Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Sleeping pad question for the older guys

Bumping this to share some experiences since then.

Just got back from a big trip. Wife and I backpacked most of the New Mexico CDT this spring, starting at Crazy Cook Monument at the border south of Lordsburg and finishing 600+ miles and 6-1/2 weeks later at Ghost Ranch in northern NM. We did not make it to the CO border due to the massive snowpack in the southern Rockies, so we missed the last ~100 trail miles or so. We intend to head back down and re-start from there at some point, maybe even this fall.

Anyway, I had quite the sleeping pad adventure(s) on this trip. I did learn a lot.

I started out with a Big Agnes AXL pad, at that time their lightest thick inflatable. I had used this on the Tahoe-to-Yosemite trail, about 160 miles if memory serves, in 2021 and loved it. With the inflation just right, the hip and shoulder hotspots we all experience were eliminated. It did great for the first few night of this trip, then went flat. The problem was a manufacturing defect at a dimple, not a puncture, and while I was able to get it to hold air for one more night, that repair failed and that was it. Toast. I then spent two very unpleasant nights on the hard cold ground in the desert south of Lordsburg.

Gear failures on a remote trail like this are a nightmare. You usually don’t have cell, so that’s out, the tiny trail towns don’t usually have outdoor gear stores, and the shipping lead times to where you are gonna BE at some future date can be wishy-washy because companies don’t typically do fast shipping to general-delivery addresses. Please remember this as I try to explain how the ensuing fiasco unfolded.

So… two grim nights in the desert later, we roll into Lordsburg for our first resupply. This is, I dunno, 90 miles from the border; we are still in the boot heel of NM. Lordsburg is a blighted town and certainly has no outdoor gear, but, the EconoLodge is hiker-friendly as has a hiker box (the major trails have these, people ditch extra gear and food, others take it) and my fantasy was there’d be SOMETHING useable there. My fallback was going to be- don’t laugh- bubble wrap from the post office… maybe? This had to get me to Silver City, our next resupply, 4-5 days (nights) ahead.

Lo and behold, the hiker box, a table actually, had a pad! It was a huge, heavy AF, old Sea to Summit self-inflator, like the old-school Thermarests. And it had a rip, which was circled in sharpie as you can see. I figured even if it wouldn’t hold air, it was far better than nothing, so I grabbed it. Somewhat miraculously, Tenacious Tape fixed the rip and it held air! And the dang thing was actually quite comfortable. But it was big and ungainly and made look like (even more of) a dork.



I did get a trail name out of the deal. Can you guess it? It turned out to be prescient as there were several more “rips” in my future on this trip.



While in Lordsburg I got on the horn and got a warranty replacement from Big Agnes headed to Doc Campbells- two resupplies ahead- and a NEMO Switchback dimpled foam pad from REI headed to our next stop, Silver City. I had decided to never be without a backup foam pad, after my two nights on the cold hard ground. The best-laid plans…..

To be continued…..

So, I used that green STS pad from Lordsburg to Silver City and it was quite comfy. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just carried that thing the rest of the way, but keep in mind at that point we had roughly 5 weeks of trip still ahead; it seemed worth it to fix the issue properly….

…. and YET, I didn’t want to just throw money at it without even tryiny stuff first. The high-end ultralight inflatables are not cheap… some are noisy, some you feel like you’re gonna fall off them, and so on. Plus, in theory I had a warranty BA pad two stops in the future, and a NEMO Switchback foam at the next stop. Problem solved! Ha…

Got to Silver City and headed to the post office for our resupply box and my NEMO foam pad from REI. Resupply box is there, pad is not. I had paid for the fastest shipping they’d do, to general delivery, and it should have had plenty of buffer to get there… fawk. Call REI. They do their voodoo and determine it has vanished into a shipping vortex. They offer to fast-ship one to our next stop, Doc Campbells Trading Post, which occurs just prior to entering the Gila for our longest segment between resupplies @ 10 days. I take them up on this. However… Silver City does have a “Hike & Bike” shop that has (1) Thermarest Z-line (or something like that- the equivalent to the dimpled foam NEMO). I’m tired of carrying the STS. The foam Thermarest is cheap. So I bought it, and ditched the STS in their hiker box for some other unfortunate person in dire straights to use.

