Alps mountaineering 6oz full length closed cell foam pad… too good to be true?

I don’t believe it. That looks like the old style Thermarest egg crate model… before they lightened it up… I bet it weighs about 12 oz or more. If you want to pursue it, call and ask them to weight one for you.

billy

REI has been known (ahem) to be off on their specs but here are the posted specs for the Z lite size regular which I believe are correct.

72 x 20 x 0.75 inches = 14 oz.

Backcountry is advertising the Alps pad specs as:

71 x 22 x 0.75 in = 6 oz.

Sounds great but I’m not inclined to believe the hype.  This is one of those cases where I’d be happy to be wrong though so if anyone would care to take one for the team and try it out, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Assuming it’s closer to 14oz, it still looks like a good pad for $24.

If you go to the Alps Mountaineering site, it is in fact quoted to be 6oz.  Interesting.

It’s possible. A few years ago there was a thread on here about some South Korean mats available on ebay looking very like this mat. I got a couple. They’re PVA and one weighed 220g and the other was 200g. They’re not super durable but we’re still using them.

OK, I placed an order for one.  I will weigh it and report back after it has arrived.

Interesting!

The plot thickens!

A comment on the REI site: I received the pad this week and haven’t used it yet. However, I would like to note that the specified weight on the package says 6 oz., but I measured 10.2 oz. In the lightweight backpacking world that is a large difference.

Can’t comment on the weight, but the Z-rest style is a good and versatile one. A good price if you don’t mind the under-reported weight.

I bought a few sit pass from Gearbest.com an they look exactly like these except smaller. $3.50. I don’t have the dims on hand but they’re roughly the same size as the Z Lite sit pad but 1.1 oz vs 1.8 (Z lite). The Z Lite is definitely nicer and seems more durable but I think these will be just fine and hold up for long enough.

I have used both TAR’s Z-Rest sit pad as well as the cheapie Asian version (at different times).  The Asian ones are noticeably lighter, but they wear out (i.e. compress down) much more quickly.  At 6oz, it would be a great find; at 10oz, IMHO it’s a “good” not “great” find.

Called up Alps Mountaineering and had their product team weigh the mat. 10oz total. They’ll change the weight on the site today. Oh well…

Bummer! Still 10oz is pretty good I might swoop one anyways. Thanks for the help guys!

“Still 10oz is pretty good…”

Yes, for the weight of a full length foam pad… but what about the comfort level? And R factor?

Y’all who ordered, please let us know about these other factors…

billy

Ordered two of these a couple of months ago from REI. One was 11.5 oz. and the other was 15 oz. Width varied from 21 3/4 inch to 21 7/8 in.

If it’s the same thickness but at a lower weight, I would think it must be less dense material, therefore not last all that long. I have an very well used thermarest z-lite sit pad and next to a new pad it’s lost about half it’s thickness from compression.

11.31 ounces on my scale.  I still may use it paired up under my uninsulated Klymit static V pad.  The size is a good match.  But the slightly wider width of this pad (21 3/4″) makes a bulky item to pack.

The cushioning of the pad is quite a bit better than I expected for it’s thickness.  The long time durability is unknown, but i expect similar to other foam pads that I have owned.   I have no reason to expect less.   I just tried it briefly on the tile floor.  I have not slept with this pad yet.