Sleeping Mats

In this area it is possible to make huge weight savings at the cost typically of comfort. You can also choose to spend anything between &poud;5 and £100 if you so wish although some of the lightest options are also the cheapest and some of the most comfortable options are also not the most expensive. If you want comfort and lightweight then you are going to have to pay for it.

Overview

The only function that a sleeping mat has is to protect you from the ground. If your body were in direct contact with the ground you would lose body heat very quickly and in a short time would become both cold and miserable.

Clearly, the colder the ground is then the more insulation that you need. Comfort is a secondary.

It is easy to underestimate how much heat can be lost through the ground. A poor mat can make an expansive sleeping bag feel more or less useless wheras a good sleeping mat will have the effect of boosting your sleeping bag's rating.

There are three ways that insulation can be provided:

1. By using an insulating material
2. By using an air gap
3. By a combination of the above two

Typical examples would be a Karrimat, an air bed and a Thermarest. There also a few wild-card ultralight options such as bubble-wrap and a balloon bed.

Now let's look at some of these variations of sleeping mats in more detail.

Karrimat or Closed Cell Foam mat

This type of mat can typically be bought very cheaply from most camping shops. The cheaper versions tend to be narrower and thinner than the more expensive ones. A Thin one will typically weigh 300g or less and a large expedition one may weigh up to 500g.

In summer conditions a very thin mat will be ideal - providing that you are comfortable. In winter conditions then a wider mat will be a much better option. If the ground is frozen then rolling off your sleeping mat onto the ground is unpleasant. A wider mat helps with this.

Many people find that the mats - especially the thinner ones can be uncomfortable. A lot of people will trade a little bit of comfort for a lighter mat. It's your call.

For expedition and extreme use something like a large thick Karrimat is hard to beat for its insulation properties. If you can afford the weight and want the luxury then you could use the Karrimat as a base mat and add something softer like a thermarest on top.

I have recently discovered that Argos sell cheap camping mats for £5 and that these weigh only 200g / 7oz. This is both cheaper and lighter than most ultralight mats for 3 season camping. If you need super-ultra-light then your only option will be the Gossamer Gear ThinLite pad at 59g/2.1oz

Airbeds

A typical example would be the Gelert Backpacker 6 Reed Airbed which weighs 850g. A PVC alternative would weigh 500g. Airbeds do tend to be quite comfortable but they are heavy and they can take a while to inflate if you do not have an electric pump. Airbeds are a good budget option especially if you are base camping.

The only thing to be aware of is that the air channels in an airbed can be quite large. These large air channels can allow convection currents to form meaning that you can become colder than you would expect. I would not like to use an airbed in sub-zero conditions.

Balloon Bed

Initially I thought the Balloon Bed was a joke - until I found that they were manufactured! The idea is very simple; take an ultralight shell of an airbed and use balloons for the air channels. Quoted weights are less than 100g. The Balloon Bed is designed for adventure racers who really want to save those extra few grammes. Fetishists might like it as well!

Bubble-Wrap

This is another idea from the adventure racing fraternity. If you are thinking about it laterally then bubble-wrap (especially the giant industrial version with 1 inche bubbles) is a a great idea. It fits the criteria of having lots of captive air cells that are too small to suffer from convection currents and are incredibly light. The only downside might be the pack size (you cannot un-pop bubble-wrap) and the desire to pop the bubbles after a long day walking.

Hybrid Foam Mats - Thermarest Z Lite and RidgeRest

A number of manufactures have taken the original Karrimat concept and updated it using modern design techniques. A good example of this is the Thermarest Z Lite. This is a foam mat which looks rather like egg-crates or bubble-wrap. folds concertina-style to make a small square rectangular box. Anyone who has spent a life trying to get a rolled mat to stay flat will recognise the benefits of that.

Something like the Thermarest Z Lite (at 440g for the full-length version) is probably a good alternative to an ordinary foam mat with a little more comfort and a little more insulation.

If you want a little more durability and a little more comfort then the RidgeRest will weigh a few more grammes (540g, 400g, 260g) but give you the options of a wider mat and a softer feel.

The Z Lite and RidgeRest mats are rated as three-season mats and so will not be suitable for extreme or winter use when used in isolation.

Hybrid Inflatable Mats - Thermarest ProLite 3 and LuxuryCamp

Until recent years I had always been a reluctant fan of foam mats - mainly because they are cheap and bomb-proof.

My conversion to comfort came as a result of a working holiday on the Icelandic glaciers. On this trip we were to be camped at a base camp and then would use a mixture of 4x4 and walking to reach the survey areas.

My wife had used Thermarests in her role as Guide leader and was quite hooked on them. She just gave me an ultimatum that she was not going to sleep on a bloody foam mat for two weeks AND do a full days work. Reluctantly I went and purchased two of the classic (and heavy) mats.

It was a revelation to me. For the first time in years I slept comfortably in a tent! From then on I was converted and I took a mat with me whenever I went camping. The only downside was the weight at 900g.

When I started going ultralight then naturally I was worried about both pack weight and pack size. A rolled foam mat was failing on size and the Thermarest was both too heavy and too bulky.

Last year however I treated myself about the Theramrest ProLite 3 (Regular). This is the ligher (570g) version of their classic and rated for 3 seasons. The lightness has been achieved by using a contoured rather than a rectangular shape and by using star-cut foam instead of solid foam in the core. The result is a mat which is a lot lighter than the classic and almost as comfortable. The result is that for me and many others it wins an honoured place in packs as the only 'heavy' item to make it into an ultralight pack. High praise indeed.