So I then gained a week’s experience sleeping on a single dimpled pad, specifically the blue/silver Thermarest Z- line. I do not recommend doing this. It kept the wheels on the cart, but by 4 am I was usually out of positions I could tolerate sleeping in and would just lay there on my back waiting for dawn. On a positive note, this pad (and the NEMO Switchback) are awesome during the day; you can deploy them easily and flop down anywhere, for a break or whatever. Can’t hurt ‘em.



Anyway, we get to Doc Campbells, which is remote, and my BA warranty replacement inflatable is not there. To BA’s credit, they tried to FedEx it to me on their dime, but it turns out FedEx won’t usually deliver up there, or at least not in a timely fashion. It’s Sunday, can’t get hold of BA customer service, and once we leave Doc’s we leave the wifi and dive into a canyon for a week with no signal… so I sent an email to BA asking that they re-route it to my home address. Fuggit, not going to keep trying to leapfrog it ahead…. But what IS there, at Doc’s, is the replacement NEMO Switchback from REI for the one that got lost in shipping. These are the orange/silver ones you see strapped to the outside of the packs of half the serious (young) hikers in America. It appears they work fine with younger bodies, not sure. So I now have in my possession, both a Thermarest and a NEMO version of a dimpled foam pad. I could still refuse the shipment and send the REI one back… but do I WANT to?! Ugh. Finally decided to hang onto it. And so that’s how I ended up doing the next month on TWO dimpled foam pads. Luckily, the dimple patterns are different, so they don’t “lock” together, which is one reason I decided to try using both… the other being a lack of other alternatives.

So here’s the report on THAT. It’s… tolerable. The R values add up to about 4; I never felt the cold coming through the two pads (I did feel it with just the Thermarest; I use a Katabatic quilt FWIW). My hips would get uncomfortable but if I dug a slight depression, when possible, that helped. There was enough padding that it wasn’t miserable by any stretch. But it also kinda sucked compared to the original, thick BA inflatable, and, worst of all, STILL wasn’t even what I wanted. And on top of that the BA warranty replacement they sent me, now waiting at home, was much heavier than the AXL version that had failed, so after all this pad chaos, it wasn’t even the right overall solution once I got home. D’oh!

(The dimpled pads are really bulky and carrying two of them was ungainly. I can get a pic off my wife’s phone if folks want to laugh at me and my two huge pads. )

In conclusion, for now anyway, I just tested out, then bought, what I *think* is my replacement for all this- a NEMO Tensor long/wide 3” thick inflatable. Seems really nice. Quiet, stable, about as light as these things get. My intention, I think, is for trips of any real length to carry both it and a single, foam, Switchback. I think I’m done with having just an inflatable; when (not if) they deflate, you got nuthin’, and that really sucks.

In terms of performance/weight I *think* the ultimate would be a thinner (2”?) lighter inflatable on top of the Switchback. But I’m a big guy and those all seem to be in narrow, “mummy” shapes. I want rectangular.

i have came to the same conclusion as you--always have a foam pad along

but i do add an inflatable.

I've had a Thermarest Performance Series 1-1/4" for about 25 years.
Sometimes I combine it with a 1/2" foam pad.
It's awesome.

Weight and bulk are, as always, where it gets weird. For shorter trips it’s less relevant. If I’m going to keep tagging along with my wife’s obsession to do these huge ones, I gotta mind my P’s and Q’s. With that being said- and to the original point of this thread- sleeping ok out there is really crucial as far as recovery for the next day and the next and so on.

I typically carry a ccf sitpad (usually a cut down Z-Rest) and purposely make it longer (40") than really needed for sitting as my just in case my inflatable is unrepairable. Adds weight obviously, but gives me a good seat and adds to the warmth of my main pad.

I've been using a TR Xtherm for about 10 years (lots and lots of nights), it's a little heavier fabric (more durable) than the lighter Neoairs and substantially warmer. I see they now have a new Xtherm out now that is 1/2" thicker, a little higher R value and still weighs the same as the original.

I also have a newer TR Uberlite that I use occasionally in the summer- it's really light, but less durable and less warm. It's reserved for shorter and really trimmed down trips with warmer weather (brought it to my Arizona trip last month)

Good plan. I’m fairly obsessed with my “sleep system” so I’m going next-level and just eating the weight. I think it’s a combo of age, being stupid tall, and maybe just being a wuss but if I’m not on a pretty good pad, I’m not sleeping well at all, and if I’m not sleeping well it cascades into my overall physical well-being to an alarming extent, in the context of an ongoing hike.

