Aeon, Uberlite and Vesper Review

Nice review.

I have the both Thermarest Vesper 20 and Vesper 32. I like them but I would consider their “comfort” temperature rating, 32F and 41F.

Thanks.  Not only are they way off from the ratings, as I said, they don’t do well for a side sleeper like me.

I’m going to try a Feathered Friends Flicker 30 as a hybrid quilt/bag.

I am using a pretty similar setup this season. Aeon, Uberlite Regular and Feathered Friends quilt. I have a flicker 30 in wide / long, and its a lot of quilt, I sort of wish I had gotten the regular one. It is really nice sometimes to have quilt with so much room but probably not super efficient warmth or weight wise. They make awesome quilts, you will be really happy with it I think. Since that one I’ve bought a 20 degree flicker as well as an amazing comforter from them. I’m 6’2″ 205 lbs with a very wide frame if that helps.

I have one night in the Aeon as well. It was a terrible camp on uneven ground and I found it difficult to pitch the back corners on an incline. I am slightly under 6’2″ but my face and feet made quite a bit of contact with the ceiling and walls as my pad was sliding around all night. Honestly thinking about buying a hammock for my next appalachian trail hike as camp sites are so bad on that trail. Tenting makes very little sense in my opinion.

I purchased a 1/8″ foam sleeping pad from Gossamer Gear that I am planning on putting under the pad to make it stay where it belongs as well as prevent puctures. I also switched to a frameless pack recently and want it to make packing easier so I think its worth the weight if it prevents the pad from moving.

So far the Aeon seems pretty great even though I’ve only had one bad experience sleeping with it. I’m hoping i can figure out a way to mitigate the pitching difficulties on uneven terrain because its a bit of a bummer.

Getting the pitchlock corners to stay tight while tightening the guyline that attaches to it is a challenge.  Still working on that.

I also have the Gossamer Gear 1/8″ thinlight pad to put under my sleeping pad.  It’s multi-purpose.  Prevent sliding, protect the sleeping pad and is a sit pad.

PitchLoc corners
Different shelter but the idea is the same :

Thanks, Franco.  I’ll give that a try.

How about just got back to a good 30 F. sleeping bag? My Western Mountaineering 30 F. was good to 26 F. on the PCT but I had to have it all cinched down to a blowhole.

Then I sent it back to WM for an “overfill” and its now good to at least 20 F. Not bad for an extra $45.

PITCHLOC CORNERS: My Scarp 2 has 4 PitchLoc corners and when spread and tensioned they absolutely stay in place. But tensioning the bottom of the struts to get the tent walls (fly hem) tight is essential.

P.S. With my Scarp 2 I have sewn the X-ing poles grommets inside the fly at the apex of the Pitchloc struts. The poles in this configuration have been shortened about 5″ and run beneath the fly for more support. When tensioned these poles push down on the strut apex which keeps them spread. It’s a bonus I didn’t anticipate when I modded the X-ing poles to run beneath the fly instead of over it.

How about just got back to a good 30 F. sleeping bag?

I returned the Vesper and ordered a Feathered Friends 30 degree YF Flicker Long.

Alexy might have added that the comfort rating is what is stated on the label.

OP, did you weigh the bag to see if it was within the specification? Did you call T-rest to tell them your experience? I’m sure they would like to know. I do know what it’s like to freeze in a bag well within it’s rating.

Now that you have the proper sized pad for your height, you can do the following to keep your pad from slipping. Get a small tube of silicone. Inflate the pad firmly. Turn the bottom of pad so the bottom is on top. Put dots of silicone  on the tubes a  foot apart or so. Try less as you can always add more dots. No more pad sliding.

I did not weight the quilt before returning it.

The fill weight for the Vesper 32 long is 10 oz.  The fill weight for the Feathered Friends Flicker YF 32 Long is 12 oz.  20% more fill for essentially the same temperature rating.

I believe we will see a lot of experiences like yours, Brad. Not so much with the tent, but with the ground pads. The new, and highly touted, UberLight is a real problem.

