Sleeping Pads

Featured review by David Link

A super comfy lightweight mat for warm sleep in cold conditions. When the conditions are “extreme,” the Ether Light XT Extreme Insulated pad delivers. The Thermolite insulation helps you forget that you are sleeping on the ground, and it is completely worth the bulk and weight.

I have been a fan of the Sea to Summit UltraLight Insulated mat for a few years now, and have reviewed it here previously. For the weight and packability (16 oz), it provides really good comfort in warmer weather. But in colder winter and shoulder season temps, I have used a bulkier/heavier Therm-a-Rest mat, as the UltraLight Insulated really isn’t up to the task. Ether Light XT Extreme Insulated So, when the chance to try the Ether Light XT Extreme Insulated mat came along, I was eager to give it a go.

Read more: Sea to Summit Ether Light XT Extreme Insulated reviews (2)

Featured review by Arson

This is a great 4-season sleeping pad.

From the Manufacturer: New for 2012: The XTherm mattress is the warmest mattress in the NeoAir collection, allowing you to go lighter than ever in winter conditions. Patent-pending Reflective Barriers give the XTherm mattress true 4-season warmth without the weight or bulk usually found in a winter-worthy mattress. The result is a mattress that weighs less than a pound, takes up less pack space than your water bottle, and provides serious comfort in extremely cold conditions. Pump sack and repair kit included.

Read more: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XTherm reviews (9)

Featured review by Richard Proulx

The Therm-a-Rest Women’s ProLite Plus is my dream four-season expedition sleeping surface. It is comfortable, durable, warm, and reasonably light and compact.

Therm-A-Rest Women's ProLite Plus What an incredible cornucopia of sleeping surfaces today’s climbers and trekkers have to choose from! Therm-a-Rest makes such a dizzying array of types and styles that this abundance often leads to confusion and difficulty when shopping. Sleep surfaces boil down to three basic types; all foam, all air, and a combination of air and foam. While it is impossible to strictly categorize type by price, one may generally observe that all foam tends to be the least expensive, all air the most expensive, and air and foam somewhere in-between.

Read more: Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus reviews (13)

Featured review by PhilNC

The NeoAir Topo Luxe offers excellent comfort and insulation for a price in weight and pocketbook. For "comfortably light" hikers (not ultralight!), this is the "recliner" for your back country living room. Warm enough to take you into at least the shoulder seasons, unbelievably comfy, sturdily constructed, and much quieter than other NeoAir models. Weight is the big issue (1lb 7-14 oz depending on size), but the 4-inch height also might have to be factored in for those who are tall enough to be near your tent walls. At this height, it's also a bit bouncy if you are sensitive to that.

This is a preliminary review after two months of testing. More to come this winter! I have trimmed my pack weight down over the years to what I call "comfortably light," with emphasis on the comfort. Therefore I was excited to test the new NeoAir Topo Luxe as it seemed to fit my style of adding on a bit of weight in order to lounge comfortably in camp. Or I could have just been looking forward to all the hard work "testing" the Topo Luxe... Product Description & Specs The NeoAir Topo Luxe is a comfort-first sleeping pad for those who balance luxury and weight.

Read more: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Topo Luxe reviews (2)

Reviewed by KiwiKlimber

The NEMO Tensor Alpine ultralight sleeping pad is a do-it-all pad. It’s small and light enough to carry into the mountains, it’s warm enough to use in all four seasons, it’s comfortable enough to sleep soundly through the night, and it’s easy enough to inflate/deflate that you won’t dread setting up or tearing down. This pad is the warmest I’ve ever slept on and one of the easiest to inflate/deflate.

Conditions: I’ve tested the NEMO Tensor Alpine pad (Wide/Long option) over the course of three months, during late autumn and winter camping trips. I’ve spent a total of nine nights sleeping on the pad, and my nephew borrowed it for an additional three nights. Specs: Remember, these are the specs for the Long/Wide option. NEMO also sells a Regular/Mummy version of this pad, which is 4 inches shorter, 5 inches narrower, and 7 ounces lighter.  Length: 75.5 inches / 191.8 cm (Manufacturer claim is 76") (Regular/Mummy is 72") Width: 25 inches / 63.5 cm (Manufacturer claim is 25") (Regular/Mummy is 20") Thickness: 2.875 inches / 7.3 cm (Manufacturer claim is 3") (Regular/Mummy is the same) R-Value: 4.8—bring on the cold weather! (Regular/Mummy...

