsibly Sourced Down
- 1000FP HyperDry Grey Goose DownTopQuilt- 76 in x 54 in
- Underquilt- 76 in x 43 in
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Field Test Results
The first night of any real cold temps here in Carolina was Christmas night. Against my wife’s desires, I climbed into the rig in my backyard the temp was 22° according to my Kestrel Drop. About an hour into the night the temps were in the high teens and I was stripping off my base layer. According to my Suunto Traverse watch which I had laying on my chest sensor towards the sky it was 95°. By the next morning, it was 12° outside and windy in the backyard and I was not cold! Over the past couple of months, I have easily taken these 20° quilts regularly down to the low double digits. I haven’t been below 10° yet.
On my last trip a heavy rainstorm and my drip lines were overrun by the amount of rain. Both quilts are soaked, and I mean WET! I wasn’t cold, but I was quite grumpy. The way the rest of the trip went my Ethereal quilts then spent 4 days compressed in a 13L Granite Gear compression sack. Needless to say, this is by no means the way that you should treat UL gear. Let alone gear that has developed the nickname of “Unicorn Furr”. I took the quilts out back at the house and let them hang dry. After an hour I decided to toss them into the dryer. Within 10 minutes on delicate, no heat, and with some dryer balls, the quilts were back to tiptop shape. The shells and the down being DWR coated really help keep the down from wetting out, but stored wet in a compression sack was too much.
Now things aren’t all rainbows and unicorns with these quilts. They are not cheap. As with all ultralight gear, extra care needs to be taken. The fabric will not hold up to abrasions like other more robust fabrics. The ability for the “unicorn furr” down to loft is a sort of double-edged sword. While it poofs up better than any other down I’ve seen. It’s also near impossible to compress it loosely in the bottom of a backpack and have the quilts stay compressed while packing the rest of your gear on top of it. This is why I started using the Granite Gear compression bag.
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Pros
- Weight
- Compression
- Loft
- Quickly Warming
TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Cons
- Packability
- UL Gear- This means more care needs to be taken
- Price
Final TrailHeadz Ethereal Ultralight Quilt Thoughts
via Gear Report at https://gear-report.com
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