I have had this sleeping pad for the better part of 4 years. I used to not use a pad at all, but I needed to after sleeping in some uncomfortable places. It wasn’t the uneven ground that bothered me. It was the cold. When you lie on your sleeping bag, it gets squished and doesn’t retain much heat below you. If there is then nothing between you and the cold ground, your heat can get vacuumed right out of you, leaving you chilled and irate in the morning.

I really liked this pad until it broke.

There are a lot of things this sleeping pad did right. It packs small is the biggest plus. Although it isn’t self inflating, it doesn’t take much effort to inflate it, although inflating it in a tent can be unwieldy, and deflating it takes just a little bit of work. It was long enough for my 188cm (6’2”) body, and despite its thin design, it kept me warm at nights. It came in a nice carrying bag, so it was easy to pack it down to the proper size and throw it into my backpack.

One thing I didn’t like was that the material was really slippery and didn’t grip to the sleeping bag. On the one hand, that’s nice that you can easily turn over and reposition yourself. On the other hand, if you are sleeping on a slight slope, there’s a tendency to slowly worm downhill and you end up sliding off if the angle of the slope is correct.

I used this on several backpacking trips over many years, and I had no major problems with it. It wasn’t until I went backpacking in the Highlands in Scotland when I had an issue. The first morning after camping, I realized that I was on the ground as all the air had escaped overnight. I paid attention, and the next night I noticed that after only about an hour or so, my shoulders and butt were touching the ground—and cold. My bag had sprung some leak, and I was freezing as a result.

It did come with a repair kit, but I couldn’t detect where the leak was, so I just dealt with it over the next couple nights while we were hiking. Once I got back, I threw it in the tub to see where the leak was and I discovered 4 or 5 very tiny holes. I am not sure how that happened. It either just got worn out from so much use or I had accidentally slept on a cactus.

I actually felt a little sad retiring this sleeping pad, but I decided that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. At just shy of 100 bucks, I definitely got my money’s worth, but I decided that when I go on long backpacking trips, I am going to rely on a pad that can’t break down.

Pros:

Packs small

Easy to inflate

Warm despite the thin form

Cons:

Can spring leaks (but that goes for any air pad)

A little slippery

Relatively heavy (as compared to my normal sleeping pad)