Sleeping Mat Thoughts

With my old Therm-A-Rest Ultralite and a tent full of mats ready for making a video

I started thinking about mat and tent combinations for the first time last year. The idea had never occurred to me before because it had never been necessary. Why would the two items affect each other? Until fairly recently they didn’t but now some mats are thick enough to reduce headroom and end space in a tent, especially a lightweight solo one.

Camp on the Cape Wrath Trail with the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT. 2024

I decided to make a little video about this as I’d never seen it discussed anywhere. Then I thought I might as well talk about the different types of mats and my views on them and that became the main theme of the video. Mat thickness does appear at the end!

Reviewing the different mats I’ve used over the years and the advantages and disadvantages of each seemed a good subject for a written piece as well. So here it is, with photos from over the decades.

1978 in the Cairngorms with a closed cell foam mat strapped to my pack

Back when I started backpacking closed cell foam mats were all there were. The standard was the Karrimat, usually in bright yellow. They were 9mm thick and warm enough most of the time. There was a thinner green 3mm version too. I used this for a few years. How I ever slept on such a thin mat I can’t imagine now.

Closed cell foam (ccf) is tough and durable. That’s it’s big advantage. CCF mats can be chucked on the ground with no fear of punctures and generally treated roughly. They do lose a bit of thickness after much use and the edges can get tattered. But they still work. Given that the cost is low in the first place they’re great value for money.

Closed cell foam mats are great for just chucking on the ground and using as a seat or to put gear on

Ccf mats aren’t very heavy (200-400 grams depending on thickness) but they are bulky. They’re usually carried on the outside of packs, which is convenient for using one during the day as a sitmat. The big drawback is that they’re not very comfortable. As there was no other choice I used ccf mats on hundreds of nights in my first decade of backpacking, including my first long walks, the Pennine Way and Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Camp on the Pacific Crest Trail with my first Therm-A-Rest self-inflating mat. 1982

Then around 1980 I discovered the existence of a new self-inflating mat called a Therm-A-Rest that was filled with open cell foam and said to be far more comfortable than ccf. I soon got one and discovered that the claims were true. The comfort was a revelation. No more ccf for me! (I wrote a piece about the invention of the Therm-A-Rest back in 2018).

With the Therm-A-Rest Ultralite on my Canadian Rockies walk. I was obviously confident in its durability. It lasted the trip. 1988

That first Therm-A-Rest was quite a bit heavier at 652 grams than ccf but I still took it on my Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike. I just loved the comfort. Cascade Designs, the makers of Therm-A-Rest, then brought out an UltraLite version that weighed 468 grams in the ¾ length version so I changed to this and took it on the Continental Divide Trail, Canadian Rockies, Yukon Territory and Scandinavian Mountains walks, totalling about 7000 miles and hundreds of nights. I also used it on all the shorter walks I did during the ten years it lasted. It is by far my most-used mat.

RidgeRest closed cell foam mat strapped under my pack on the Arizona Trail. 2000.

I stayed with Therm-A-Rest self-inflating mats for many more years and walks. In all that time I only ever had two punctures, both quickly found and mended. I did go back to a closed cell mat, a Therm-A-Rest RidgeRest, for the Arizona Trail as I wanted to sleep out under the stars whenever I could and I reckoned there might be too many spiky things in the desert for a mat that could be punctured. With a ridged surface (hence the name) this was more comfortable than the flat ccf mats of earlier years but I still missed the comfort of a self-inflating mat and returned to one for future walks.

Original NeoAir, 2008

Until, that is, Therm-A-Rest reinvented the air bed with the inflatable NeoAir. This was said to be even more comfortable than a self-inflating mat as well as being lighter weight and more compact when packed. I was convinced. I still am but soon found a big disadvantage – durability. Over the years I’ve had inflatable air beds from half a dozen different brands fail, often out in the wilds where repair was difficult if not impossible.

Camp on the Pacific Northwest Trail with the inflatable mat that later failed. 2010.

