The Rock Front 350 Pro Ultralight Backpacking Bed combines a 900 fill power down quilt and a sheet with a pillowcase attachment to create a draft-free sleep system when combined with an inflatable sleeping pad. The result is a sleep system that will keep you toasty warm down to 36 degrees F. The integration of the quilt and the sheet uses full length zippers, draft tubes, and draft collars to marry the quilt and sheet and eliminate side drafts. Rock Front is a cottage gear manufacturer in Ukraine that makes ultralight quilts, sleeping bags, tarps, bivies, and clothing.

• Quilt weight: 605g / 21.34 oz (21.9 oz measured)
• 900 Fill Power Insulation weight: 350g / 12.35 oz
• Quilt Construction: Box baffles
• Temperature rating: (Tcomfort/Tlimit) +2°C / -4°C | 36°F / 25°F
• Sheet weight: 130g / 4.59 oz (4.7 oz measured)
• Compression sack weight: 40g / 1.41 oz
• Weight of the set (blanket, sheet, compression sack): 775g / 27.34 oz (1.71 lbs)
• Material: Ripstop nylon 10d with DWR, YKK #3 zippers
• Cost: $341
• Pros: Ingenious way of eliminating side drafts, very lightweight
• Cons: The zippers are easily snagged on the quilt shell fabric; a single zipper failure renders the system unusable.

The Rock Front Sheet covers a sleeping pad and has zippers around the perimeter which curve inward at the head end.

This is what the sheet looks like from the underside of the sleeping pad.

Side drafts

Backpacking quilts can suffer from side drafts because they’re not attached to your sleeping pad and air can sneak in along the edges and chill you. This is probably the main reason why people complain that the temperature ratings of their quilts are incorrect. Several quilt companies have come up with a variety of methods for dealing with side drafts, although most quilt companies punt on the issue completely.

For example,

• Zenbivy covers the sleeping pad with a sheet that wraps over the edge of the quilt and blocks drafts.
• Warbonnet uses side elastics that keep the sides of the quilt close to your torso.
• Katabatic Gear uses “stretchy” edges to limit side drafts.
• Neve Gear positions their quilt pad straps 18″ from the edge, creating what amounts to side draft tubes for your quilt.

Rock Front addresses the side draft problem by using zippers to connect a quilt to a sheet that covers your sleeping pad. The quilt has down-filled draft tubes that drop down over the zippers to prevent drafts from the sides, as well as draft collars at the head and foot ends.

The zippers overlap at the foot end of the sheet to help eliminate leaks.

When configuring the Rock Front sleep system, you attach the zipper teeth that that run down the sides of the quilt to the teeth on the sheet, using zipper sliders at the foot end of the sheet (see above). The top and bottom zippers overlap to help eliminate any air gaps. Getting the teeth of the quilt and sheet to connect requires some fine motor skills, although it gets faster the more you do it.

This is the interior side of the quilt. Note the draft tubes along the sizes and the draft collars at the head and foot ends.

The quilt, which Rock Front refers to as a blanket, has a drawstring footbox with a tube of down insulation along its border, much like a draft collar. That extra insulation and material completely block footbox drafts when the footbox is scrunched closed.

The draft collar at the foot ends seals out drafts.

The left and right sheet zippers curve in as they approach the head end of the blanket in order to shrink the size of the opening around the top of your shoulders and neck. The neck of the “blanket” also has a draft collar and drawstring closure. When tightened, so no air can enter or escape, the enclosed area between the blanket and the sheet becomes noticeably warmer and stays that way all night long.

The head end of the blanket also has a draft collar, with a front drawstring to cinch it closed around your neck.

Getting in and out from under the blanket is easy; you partially unzip the side you wish to exit from. But breaking down the sleep system into its component parts requires a delicate touch to avoid catching the 10d shell fabric in the zippers. You have to remember that this is ultralight gear and has to be handled carefully.

Pillow case

I haven’t mentioned the pillow case component of the backpacking bed yet. It’s connected to the top of the sheet with webbing straps and buckles, and when used, does a good job of holding a pillow in place. The long side of the pillow case is open, so you can slide your pillow inside, cinching it closed with a cord lock to prevent the pillow from sliding out.

Side view of the sheet zipper

A few more observations

• The sheet only fits certain sleeping pads and not others. Sheet-to-pad compatibility could be spelled out in greater detail in the product specs. Rock Front asked me what pad I planned to use with the Backpacking Bed when I ordered, so I’d recommend checking with them, since comments on their website indicate that certain pads are incompatible.
• The quilt has small webbing loops sewn just inside the side draft tubes, which Rock Front suggests could be used to make the quilt into a hammock underquilt. I haven’t tried that yet (I only just saw it flicking through their website photos), but it is an interesting option.
• Rock Front sells a pad attachment system that lets you use the quilt as a traditional backpacking quilt without the sheet.
• The sewing, materials, and quality of manufacture are excellent.

Recommendation

The Rock Front 350 Pro Ultralight Backpacking Bed combines a 900 fill power down quilt and a sheet with a pillowcase attachment to create a draft-free sleep system when combined with an inflatable sleeping pad. Side drafts are completely eliminated when the quilt is zippered to the sheet and the down footbox and neck draft collars are cinched tight.

While effective in this application, zippers do fail (see our article Why do Backpack and Tent Zippers Fail?) and aren’t the most reliable fastener one can use in backcountry gear. That’s really my one reservation with the Rock Front Ultralight Backcountry Bed. But if you’re willing to babysit its zippers by keeping them clean and lubricated, and replacing the sliders when necessary, then the Rock Front Backpacking bed should address your needs nicely.

Disclosure: Rock Front provided samples for review.

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