Looks good for mountaineering

By jat120 Ranked #159 - Sleeping Pads March 18, 2009

For the climbs that I've been on, we've always been required to bring a self-inflating pad along with a foam pad to adequately insulate from the cold when sleeping on a glacier. Comparing the downmat 9 to my Z-rest/Prolite 4 combination, I'm actually saving 1/4 pound going with the downmat. Plus, the downmat 9 is easily more compact than the Z-rest/Prolite 4 combination. Plus, the downmat should provide better insulation than the old combination and thus allow a lighterweight sleeping bag to be used. The only real downsides to me: 1) I wish it was a little wider (I sleep on my stomach most of the time), and 2) the inflation method is not the fastest. But to be fair to the downmat, it is as wide as my Prolite 4 pad and after getting light-headed trying to inflate my prolite 4 at altitude, maybe having the sack double as the pump isn't such a bad idea. In summary, it would be pretty hard to justify the downmat for the ultralight fanatics out there. But for sleeping on snow for extended periods of time, the downmat appears to me to be a superior solution than the Z-rest/Prolite 4 combo that I was using before.

View Details: Exped DownMat Sleeping Pad

Helpful Votes: 2 Yes | 2 No