The ultralight sleeping pad I mocked is now my favorite gear

I spent years hauling a 4 pound inflatable mattress from REI on every trip, figured anything under 2 pounds had to be a gimmick. Last spring at Big Bend I finally tried a friend's Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xlite, slept 8 hours straight on packed gravel. Bought one for 210 bucks and my pack dropped 2.5 pounds, no back pain next morning. Anyone else make the switch and find the cheap knockoffs just dont hold air as good?

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diana61723d ago

Man, I feel this so hard. I did the exact same thing with a big old self-inflating pad from back in the day, thought light meant flimsy. Then I borrowed a friend's pad on a rainy trip in the Sierras and woke up without my hips screaming. That first night on the Xlite was like a revelation, seriously. And yeah, I tried a cheaper knockoff after that, it lost half its air by 3 AM, no joke. Sometimes you just gotta eat the cost and admit the fancy stuff works.