Ultralight Backpacking for Lightweights; Chapter 5, Is a Sleeping Pad Necessary?

Yes sir, I remember sleeping out without a pad. Several times in the backyard and a lot more when out hiking. I was young and stupid. Of the times I finaly went to sleep, around roots, bumps and other crap, I finaly figured out to scrape a duff bed together, provided the ground was fairly dry. Enter the foam pad. WOW, it was luxury. Now days a neoair is about standard along with a foam pad for my body.

But, I am an old man and my bones do not take well to sleeping on the ground, anymore. Besides the insulating value. He states that R3.2 is minimal insulation. Well, at 30F, ANY insulation is better than none. No, I disagree they are a luxury. In todays world of quilts (with no insulation on your backside,) ultralight down quilts that ONLY keep one side warm, let alone your butt (and the normal minimal temp ratings), I look to a good R3.2 pad, usually supplemented with foam for ~R5.

You need a pad to keep you warm most of all. The cold ground will suck the warmth out of you. Even in Hawaii a pad is helpful. I slept on a 1/8″ pad folded in half plus a beach towel in Hawaii.

I imagine as a kid I probably slept in those huge, heavy Coleman sleeping bags out in a tent on the lawn with no pad. But as an adult I’ve never camped without some sort of pad. Back when I was younger, it was just a z-rest. Now it’s an air mattress (currently the Big Agnes Q Core SL) topped with z-rest although I’m eyeing the Thermarest Neoair Xtherm because I think it might serve both functions (warmth and insulation- the Q Core is cold). Even with the air mattress I wake up sore.

The answer is “yes.”  I can’t imagine how you stretched that into eleven and a half minutes and don’t have 11:35 to find out. :-)

Remember Ray Jardine arguing for a torso-length blue pad with the idea that a ‘stealth campsite’ is softer? That hasn’t been my experience and I treasure my Xlite.

Dena: I do recommend the XTherm for the extra warmth; although I tried to suggest that
small increases of R-value didn’t matter much, the XTherm is nearly double the Xlite, so that is a significant bump up.

When you’re nearly 60 it’s a necessity…

The title of the video was misleading, so I’ve changed it. The point I was attempting to make is that, since we all carry sleeping pads, it makes sense to splurge on a little extra weight to have something actually comfortable.

Sorry for the confusion.

I’ve camped on thick forest duff in the Adirondacks and a foam pad wasn’t needed, so Jardine is correct in some cases.  It was in a pine forest near a lake, the carpet of needles was soft and many inches thick.

I fully agree, Elliot. In other areas, the roots and rocks near hill tops can be miserable. I pretty much ALWAYS bring at least a torso length NightLight pad…5 layers fan-folded into a flat bundle that also supports the pack and cushions against anything in the pack. Note that stock ones are only three layers and less than 30″ long. Note that nesting the “bumps” together, then cutting the pad to 10-1/2″ and taping the nested sections into a fan-fold, the older NightLight (full length) pad is only 2-3/4″ thick when packed. Nunatak has the Luna pad (at 78″) that can be cut into 6 layers, but the GG pads were somewhat shorter as I remember.  Six layers comes up to a 3″ thick bundle. and weighs about 12oz. at 65″ long with an Rvalue of between 2.1-2.6, depending.

My daughter and I were in the HighPeaks area on a cool night (~35-40F.) Without a pad, she froze and I flipped the pad sideways to have a piece for both of us. She needed it and snuggled with me for warmth.

For my wife and I is is a necessity since, during a fair amount of the spring and summer)  we never know if we will be camping on the snow or not.

Note that “back in the day”, people used duff or pine boughs as a “sleeping pad.”.

Read any old book on woodcraft and the author will suggest a pad of sorts for putting some insulation between you and the cold ground.

Such as this little known book from 100 years ago. ;)

https://archive.org/details/campingwoodcraft00kephrich/page/220

A better question: With the exception of warm weather backpacking, is ground insulation required?  And the answer is YES.

That’s a pretty cool reference Mags. I especially like: “Such a bed is luxurious in proportion to it’s depth and freshness.”

Reminds me of a family trip when I was 8 years old. We spent 4 nights in the backcountry with two horses and a giant canvas tent. Second night, trying to make sleeping a little more comfortable, we cut a bunch of fir boughs to lay under the sleeping bags. Didn’t make much difference, so we didn’t bother with that effort again. Hardly LNT!!! and certainly wouldn’t recommend that today.

“A better question: With the exception of warm weather backpacking, is ground insulation required? And the answer is YES.”

I agree and stressed that point in the video.

Idiots are still making fir tree bough-beds even into 2019 as I saw this on a recent backpacking trip in the mountains of Tennessee.  Our fir trees are a treasured resource esp now that all the big Hemlock trees have died out—so don’t cut them up!!

Imagine if all backpackers decided to do the same thing??

When I take naps during the day in a farm field, I rely on waking up from the cold ground so that I don’t over sleep. If it’s super hot out during the day you can get away without a pad, but at that point I rely on a bug crawling on my face to do the same wakeup task.

Yeah, use at least a closed cell pad like a Thermarest Z-Rest or Ridgerest.

I love my REI Flash Insulated (3 season) and FLASH All Season (winter) air mattresses. Light for the R value and very comfortable. And the Sea to Summit inflator bag doubles as my dry bag for clothes.

I like your thoughts about both worries and expectations.

Winter camping: yeah, worry about a punctured inflatable pad and have a back up.  But in summer, not so much.

And to not expect to sleep as easily on the trail as at home.  I find that’s especially true the first few nights each year.  My body (or more likely my mind) has to adjust to less padding, different noises and cooler air and I sleep better on subsequent trips.