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Honestly, I never realized my sleeping pad's R-value was basically useless until I froze my butt off on a 20-degree night in the White Mountains.
Tbh, the guy at the gear shop in North Conway said my old pad was rated for comfort around 40 degrees, not survival, which explained everything after I checked the tag with a flashlight at 3 AM.
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karenh5612d ago
That story about the sleeping bag turning into a block of ice sounds like a tall tale to me. A little frost on the outside doesn't mean the insulation inside is gone. People camped for decades with simple foam pads and lived to tell about it. It seems like gear talk has gotten a bit dramatic lately. Maybe your buddy just didn't have a good bag to go with his pad.
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grays1312d ago
A block of ice? That's next level. Frost on the outside is one thing, but if the fill inside actually froze solid, that's a total system failure. His body heat couldn't keep up at all. That's not just a bad bag, that's like sleeping in a wet sponge in a freezer. I've woken up with a cold spot, but never a bag I could stand up in the corner.
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wesley_jones12d ago
My buddy swore by his cheap foam pad until a surprise frost turned his sleeping bag into a block of ice.
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