The EN/ISO standard they used for testing the bags calls for a pad with an R value of 5. This is a bit of a cheat in my estimation, but it IS the standard. Hell, at 60F, in a tent, I would likely be comfortable sleeping on the pad alone with no bag. Anyway, a good warm pad system is required.  An R5 is a bit high for three season camping in most of the US, but not really out of line in the ADK’s. Temps at night are usually in the 50s only one month out of the year.

Let me relate a story that emphasizes this. My daughter and I were out camping (a fast pack trip) carrying minimal gear. I didn’t know it till we were at camp, but she had decided not to bring her ZLite because it weighed too much. (She was down to 5 pounds, I was carrying ~7.) We brought a small 1+ tent and I brought my torso pad. The temps in late July dropped to around 38F that night. She had her 32F bag (I had my 40F bag) and she was up every half hour doing situps to stay warm after 2300! I was cool, but slept (except when she finally disturbed me.) I spread my pad sideways below our shoulders around 0100 so she had some warmth. But she never noticed the heat loss from the ground. She was just cold, overall.  (We have been out in 25F degree weather before and she was very surprised to be cold that night, even with her jacket and rain gear on.) It takes quite a bit of cold before you notice heat loss from the ground as penetrating “cold”.

I believe you experienced much the same. Your pad was only an R2, maybe slightly higher due to the thinlight (maybe an R0.5.) If it was at all squishy, it might have been as low as 1.0-1.5.  There is NO insulation or radiant barriers in an Uber. It is simply a couple inches of airspace resulting in a LOT of convection loss and radiant loss.

As a side sleeper, you likely exacerbated the problem with the Uber. I would bet that the sides of the pad were exposed. This will cause a large component of convectional heat loss, especially since there is no insulation/radiant baffling.

A person normally sleeps comfortably at around 75-85F degrees. Even at 50F, this is enough to drive heat out of your body, into the pad, and out through the edges. This “edge bleeding” is a rather well known phenomena with the NeoAirs and is likely exacerbated in the Uber.. In one case, after a rather cold night, I resorted to putting a medium NeoAir inside my Montbell SS to stay warm the next…warmer than simply laying on it. With any type of wider quilt, this isn’t much of a problem, because the pad attachments usually pull the quilt over the pad edges. The newer mummy design of the XLite also eliminates a lot of the exposed edges.

Anyway, I think we will be hearing more of cold nights with properly rated bags using the Uber. In the northern states and higher elevations, I doubt they will be adequate. They certainly do not measure up to the EN/ISO standard. That said, we have been using light pads for many years. Before GVP gear I used a 3/8″ foam pad (I will guess an R1.0-1.5.) After they switched to GossamerGear, I used a NightLite for several years (R2.0-2.5.)  With the introduction of the NeoAir, I simply added the 13oz, and still carry the NightLite (Around an R5.3, total.)

Everybody sleeps differently. A small tent can usually supply 7F-15F increased warmth. Tarps, something less.  I need a 20F quilt to handle 30F comfortably. I know that. You might need something similar.

No question that sleeping comfort temp will vary widely. Look at any office situation and you’ll have some people who are always cold and others who want to work in a meat locker.

I’m trying to go light, but sleep is not a place (for me) where saving a few ounces makes sense if I can’t sleep.  I got very little sleep that night.

The Uberlite was fully inflated, so I think it was doing the most it could do.  Even if I had a Vesper 20 instead of the 32, I still would have had a cold butt due to air gaps I could not close while side sleeping. The attachment strap is elastic and is too loose for someone my size side sleeping.

I’m going to switch to the long Xlite and the FF Flicker YF 30 Long.  This is 15oz more than the Vesper 32 Long and Uberlite Regular.  But, if I can’t sleep, the 15oz savings is worthless.

Yeah, I hear that. The Xlite will definitely help. And going with the FF is always a good idea, I don’t think I have heard of a single complaint about their bags, other than additional weight…not warmth.

Good Luck, Brad!

Thermarest have always been pretty good with their ratings so I don’t think they are “inflating” the uberlite, it’s just their summer pad. Xlite for three seasons and therm for all four.

I just picked up a large uberlite and it weighed in at 11oz, which is little short of incredible in my book. I have no expectations of taking down near freezing without a little help though.