Dry gear guide

When down is new it certainly isnt harmed by compression Nor are the various dacron mixes in synthetic bags but it still isnt wise for long term storage. The other thing is an outdoor shop can unpack a bag several days before putting it on the rack nicely fluffed up. We dont like waiting several days for our sleeping bag to be ready to use

Even having my sleeping bag or down jacket (good quality one) compressed as much as I can possibly get it, I never have to wait long at all for it to fluff up. My routine when arriving at a hut/camp site? Set up my sleep system first. Before food, before anything. Then simply having a cuppa is enough time for everything to fluff up nicely, and usually I don't even have to worry about that. Set up, climb in has been the case on many occasions. And to clarify, whilst I expect everything to be wet except my sleep system and one set of clothes, I'm not stupid about it. I employ the same methods others have mentioned; multiple dry bags for various items inside a pack liner. And I colour-code all of the bags inside my pack. One glance tells me what's what; red is survival items/fire lighting, for instance.

Regarding the compressibility of down, backpacker.com did an experiment where they parked the wheels of a big 4WD overnight on 4 sleeping bags in their stuff sacs. One brand performed amazingly well and this inspired me to buy it: https://tramper.nz/?view=topic&id=850

Have an Aarn pack at present, doesn't or at least has't caused me any grief with wet gear as yet. Still like to have some things in their own dry bag just in case. Think I might follow Kreig with the colour coding idea.