in this video we're talking sleeping mats i'm going to take you through
all of the mats that i've owned over the last 10 years or so i'm going to tell you
what i like about them what i don't like about them and we'll talk about what went
wrong with this one and how you can prevent this happening to your own map let's get into it
so welcome and welcome back to the channel if you're new here my name is chase this is all
about preparing your mind your body and gear for the mountains all of this gear i purchased with my
own money none of this is sponsored so everything i'm sharing with you here is my own opinion
let's get into the first one so this is the seat of summit comfort plus i've had this since about
2015 and i bought it mainly for hiking trekking some expeditions i've taken this a number of times
to nepal i think the highest that i slept on this in an open bivvy was about 6200 meters so no tent
no nothing just this in a sleeping bag and kept me warm this is an incredibly warm mattress couple of
reasons why firstly it has synthetic insulation throughout and it has a metallic layer built in
to the structure which reflects your own body heat one of the main things about staying warm in the
mountains is just preventing that radiating heat from escaping so that material i think is called
x-kin platinum i'd love to cut this mat open and show you but i'm not going to do it with this mat
the scissors are going to wait till later this is probably the most comfortable mat i own and
i think it comes down to these air sprung cells so you can see this honeycomb kind of design here and
that kind of works like an inner spring mattress as you roll over through different positions
it kind of compensates and allows for a very comfortable night's sleep it is a little noisy
the r value according to c to summit is 4.0 but you'll see it noted on other websites as high
as 5.9 the outside here is i think 40 denier so you kind of throw it around you don't have to be
so precious about keeping it away from rocks and sharp objects i have had one little puncture in
it but it comes with a repair kit it's super easy to fix it's not going to be a problem
one of the features that stood out and one of the main reasons i got this mat is because of its
dual layer construction meaning that it has two chambers one on the top here and one on the bottom
and that means if you were to get a puncture in the middle of the night you've still got
one of those chambers inflating you which means you can get a good night's sleep and
not worry about the repair until the morning it's super quick to inflate about five or six breaths
on each end and it's good to go and it's very easy and quick to deflate just open the valves
lay it out within about 30 seconds it's pancake flat and ready to roll up
nothing worse than that it takes forever to roll up this one's nice and quick
there good to go so that is the sea of summit comfort plus let's get into the next map
so the next mat is from exped this is the sim lite 3.8 i bought this in 2012 when i was doing mainly
rock climbing so this was used for camping trips hanging around the crag wanted to be comfortable
wasn't too concerned about the weight and at the time this was kind of the cream of the crop in
terms of inflatable insulated mattresses and i continued to use it for about five years and
lots of other different trips ran into a little issue though in 2019 i was using this mattress on
mont blanc i was having a very peaceful sleep when i heard this loud crackling sound and my
chest started to rise and inflate off the ground i had no idea what was going on i was freaking out
it was completely dark turned a head torch on and found that my mattress was delaminating the top
layer and the bottom layer was separating from the air itself and it was just blowing up underneath
me i then spent the next uh four or five nights pretty uncomfortable with it kind of semi-inflated
but sleeping with this gigantic egg underneath my back was not something i want to do again having
said that this problem was entirely my fault i think the reason why this delaminated is because
i was always breathing directly into the mattress at the time this mattress didn't come with an
inflatable bag it was something i had to purchase separately but it was a really poor design it was
only about this big and i had to like hand pump it it would literally take me 30 minutes to inflate
so i just completely got over that and i started blowing into it directly now the moisture from
my breath is probably what's got in to the adhesive between the foam core and the tpu
and that's just disintegrated it over time to the point where it just got to one night and it just
exploded but to be fair i've done the same thing with the cedar summit and that hasn't had any
problems in six seven years so when this mattress was working it was a really comfortable mattress
i don't know why but i chose to take this one to mont blanc instead of the
cedar summit turns out that was a bad choice but it is warm enough to use in those alpine
environments it's got an r value of 3.1 but it is kind of heavy this one weighs in at 1050 grams
and it's also pretty bulky even when it's packed down it does usually come with a packing sleeve
i lent this to a friend a few years ago and she returned it without the sleeve
don't lean gear to friends in terms of the construction it's a 75 denier on the top
and another 75 denial layer on the bottom and the insulation they use within is an open cell pu foam
in this honeycomb shape and we're going to cut it open and have a closer look oh this is so sad
so this is that honeycomb close cell pu foam and this is the supposedly hydrolysis
resistant laminate which sticks the bottom layer of the mattress to the foam obviously
not that hydrolysis resistant so would i buy this mat again well
for obvious reasons probably not like i said i bought this in 2012 mattresses have come a long
way since then i think there's probably better things on the market alright let's get into
my next mattress something very basic and something you've probably seen before
