Zero G Gear Apex Quilt – Reviewed & Tested

Explorer Paddy took to the New Zealand mountains with his shiny new Zero G Gear Apex Quilt – an Australian-made synthetic quilt that’s good to -1°C. Here’s how he rated it.

Who is Zero G Gear?

Zero G Gear is a one-man ultralight hiking manufacturer run by Tearloch Carr, a former pro-cyclist turned artisanal gear maker who works out of his hometown in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

His Apex Quilt is the premium offering from the Zero G Gear range when it comes to sleeping quilts, and when straight out of the box (he delivers Australia-wide courtesy of AusPost) tips the scales at around 650g.

This review explains some of the advantages that this home-grown tramping quilt offers over some of the better-known international alternatives by comparing it to an Enlightened Equipment (EE) Revelation sleeping quilt.

First Impressions

Upon taking the Apex Quilt out of the box, it’s immediately obvious this is a piece of ultralight kit. The drawcords, the toggles, and the straps to secure the quilt to the pad, are all made of very skinny, lightweight, and minimalist pieces of haberdashery – even when compared to the EE Revelation sleeping quilt. The synthetic insulation eliminates the need to sew baffles into the structure of the quilt which saves further weight and complexity, and while it’s an unusual visual look, well reflects the benefits of synthetic over down.

The Enlightened Equipment (right) shows ample creases of its baffled construction whereas the Apex Quilt (left) has a pleasingly youthful, unwrinkled look

Why a quilt? Why synthetic?

Having always used sleeping bags, I decided to buy a quilt, partly because the good oil around ultralight tramping aficionados suggests that only the most foolhardy campers would venture out with a sleeping bag. A further reason came from my friend, Simon, who’s been using the EE Revelation sleeping quilt for many years now.

Primarily, the purchase was made in contemplation of doing more fair-weather tramping in a fast and light fashion. I partly justified the $380 price tag by recalling that although I already own a -5C down sleeping bag (weight: 1.2kg), this bag has been used zero times since I moved to the Northern Territory.

Going with synthetic was also an attempt to guard against that awful experience of waking up on day two of a multi-day tramp with a soggy, cold foot box from rubbing against a damp interior overnight, knowing that the down was going to stay claggy for the rest of the trip.

This quilt, by almost halving the amount of material used in the construction (by doing away with the insulating material which would in a sleeping bag be compressed into uselessness between the sleeper’s back and their pad) saves a great deal on weight and offers more robust insulation than down – which becomes immediately useless when moist.

Comfort and Warmth

Over a three-night summer hike over the Five Passes route in the Aspiring National Park in New Zealand, the quilt performed excellently.

For an absolute novice user of quilts, (who had only bothered to assemble the sleep system in the living room of my sharehouse once prior to leaving), assembling the quilt in the field was a totally hazard-free experience that came just as naturally and efficiently as the previous system of shaking out a sleeping bag on top of a mat.

In conditions that were windy and occasionally dipped down to the mid-single digits, I never felt the draughts and escaping warmth that others had spoken about when using quilts. In part, this is a credit to the thoughtful spacing of the straps which secure the quilt to the pad as well as the generous cut to the shape – a larger overall bag means there’s more space to roll around inside before the heat can escape through a gap.

Perhaps the ultimate testament is that when put to use camped up at the Fohn Lakes (around 1,500m above sea level), I was able to sleep soundly in only a thermal top, beanie, and sleeping bag liner while my companion had a trousers, a fleece jacket, and down jacket on inside his down quilt.

The night before, when camped down in the damp beech forests straddling the Beans Burn, the quilt closures were very easy to loosen off to better cope with a relatively more humid and warm climate, and the absence of a hood worked well to cut down on what for most Australasian conditions is unnecessary bulk.

On the final night, it was put to use in an exposed rock biv without the added protection of a tent, and again performed brilliantly – the synthetic loft was more than enough warmth for a windy biv and the ability to cinch the drawcords around the shoulders and footbox was well appreciated. Pairing the quilt with a liner is probably a necessary step as it seems to limit the movement of the actual quilt without restricting the movement of the sleeper as they move from sleeping on their back to their side through the night.

