1st night on the 2022 French divide, my ultralight neoair sprung a leak, spent following nights sleeping on a piece of deflated plastic.
Doing the Italy divide this Yr and will opt for longevity and comfort. Any recommendations for a good mat that balances lightweight/pack size with the ability to actually stay inflated.
Cheers
We have a few decathlon forclaz ones in our house, lack much insulation but have been reliable.
I use the Exped equivalent of the Thermarest Z-Lite. If the folded pack size works for your set up then I reckon they're hard to beat, especially for the price (and ease).
Exped air mats have been great for me for years. There's a wide variety of shapes, sizes and robustness.
If you want bombproof, and are a backsleeper, foam mats are the way. They're really bulky though.
We've both Decathlon (warm, not so light, but about 15 years of use!) and Robens (light, warm, quite narrow, usually in a sale) which I've battered for over a decade without issue.
1. I think the reality is that most lightweight mats are vulnerable to small flats, but they come with repair kits, so unless you have a catastrophic tear, it's something you should be able to fix. All inflatable mats are likely to go at some point, it's just how they roll ime. The lighter the mat, the more likely to go. I also now check my mat before packing for a trip and make sure I have a repair kit with it,
2. If the leak is somewhere you can't patch - close to a valve usually - I'd be talking to Therm-a-rest about a manufacturing defect / warranty replacement.
3. I've had good experiences with both Exped and Sea to Summit mats. Alpkit have been okay, but light use, so a limited data-set, their early ones were prone to leakage, but they changed factory years ago. Also had a brilliant, two-layer Nemo mat that properly died in a leaking all over way. Lots of Therm-a-rest mats, ime no worse or better than anyone else, but yes, the light ones can go, though personally mine have survived, probably because I'm very, very careful with them
4. If you want bomb-proof, closed-cell foam is the way forward and, of course, you can use them to splint your fractured limbs when you fall off some godforsaken death route in the Alps/Andes/Himalaya, erm, allegedly.
On the topic of foam mats, I snagged a USMC folding concertina mat made be Thermarest quite a few years ago. Trimmed a few sections off the bottom (legs)to reduce bulk.
Comes with bungees to hold it together or you can depending on pack size, fold it two across and stick it against the back frame in a pack.
There are clones you can get in the UK, no idea what they're like.
I went through a few cheaper (Alpkit & Multimat I think) inflatable mats that were cold and too narrow for my liking. Eventually I bought an Exped Synmat UL MW, synthetic insulation, 70mm thick, 650mm wide. It's not the lightest mat but I'll take that for the added comfort.
Not used it loads but it's not let me down yet!
I've been using an Exped mat for many years. It would be a UL7, though I know the model range has been renamed since. I did puncture it once and bought a replacement as I wasn't sure if my fix would work, but it did so I'm still using that.
Many many years use out of an Exped airmat basic? Its the heavy version, maybe 400g, no insulation but a lot more robust than the synmats etc. It was also alot cheaper. There I've probably jinxed it, but it has been incredibly reliable (lucky?) so far. Easy to fix if it does get a puncture too.
Thanks all. ill get google'n
Whichever one you buy, always take a repair kit (patch & glue) with you...