so this is the camp essentials light mat this is both the cheapest and the lightest out of all the
mats that i currently have this is the one that i used on the gr11 and i chose that because it
was a summer trip it was a long distance through hike so i wanted something very light and i didn't
need anything that was going to be super warm or comfortable i was choosing campsites that
were fairly well insulated with undergrowth and leaves and whatnot so that was both comfortable
and is insulating me from the ground a little bit so i didn't really need a heavy insulated mat for
that trip just a super basic inflation deflation valve there in terms of the durability i did have
one little issue on the gr11 i had a puncture but i just put some gear right over it and i fixed
that up straight away no problems at all there was a couple of nights where that was just a little
bit too thin i would completely roll off it so in future i'll probably look for something that's a
little bit wider in a previous video someone asked about the r value of this i think it would be
0.5 or basically zero there's no insulation in it whatsoever just a bag there but for something so
thin and so minimal i found it really comfortable but a lot of that came down to
campsite selection and i guess the main point there is the more lightweight you go
the more you're going to have to be specific about your campsite selection you want to
find something that's got some undergrowth or some you know foliage leaves that's going to
protect you going to give you a little bit of extra comfort if you choose your campsite
well you can slim down your kit quite a lot and still be pretty comfortable
one thing i don't like about this mat is that it does take
a little bit of messing around to deflate if you've got a better solution to this let me know
so this whole time i could have been hiking packs down nice and small so that brings
us to the final step of this sleeping mat evolution the next bat i'm going to show you
is the one that i've most recently bought i've only used it once and it's probably going to
be the mat that i'm going to use on my through hike this summer so let's take a look at that one
so this is the latest addition to my sleep system this is the thermolite this is the
thermal s thermolite z rest i thought long and hard about getting one of these it's obviously not
an inflatable mat it's just a piece of foam and i guess the main reason here is that i wanted to
cut down on weight i also wanted something that i could just throw on the ground outside of my tent
something really thin kind of like a yoga mat or i could lay down and have a stretch in the afternoon
my buddy kareem had one of these on the gr11 and i was kind of jealous because he'd just throw it
out on the grass and do his stretching in the morning so as it stands at the moment it's 410
grams which you might notice is actually heavier than the last mat that i got so in terms of the
structure it's pretty basic polyethylene so closed cell foam this bubble like design is what makes it
really comfortable and in terms of the thermal properties and the warmth it has an r value of
1.7 so i'm automatically going to be warmer on this year's through hike than i was last year
with the camp mat 0.0 r value over there there's many reasons why i haven't got a mat like this
in the past just because it's cumbersome and i hate having big bulky things hanging off my
pack i like my pack to be pretty slim but for the trip that i have planned along this summer
about three weeks mostly above the tree line i think it's going to be fine in any case i'm
not going to have it strapped to the top or the side of my pack i'm going to have it up against
my back so we're going to have a look at how that looks so most people when they have this
style of mattress they'll have it on the side here that's on this pack where i have my tripod
so my other option is to have it on top this is going to be brushing up against trees and i'm
just not a fan of that it's also super annoying to take it off and on every time that i want to get
something from my backpack so for me that's just not ideal i want things to be pretty efficient
14 sections here i'm going to cut a bunch of them off that's going to keep my torso
warm sorry about my legs that'll be fine and then it's going to slip on the back
side of my backpack here for a back support so doing it at full size like this obviously
way too thick we're gonna get the scissors out again this really can only happen once
so i hope i make the right decision here two four six eight so that'll be the length that i'll have
i think that's more than long enough right i think that'll be fine
oh man we'll make our incision here
two four six eight don't mess this up let's do it all right that's surprisingly easy to cut through
maybe i've just ruined a perfectly good sleeping pad
let's find out now we've got the same setup here that i had last year
wow really starting to feel like an ultralight nerd what has become of me okay i think
i'm pretty happy with that obviously i've got to try it on and see how it feels but it looks thin
it's a three-quarter mattress and it's going to be pretty lightweight when i get home i'll
weigh it and i'll put it on the screen now feels comfy got to do a little bit of pack adjusting but
feels pretty good what do you reckon now here's the
leftover section that i can use for a seat i might even use it now so that's one of a whole
bunch of changes that i'm making to my gear for my next through hike i'm going to be releasing
some information on that soon the first people to find out are going to be those who are on my
patreon though if you didn't know that i have a page well i do it's pretty new i'll be sharing a
video there with some of the new gear that i have already and the gear that i'm still yet to buy
as well as talking about the through hike that i'm doing and why i chose to do it and all the
details that's about all for this one guys thanks so much for watching i will see you on the summit