The first time an inflatable mat became a deflated mat was on a cold stormy night on the Pacific Northwest Trail when I found myself wrestling the mat into a freezing lake in the dark trying to find the leaks. I did have a short thin ccf mat with me but also a quilt, the only time I’ve used one on a long walk. You really need a warm mat with a quilt! I did manage to find and patch the leaks though the mat still went down several times a night. As soon as I could I swapped it for a self-inflating one.

In Death Valley with a NeoAir XLite mat and a foam pad to protect it. 2016

With a few mats the problem has been the internal walls tearing so one end of the mat swells up like a balloon. As well as making a mat difficult and then impossible to use this also led to the fear that it might explode during the night with an almighty bang.

In the Colorado Rockies with the Therm-A-Rest self-inflating mat Andrew Terrill loaned me after my inflatable mat failed. 2019

Three times on long walks I’ve borrowed old well-used self-inflating Therm-A-Rest mats to replace failed inflatable ones. There was a message there but it took me a while to learn it.

Keeping warm in an igloo on a Therm-A-Rest Prolite Plus & a Therm-A-Rest RidgeRest. 2007.

I still use inflatable mats. I don’t trust them though so I always carry a ccf mat as well, , (usually a 190g Multimat Superlite 8), which rather cancels out the weight and packed size advantage of inflatables. And I am thinking of going back to a self-inflating mat despite the extra weight and bulk. I still have a Therm-A-Rest Ultralite and a Therm-A-Rest Prolite Plus. It’s time I used them again. The Multimat plus my lightest inflatable mat, the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT, weighs 560g, the Multimat plus the Prolite Plus is 640g. I have heavier ccf and inflatable mats I use occasionally but those are my lightest combinations. I don’t 120g is significant except maybe on long trips where weight really matters.

Sitting on the Multimat Superlite 8 with the NeoAir XLite NXT just visible in the tent. 2023.

As well as being more durable an advantage of a self-inflating mat is that there’s still some insulation if it does deflate as it’s full of foam. They don’t even out bumps and dips in the ground as well as an air bed, though better than ccf, but they don’t fail often either. You also don’t need to think about headroom in a tent either. My thickest self-inflating mat is 3.8cm, my thinnest air bed 7.5cm. In a small tent with a 90cm high point and low ends the difference is noticeable.

This 9cm thick mat really restricted the space at the foot end and the headroom in this small tent

Links to mats mentioned:

Multimat Superlite 8

https://amzn.to/4boow7z

Therm-A-Rest RidgeRest

https://amzn.to/4slnb8X

Therm-A-Rest Prolite Plus

https://amzn.to/4bdiXKE

Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT

https://amzn.to/4bFurqh

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A Look At The April Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The theme of the latest issue of The Great Outdoors is doing more with less, whether that's keeping gear in good repair so it lasts well or finding budget and second-hand gear. Peter Macfarlane combines the two, finding used items of clothing (Gore-Tex jacket, fleece jacket, fleece salopettes, baselayer) and a  daypack for a grand total of £53 and describing how he returned them to working order. He also writes this month's Long Review, describing how well his Fjallraven Keb Trousers have lasted and how he cares for them.

There's also a round-up of budget gear reviewed in TGO over the last year or so. The Skills section covers maintaining and repairing gear with some examples from TGO contributors including myself on patching torn mesh pockets on a pack.

Away from budget gear Steph Wetherall tests the Smartwool All Season Merino Base Layer and Francesca Donovan tests the Berghaus Farren leggings and trousers. In a comparative review Fiona Russell tries three women's hiking shirts and I try three men's. 

Back to the low cost theme there are 50 tips for hillwalking on a budget covering gear, transport, travelling overseas, accommodation, food, and more.

In the long features JB Smith finds solitude in the Rhinogs in Eryri/Snowdonia, Ailsa Sheldon explores St Patrick's Way in Northern Ireland, and David Myers hikes the Alpenpasse-Weg in the Swiss Alps.