Beware the TR Uberlight; Cyn’s started blowing internal baffles on our trip and by the end was unusable. Then she was back to her short NEMO Switchback. She’s currently dealing with TR customer service and we expect they’ll send her a new one…

Another consideration is getting you/your bag or quilt off the tent bathtub; this won’t matter if the tent is properly set up and working right. Our Duplex reached a tipping point this trip, after roughly 5 years/3000 miles, and developed numerous pinholes, mainly at stress points. It was quite stormy the last week of our trip and we got to experience some puddling in the bathtub. I was “above it all” on my TWO full-length foam pads, but since I’m so tall, I still had to be very careful. Cyn had just her short NEMO SB at that point and it was a problem keeping her quilt dry.

We’ve repaired the Duplex, hopefully, back here at home and hope to get this season out of it (Cyn is likely headed back to the CDT). The repair tape is pretty miraculous.

Here’s a product I wish existed. A thin, light foam pad with a thorn-proof layer of something (Tyvek?) bonded to one side. It would serve as both a backup and as protection for an inflatable from thorns coming through the ground cloth or bathtub, and as a daytime flop-down pad.

The dimpled foam pads do this, mostly, but as you might have seen in AZ it’s possible to get a thorn right through them or, worse (for an inflatable) a thorn can break off in the foam, and be hidden, and only poke out under body weight. Saw that happen.

Klymit Static V Luxe insulated air mattress.

https://klymit.gathroutdoors.com/products/static-v-luxe-sleeping-pad?color=gray

Acclimation.

Found that the trouble - was the really nice bed at home.

Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol Sleeping Pad, and a USGI Foam Sleeping Pad under that when the ground is really cold, works pretty well - once you get used to it.

So try sleeping on the floor at home for two weeks before your Season starts.

Also, playing handball, and the associate stretching along with it, keeps the joints and ligaments stretched out and swept out, so they don't gripe as much.

Ju-Jutsu is also good.




GR

Interesting. Heavy! But interesting.

This is what I got. It’s about 6 oz lighter…


https://www.nemoequipment.com/products/tensor


I’m going to be putting a brand new, never inflated Big Agnes Rapidé (the warranty replacement I just got from them) in the Classifieds if anyone is interested.

You will not be happy until you are luggin' a posturepedic mattress.

Acclimation.




GR

I was happy on the Big Agnes; if you got the inflation right no more sore hips. Then it failed…

I’d have to do the complicated maths to be specific, but I spent roughly 400 miles (4 weeks) on either a single foam pad- Thermarest Z-whatever- followed by two foam pads. By the end it wasn’t awful, but nowhere near the Big Agnes.

Trying the Nemo because BA disco’d the pad I was using due to too many failures at the same spot mine failed… the new version is much heavier.

Anyway, not going to spend two weeks on the floor to get acclimated for a trip. “There’s pads for that”.

ive had really good luck with my B q-coe deluxe. however I have also found that adding one of the fold up accordion style foam pads underneath the air pad. this is primarily for puncture protection but offers some additional insulation at minimal weight gain.

Do you mean a BA Q-Core Deluxe, the yellow one? I have one of those. I carried it on the JMT. Very comfy, quite heavy. The NEMO Tensor I’m trying now is much lighter, albeit at 3” thick rather than 3.5” like the BA.

At least in very thorny New Mexico you really gotta watch out for thorns that embed and break off in a foam pad if you are using it as daytime flop-down pad and the idea is that at night it’ll protect your inflatable. It can then stick back out and puncture your inflatable under body weight. Then again not many areas are as thorny as southern MM.

I recently got a Thermarest xtherm for this coming season. I usually spend 20+ nights out a year in different settings. I have high hopes for this pad.

Full Size, 3" Memory Foam Mattress topper, about $45. Cut it down lengthwise giving you two pads. Going out, roll it up and put in a plastic trash bag, then with a vacuum cleaner suck it down to nothing tape it off and pack it away. Coming back, just roll it up as tight as possible.

Phil

What?

You mean to tell me you don't carry a one-way vac sealed memory foam mattress into the backcountry?

Amateur lol

For sure