Pillows

I use the Big Agnes Clearview pillow. Same thing as the Clearview pad. Right at 3 ounces and packs down to about the size of a ziplock bag with a valve on it. I haven't tried to use anything else since getting it.

With the Neo-Air (size regular, 72") the pillow would sit on top of the pad rather than at the end of the pad, so I guess I'd have to stuff it inside my sleeping bag hood on cold nights. But what about warm nights? Maybe it would stay in place by itself well enough … dunno. Overall, I like that pillow, however.

On a trip last week, I spent three nights with a NeoAir and Montbell pillow. To hold them together, I just added a thin piece of shockcord tied to the holes in the pillow and stretched it around the NeoAir at about the sixth groove from the top. It worked well.

A thermarest stuff sack is fleece lined. Turn it outside, stuff in your down jacket or some other clothes and it makes a great pillow.

> A thermarest stuff sack is fleece lined. Turn it outside,
> stuff in your down jacket or some other clothes and it
> makes a great pillow.

I use this stuff sack, but don't have enough extra clothing to stuff into it for a good pillow … especially if I need to wear some to bed for extra warmth.

My last trip I brought an REI self-inflating sitpad, and used it inflated in the thermarest stuff sack, along with some minimal clothes, stuff sacks, etc. That worked pretty well, and the sitpad doubled as a comfy seat in camp!

I have heard that the MSR Dromlite water bladder I use can double as pillow … I believe I'll test it out as "stuffing" next trip.

"A thermarest stuff sack is fleece lined."

Which therm-a-rest stuff sack? I have 3 at home (NeoAir, Prolite 3, older Ultralight) and none of them are fleece lined.

A roll-top dry bag, same one you used for your sleeping bag and/or clothes, works sorta well…

Yup a roll top dry bag is a great way to go. I use a 7 litre roll top dry bag from MEC that weighs 40g (1.5oz). This keeps my down quilt dry and it serves very well as a pillow too. Roll top sacks work much better than cinch top sacks because you can roll it up to the desired volume to get the loft you need. With a traditional sack I normally don't have enough clothes to fill it solidly, so the clothes end up parting in the night and my head winds up on the mattress.

Another nice thing with the dry sack is that even if you don't have any clothes to stuff it with, you can always just use air. This is less comfortable but it works. Be warned though that the really ultralight dry sacks have a hard time maintaining a seal when they are just filled with air and your 10 lbs head is laying on it. My 1.5oz dry sack has a floppy roll top and it slowly leaks with my head on it. I have a 2.5oz dry sack that has a more solid roll top (ie. stiffer fabric strip across the top) and that seals well. One pin hole and you're done though….

> Which therm-a-rest stuff sack? I have 3 at home
> (NeoAir, Prolite 3, older Ultralight) and none of
> them are fleece lined.

Not all their sacks are fleece lined, but Therm-a-rest does makes two lined sacks: small (2 oz) and large (2.6). You can see them on their site or go to REI's site and search for "thermarest pillow sack".

I have the large, and it is large enough to hold my regular size NeoAir, Montbell SS #3 sleeping bag, and silk bag liner. This makes for a nice bundle that does not super compress the down bag. There is even enough room I can squeeze in couple clothing items without too much problem.

I like to sleep comfortable in the back country!

I have a small TR pillow stuff sack with the fleece lining. Although it would work for my Montbell bag, I use it to hold sleeping clothes (silk longjohn top and bottom, wool socks), and any extra cold-weather clothes.

As a pillow with fleece side out, I curl a TR sit pad inside around a Nalgene 48 oz cantene (filled with water and/or air) as the core. Works fine as a pillow for side sleeping. All double-use items.

I use a MontBell wrapped with a t-shirt. fairly comfy for a backpacking pillow.

Hey guys, its been a wile since I posted much here, I got hooked on hammocks this summer and have been hanging out over at Hammock Forums a lot. One of the first things I ran into with my hammock and ultralight was that I wanted a pillow but I did not have enough extra clothes for stuffing in a stuff sack, and I just do not find that very comfortable any way. So I started making some small pillows, and then some larger ones. From there things have started to grow and I started a little company to make and sell some gear. I am offering a couple versions of my pillows the smaller one in 1.1 oz ripstop weighs in at just 3 oz and the big one a 5. check out my site at http://arrowheadequipment.webs.com/

I have tried using my pillows on the ground a bit and they are just a comfortable there as in the hammock.

Paul