Sleeping Pads
When
people think of camping, they often think of their childish adventures,
perhaps sleeping in the back yard. Often your "gear" was
simply a sleeping bag on the ground. Many times your outdoor
escapades ended with you heading to your bedroom and its nice, warm
bed. Remember getting chilled sometime before dawn? Well, the
main reason you got chilled is because you probably didn’t have an
insulating pad under your sleeping bag. Contrary to what most
people believe, a sleeping pad isn’t just for softening the earth
beneath you, it’s to provide insulation against the cold of the
ground. Even in summertime, the ground is cooler than the air
temperature. As you can read in the section on Sleeping
Bags, insulation is provided by loft. When you are laying in a
sleeping bag, you are compressing the loft of the bag beneath
you. This puts your body almost directly against the ground, where
the coolness transfers itself to you. The purpose of the sleeping
pad is to provide that insulation. There are several options
available to you. They are described below:
 |  Closed-cell
foam pad. A dense foam that provides good
insulation but not much cushioning. This is a good choice for
lightweight, durable, and inexpensive insulation. The standard
flat pads do not provide much cushioning, but some makers have
improved on the design by adding ridges that allow more softness and
give. One of the most comfortable of these is the Cascade
Designs’ Ridge-Rest. Even though these pads
are lightweight, they are bulky and difficult to strap on a pack
where they won’t get beaten up. |
| Self-inflating air mattresses. Not to be confused with the air mattresses that you take to the pool. The pad is made up of a foam core bonded to a waterproof shell that expands upon opening a valve on the corner. Again Cascade Designs wins the award for best pad with their Therm-a-Rest. They were the first to introduce this type of pad, and are still by far the best! This pad not only provides insulation against the coldest ground, it is comfortable as well. I can’t imagine taking any trips without it. They are heavier than the basic closed-cell foam pad, but the good nights’ sleep I get from it more than makes up for the weight. My first Therm-a-Rest finally wore out after ten years of intensive use. At first I couldn’t tell what was wrong. The valve was working fine and there were no noticeable holes. Finally it occurred to me that the material had just worn down so much that the air was leaking through the pores! These pads are expensive but worth it! If you take care of them, they will give you many years of comfort and enjoyment. Speaking of care, to help your Therm-a-Rest last as long as possible, store it flat with the valve open. This allows any moisture inside the foam to dry out and prevents the foam from breaking down. To minimize the amount of moisture that gets inside, allow the pad to self-inflate as much by itself as possible. Then blow any additional air into it to get it to the firmness you desire. |
| Open-cell foam. This is the foam they use in egg-crate mattress pads and it is practically worthless for backpacking. It compresses too much to provide good insulation, and it’s extremely bulky as well. Some companies have come up with a combination foam pad by incorporating closed-cell foam bonded to open-cell foam. This provides more comfort and insulation, but the bulky size is definitely a disadvantage. |
| Air mattresses. Keep these at home on a nice carpet or for use in the pool. They are so vulnerable to punctures that you are taking chances using them in the backcountry, especially in the rocky southwestern deserts. |
Updated: 07/28/00