Shorter pieces include Nadia Shaikh on the orange-tip butterfly, a review of the film H is for Hawk by Francesca Donovan, Rachel Hewitt on the dangerous precedent for women set by a rule change for the Spine Race, Jim Perrin on Y Berwyn, and Juls Stodel considering mountain rescue in her Uphill Struggles column.

Wild Walks looks at seven ridge walks. In the Highlands James Roddie relishes Conival and Ben More Assynt, Alex Roddie tackles Liathach, and Simon Stokes scrambles up Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor. The Lake District has Norman Hadley on the Wasdale Horseshoe, James Forrest on the Deepdale Horseshoe, and Vivienne Crow on the Kentmere Round. Finally in South Wales Ian Battersby walks Cribyn and Fan y Big.

A Walk In The Woods & First Use Of A New Stove

 

A breezy, sunny day in early March. The sun warm, shaded areas cool, the wind chilly out in the open. The distant mountains shining with fresh snow, their summits in and out fast-moving clouds.

The first buds are just appearing on birches, rowans and willows, only noticeable from close up. The grasses are still mostly faded yellow but again a close look reveals tiny spurts of fresh green in a few places. 

I wandered through meadows of sheep and down into some sheltered woods. Here amongst some ancient pines I found an old log for a seat and stopped to relax and enjoy the quiet beauty of the forest and the warmth of the sun. 

I'd brought a new stove unit with me to try out - the Fire Maple Star X1 Pro - and I set this up to boil water for a mug of coffee. I made a little video of this.

Note: As I am an Amazon Associate if you buy from the Amazon links I receive a commission at no cost to you. Clicking then finding your own items within 24 hours also helps but with a much smaller commission. Every click helps! Thank you if you do purchase something or click on one of my links.

In Search Of Changing Light In The Cairngorms

Late afternoon light

One afternoon a few days ago I headed up into the Cairngorms in the hope of seeing the sunset. The day was sunny and quite warm for the last day of February but the forecast was for cloud coming in from the south-west on strong winds. I hoped this wouldn’t arrive too soon but at just the right time for the setting sun to colour the clouds red and gold.

My favourite times in the mountains are dawn and dusk. However, as I’m a night person who wakes up slowly as the day progresses I see far more of the latter than the former, especially on day walks. To see the dawn I need to be already there, camped high up. An early start from home and then walking in the dark doesn’t work for me.

Blue sky on the ascent

On this walk I also hoped the change in the weather would bring more complex and variable light. Brilliant sunshine and a blue sky are wonderful and I do love them but changing light is more interesting. It makes for better photographs too.

Clouds approaching.

Blue sky and sunshine accompanied me up to the north ridge of Cairn Gorm. The breeze was light and I didn’t need hat or gloves. That changed when I reached the ridge and met a much stronger cold south-west wind that was bringing clouds. 

Clouds getting closer.

Summits not too far away were already vanishing into greyness. To the east though the hills were still in sunshine. The lighting was already dramatic.

Stac na h-Iolaire

Heading down the north ridge I had the wind at my back. There were large areas of hard snow but I was able to skirt round these, as I had on the ascent, and my crampons and ice axe stayed on the pack. Ahead the crag of Stac na h-Iolaire glowed gold in the now low sun.

Suddenly in the mist

Seemingly out of nowhere mist enveloped me and snow and hail began to fall. Visibility went from hundreds of kilometres to a few hundred metres. The temperature dropped noticeably. The squall was brief. After ten minutes or so it had passed over and was just a grey cloud heading north. A useful reminder of how fast the weather can change though and the need to always be prepared for that.

Lochan na Beinne & Loch Morlich

The aftermath of the squall revealed a thin drifting band of mist between the shining waters of Lochan na Beinne and Loch Morlich. The mist caught the low sun, shimmering in the light. Above the sky was now mostly overcast.

Sunset

Descending there was one brief glimpse of colour in the sky before the clouds thickened and all was grey. The weather had changed.