Here both quilts are in their ‘deployed’ state, tightly bound to their sleeping mats to make an integrated ‘sleep system’

Lightweight Design

In something so elegantly simple, there isn’t immediately that much to distinguish the Apex quilt from any other quilt. However, Zero G’s attempt to go as lightweight as possible has resulted in a few telling and appreciated distinctions. Starting at the bottom, you can immediately appreciate that a skinnier and less heavy drawcord has been used around the foot enclosure. Tearloch has also done away with the superfluous press stud which is a complement to the zipper on the EE quilt.

The hem on the Apex is turned inside of the quilt to protect the stitching, and a chunkier, more robust YKK zip has been used when compared to the EE quilt

A major feature of the quilt system is the 1/3rd length zip which, when closed, creates a conventional bag for the sleepers feet, while leaving the top 2/3rds of the quilt essentially backless. Guaranteeing that this lower third portion stays shut is achieved by a press stud which works to take pressure off the zip slider when the foot is cinched shut.

The Apex allows one stud for this job, whereas the EE provides two – a potentially redundant and unnecessary amount of security that may cause ultralight purists to have a stroke

This backless design requires the quilt to be paired with a sleeping mat (any kind will do – closed cell foam, self inflating or air mattress) so that the straps provided with the quilt can loop around the mat and then clip the edges of the top 2/3rds of the quilt to the mattress. When executed well (and the Apex permits this to be done perfectly) the back of the mattress is co-opted into the quilt and the whole system offers a level of toasty comfort that rivals a sleeping bag at dramatically less weight.

The straps used by Tearloch are fractionally wider than those supplied with the EE quilt – I assume that they’ll retain their elasticity longer – and the clip mechanism is identical to the EE quilt (albeit fractionally wider).

The left-hand strap is Apex, and the right-hand strap is EE. Proper use requires that the mattress pass through the middle of the loop so that the clips sit either side of the mattress when it’s fastened to the quilt

Sleepers who run colder will also be reassured by knowing that the quilt can be buttoned up into a traditional sleeping bag through press studs that are adjacent to the straps. These press studs are also supplied at the shoulders to keep the neck of the quilt shut.

Press studs on the Apex are more plentiful along the side of the quilt than on the EE – a distinct advantage in cold, draughty conditions

The top of each quilt

One of the main distinctions between the two quilts comes from the drawcord arrangement on the Apex – which actually has open ends with toggles on each end to permit it to be cinched shut. The EE quilt does away with this by securing both ends of the drawcord and positioning a single toggle in the middle – roughly under where a sleeper’s chin would be.

This shows the single toggle on the EE quilt – compare with the positioning in the preceding photo to understand the differing approaches

Ability to Customise

Zero G Gear has only been up and running for a little over two years. Being an artisanal producer, the process of improving and developing their products is continual and when I wrote in to ventilate some anxieties about the potential draughtiness of the residual gap around the footbox when cinched tight, Tearloch was able to respond with some potential changes. Currently, there’s an opportunity to have an additional ‘pillow’ sewn into the foot of the quilt that’ll work to plug the small gap that always exists at the foot of the quilt when it’s cinched tight.

Another issue, although something that can easily be addressed by some minor customisation (a very straightforward and achievable feat with a small run, local producer such as Zero G Gear) arises from the size of the bag when packed and the range of Dyneema dry-bags kept in stock by Zero G Gear. I had a slightly larger (longer and wider) quilt made to accommodate my frame, and found that the extra-large dry bag was a tiny bit too snug for the customised quilt. However, as Tearloch has helpfully offered to make up a larger size bag to spec in the future – again, customers can include these requests in their purchase knowing that Zero G can accommodate.

Final Thoughts

In total, the experience not only of using, but purchasing the Apex Quilt from Zero G Gear has been a treat. The versatility and thoughtfulness of its design will see it come with me on probably all of my adventures in the future. I highly recommend those who haven’t already been won over to sleeping quilts to consider Zero G Gear when they finally are.

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