For comfort alone i could not do that. Some can. Not me. A comfortable place to sleep is THE biggest luxury on the trail. It’s important to be comfortable. I took a neoAir torso length and a torso length GG evazote 1/8 inch to go under it for more warmth, but mainly protection for the neo air and a something to lay or sit on during breaks. It’s really nice to have a foam pad for laying down on during breaks!!! When you don’t want to inflate your air mattress.
It was a nice UL dual pad setup, with my food bag and backpack under my lower legs. I still got a couple holes in my air pad, so having the foam pad helped when i had a slow leak that i had trouble locating for a few days until i had access to a pool of water to put it underwater in to look for the bubbles from the pin hole puncture! I patched it and was good.
I now use the neo air winter / 5.7 r / 4 season full length pad and love it! No punctures, even on some sketchy rocky ridge bivy setups.
I did a gossamer gear evazote 1/8 in pad torso length and a thermarest neoair torso length. It worked well. I had the exazote for rest stop to lay down and it protected my neoair from punctures and added some warmth
About 12oz between the two
I bought an old version of a Thermarest Neoair XTherm and while I am not too bothered by the sound it makes, I find it somewhat uncomfortable. I’m not sure if there’s a slow leak? Or maybe it deflates a bit due to the drop in temps overnight.
It’s more to do with the baffles and “falling off” the sides. I’m a big guy and it’s a large (mummy).
Sea2Summit seem to be clearing out their pads at the moment so I got a deal on a Ultralight Insulated pad. I’ve only slept on it a couple times but find it much more comfortable. However the R-Value is only 3.1
I mostly camp in shoulder seasons in Canada so it should be fine. I will keep the Xtherm for any future winter camping.
The Ether Light insulated is R 4.1, and the Pro version is over 7. So maybe worth checking those out.
The teal-green / purple Therm-a-Rest that was sold from the late-1980s into the early-1990s was the “Ultralite” series (sometimes just called the “Therm-a-Rest Ultralite 3-Season”).
• Nominal thickness: 1 in / 2.5 cm
• R-value printed in the catalogs of the day: ≈ 3.0–3.1
If you were to test the same pad today with the current ASTM F3340-18 protocol, the value would come out a little lower—about 2.4 – 2.6—because the modern test is stricter and reports lower numbers for the same amount of insulation.
EN1355 Sleeping bag rating are determined using an ~R5 pad and that is a minimum R-Value for winter camping to achieve the warmth rating of your sleeping bag.
The latest Thermarest XTherm NXT/NXT MAX models boast an R-value of 7.3, providing excellent warmth, while older models (like the original XTherm) had an R-Value of 6.9.
The Therm-a-Rest LuxuryMap sleeping pad (mentioned below) has an R-value of 6.0.
also upgraded to the tensor all season from the old version of the thermarest xtherm. Side sleeping is so much more comfortable now, its not even close.
I understand that a cross-section of ultralight, warm and comfortable is asking a lot, especially with 3 terms with subjectivity and openness to interpretation, so I am willing to stretch my requirement of "ultralight", within reason. I backpack in the Northeast (Adirondack high peaks, Catskills, etc.) and generally sleep colder than average. I am warm on a Reg Wide X-therm MAX, but wake up sore. I am comfortable on many other pads in the weight range of this pad, but am cold on all I've tried below freezing. Are there any pads that strike the balance like the X-therm, but are a bit more forgiving with comfort?
The problem I have had in my search, is that R-value is basically useless for sleeping pads. I tried the Neoloft and was cold at 45F, and I tend to camp as low as 15-20F on occasion (down to -10C). Apparently this is due to convective heat loss and the side walls basically hemorrhaging body heat, which isn't really captured by current R-value testing. It appears many other manufacturers are exploiting this gap in R value testing and releasing pads with no way to mitigate sidewall heat loss, just to get that shiny R value number at the lowest weight without regard for real world warmth. I tried the Nemo Eclipse, no outer insulation. I tried the Exped 6.5R since I saw on reddit that an Exped rep said the insulation extends to outer baffles. Intentionally misleading, yes it "reaches" outer baffles, but doesn't extend to the edge of the pad and sleeps cold. I haven't tried the tensor extreme conditions yet, but have heard it has a similar issue. Big Agnes Campmeister is intriguing, but I haven't seen much on it, and it is quite heavy (but I'll deal if it is the only option).
So what is the deal, do I just embrace the soreness and hold the X-therm? Anyone have any suggestions for alternative pads I may not be thinking of? Thanks!
I have a Kuiu peleton 97 quarter zip top, 32degrees bottoms (I dunno the details, they were at costco and weigh about 100g). I also bring 3 puffy layers for camp (zpacks goose down jacket, EE torrid jacket (no hood), and EE torrid pants).
Freezing or above: Rockfront Pro 350 quilt system, stuff the integrated pillow case with StS air seat and whatever puffy layers I am not wearing (usually down jacket and puffy pants)
Below Freezing: Katabatic gear Sawatch (15 degree)
I also bring a sub-3oz gossamer gear thinlight pad to go underneath pad, to protect the pad from punctures
Top Sleeping Pads on Reddit
1
Exped
MegaMat Series
92% positive of 454 users
Car camping comfort champ, but some side sleepers find it thin.
Doran_Gold
