My favourite place to get up is in a sleeping bag, which is nice as a result of I are likely to get up so much when sleeping in a sleeping bag. It is not the bag, it is the pad beneath me. I’ve tried all of them (it is a part of my job), and whereas some are positively higher than others, I’ve by no means discovered one which fairly fulfilled each backpacker’s dream—a light-weight, packable sleeping pad that feels identical to the mattress you left at dwelling.
Till now, that’s. The Therm-a-Relaxation NeoLoft sleeping pad is not the lightest at 25 ounces—goodbye, ultralight readers—however the 4.6-inch cushion is a real luxurious, and it provides an important evening’s relaxation, which may be extra priceless than shedding a couple of ounces.
The Nice Weight Debate
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
There are two issues with carrying an enormous sleeping pad within the backcountry. First, there’s the burden you need to carry, after which there’s the quantity of room it takes up in your pack. The ultralight group on-line will attempt to persuade you that camp consolation—that’s, your shelter and your sleeping arrange—aren’t as essential as protecting weight down, so you may transfer quick.
Relying in your objectives within the backcountry, that will certainly be true. However after attempting it for fairly a couple of journeys, I’ve discovered it isn’t the case for me. For me, carrying slightly extra weight within the type of a heavier tent and sleeping pad affords me a greater evening’s sleep, which helps me (on common) to hike additional than I do with much less weight however poorer sleep.
Therm-a-Relaxation’s new NeoLoft pad steps into this weight/dimension/consolation debate by leaning closely on the facet of consolation. It’s undeniably huge, relative to one thing like Therm-a-Relaxation’s XLite pads or Sea to Summit’s Ether Mild sequence (our two favourite ultralight sleeping pads). For all that, although, the Neoloft is not that huge when packed down, particularly contemplating how huge it’s once you inflate it.
The NeoLoft reliably packs all the way down to a dimension that is simply bigger than a Nalgene water bottle—about an inch greater round and an inch taller for the common large dimension pad that I examined. It is a tight squeeze becoming the NeoLoft in my Hyperlite Junction 40 with the remainder of my gear, however it works for shorter journeys the place I am not carrying a ton of meals. For journeys longer than three or 4 nights, I might need a 55L pack. (Naturally, it will rely so much on the scale of the remainder of your gear. You’ll be able to see what I carry at LighterPack.)
I am going to confess that I used to be dreading testing this pad. I did not wish to lug it with me, however after I truly loaded it up … I did not actually discover the additional 8 ounces over the Nemo Tensor I normally carry. Once more although, I’m not attempting to win any ultralight prizes. Moderately, I am in search of the best steadiness between weight and luxury.
Sleeping Pad Know-how
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
I take a look at natural mattresses for WIRED, and I exploit roughly the identical standards to evaluate sleeping pads. Consolation whereas sleeping comes all the way down to how effectively your pad retains you heat, how effectively it relieves stress, how effectively it gives assist, and the way steady it’s to sleep on.