Read more: NEMO Tensor Alpine Ultralight review (1)

Reviewed by Sean Van Cleve

Exped's lightweight and easy to use Ultra 1R sleeping pad is quiet, durable, and provides substantial comfort throughout a wide temperature range. Paired with a short CCF (closed-cell foam) pad, the Ultra 1R proved to be comfortable down to the mid-30°F range on the 93-mile Wonderland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park in September 2022. Although this sleeping pad is aimed toward lightweight/ultralight hikers, any camper looking for a compact and durable sleeping pad may find this product more than sufficient for three-season overnights. Multiple sizes, widths, and a rectangular model are available.

People do not want to take risks when it comes down to a night of much needed rest. Although individuals in the past have accepted poor quality sleep as "ordinary," this stigma has been rapidly changing with the development of outdoor technology. Based out of Switzerland, Exped has been in the industry since 1983.  Preparing camp at N. Puyallup River on the Wonderland Trail The Ultra 1R sleeping mat is a straightforward product with two easy to operate valves. The proprietary Exped Flatvalve has one-way operation, as to not leak when filling.   Note the lower inflation check valve Included is a Schnozzel Pumpbag UL (20L/size small) for quick and moisture-free filling.

Read more: Exped Ultra 1R review (1)

Reviewed by PhilNC

A simple and light dual-purpose dry bag and pump sack for the new Therm-a-Rest Winglock and Twinlock valve sleeping pads. Inflation of the pads is easy and the waterproof construction seems like it will hold up. The BlockerLite Pump Sack is only 20 liters, so it takes quite a few sacks of air to fill larger pads, and may not work on older valves or other brands, but overall it's a great match for new Therm-a-Rest mattresses.

This is the initial review of the Therm-a-Rest BlockerLite Pump Sack after a couple of months of testing. I will update this in the late fall after cold weather comes in and it has a lot more nights out under its belt. The Therm-a-Rest (TAR) BlockerLite Pump Sack was provided to me as part of my testing of the TAR Topo and Topo Luxe sleeping pads. These new NeoAir models come standard with the Blockerlite Pump Sack now for the Winglock and Twinlock valves, but it can also be purchased as an add-on accessory ($45 current price).The BlockerLite Pump Sack is basically a lightweight (2.7 oz/78 g) dry bag with a valve that converts it to use as a pump sack for easy air mattress inflation.  The pump sack is made by SealLine for TAR and is similar...

Read more: Therm-a-Rest BlockerLite Pump Sack review (1)

Featured review by David Link

Lightweight comfy pad, gives a great night's sleep.

I was intrigued by Sea to Summit's new line of sleeping pads, so when the REI dividend and coupon came out, I decided to give it a try. The first thing I notice was how small the packed size was. I'm always trying to put less bulk in my back, so this is good news for me. I was taken by the pad's interesting new valve design. There are essentially two "plugs" in one. You open the outer plug to inflate, and both plugs to deflate. I find that it takes about a dozen or so breaths to inflate it fully, which is much faster than my previous pad, which usually took a couple of minutes to inflate.

Read more: Sea to Summit UltraLight Insulated reviews (4)

Featured review by Twig

The Z-Seat is a lightweight and inexpensive piece of camp furniture. It will never replace the comfort of a camp chair, but it's also multipurpose, simple, and easy to carry for thousands of miles.

  Accordion-folding foam pads are a ubiquitous piece of gear that have been around for a long time. The Therm-a-Rest Z-Seat is a pared-down version of the popular Z Lite pad. Both utilize the same materials, but the Z-Seat has more compact folds and sections. (As an aside, an old Z Lite pad can be cut into several sit pads...I've seen these in hiker boxes, just waiting to be repurposed.) The Z-Seat is widely imitated and available online, often for less than $5. I've used both the Z-Seat and non-branded knock-offs and there is a difference in the material, size, and weight of each.

Read more: Therm-a-Rest Z-Seat reviews (7)

Featured review by Ben Rivers

This closed-cell pad is very lightweight and functioned perfectly. It was comfortable and kept the chill off.

I borrowed this pad from my mother-in-law and used it on a cold weather hiking/camping trip recently. I used it in my ENO hammock because I read about getting cold where pressure points are in your sleeping bag (such as the shoulders and rear). It seemed that if you didn't have an under quilt that you definitely would want a sleeping pad under your sleeping bag inside of the hammock.  I used this pad and I didn't get cold at all except when the pad kind of slid out from under my shoulder, in which case my shoulder did get cold.

Read more: Therm-a-Rest RidgeRest reviews (15)