The trickiest part of the walk was the final stretch. The path was muddy and in places icy. It was growing dark rapidly. I managed without a headlamp until a final steep descent to a bridge over a rushing burn on a narrow path with patches of snow and ice. Then the day was over. There’d been no spectacular sunset but there had been interesting light and just getting up into the mountains and forgetting about the rest of the world, especially at the moment, felt such a relief.

A New Stove System From Fire Maple

I'd just finished a comparative stove review for The Great Outdoors magazine (to appear soon) when another stove arrived, this one the Fire Maple Star X1 Pro Cooking System.* This follows the familiar pattern of a heat exchanger pot that fits on top of a canister stove. There are a few interesting features on this version of the design though. Note that this is just a first look. I haven't used the stove yet.

The litre-size pot is made of aluminium and has a rubbery lid that fits well but not too tightly. The best feature is the long stainless steel handle which locks firmly into place and folds over the lid when the unit is packed. This is excellent and far better than the webbing loops found on some similar stove systems which I always find a little uncomfortable and insecure. The handle has insulating material over it so it shouldn't get too hot.

The pot has a stretchy cosy, two stretchy cosies in fact, one plain black, one with red markings that I really like. With cosy and lid the pot weighs 276 grams.

Similar stoves often come with plastic bowls that fit under the heat exchanger. I don't find these very useful as they easily get dirty from the heat exchanger and are vulnerable to cracking. The Star X1 Pro doesn't have one of these. Instead it has a Tritan plastic bowl that fits inside the pot. It weighs 61 grams. I'll probably leave it at home.

The burner unit is substantial with thick plastic supports and a raised metal surround that should help keep off wind.  There's a Piezo igniter and a small control knob.

The pot fits on top of the stove via two slots that slip over little nodules on the inside of the metal surround. The pot can then be twisted to secure it in position. Once this is done it feels very stable.

The burner, bowl, and a 100 gram canister can be packed inside the pot. A 230 gram canister will fit but if you put the burner in as well it protrudes above the top so you can't close the lid. The burner weighs 188 grams.

The complete unit weighs 525 grams on my scales, which is 30 grams less than Fire Maple's figure. Leave the bowl behind and that comes down to 464 grams. This weight is typical for this type of cooking system.

I'll take the unit on my next camping trip and see how it does. Fire Maple says it can boil 500ml of water in 1 minute 42 seconds using 4.5g of fuel. That's a very fast boil time and very low fuel usage. I'll be interested to see what it does in my tests.

 

The cost is £39.26, which is very low.

I made a little video about the stove.

*I am an Amazon Associate so if you buy from the Amazon links I receive a commission at no cost to you. Clicking then finding your own items within 24 hours also helps but with a much smaller commission. Every click helps! Thank you if you do purchase something or click on one of my links.

Wind And Snow And Tough Terrain On A Winter Backpacking Trip

Snow on the last morning

Sometimes it only takes a fierce blast of wind to change plans. A few minutes being blown around in the high level car park was enough to persuade us that starting lower down and staying there was a good idea. So it was back in the cars and down to the shelter of the forest.

The forecast being for the high winds and low clouds to continue we thought we’d probably stay low down and abandon ideas of reaching the snow and using the skis, snowshoes, ice axes and crampons we’d brought. This was Tony Hobbs’ annual winter visit to the Cairngorms in the hope of using his snow gear and learning some skills. And as has become usual it wasn’t going to happen. This is the problem with having to plan in advance. The week before or a few days later and we’d have had better conditions. I can be flexible. I live here. Tony can’t. He travels up from the deep south (Bristol) and has to make arrangements well in advance.

The windy first camp

That first day we walked out of the forest to camp near the river Nethy. The wind buffeted the tents and I was glad we were no higher. We decided that unless the wind lessened we’d stay low and follow the Nethy into Abernethy Forest the next day and look for a more sheltered site.

River Nethy

The wind was still strong in the morning. The hills were still in cloud. We headed off towards the forest through a mix of heather and grass tussocks. There was no path and the going was tough. At times we were knee deep in the vegetation. Progress was slow, just a kilometre an hour.  Soon the river ran into a gorge, forcing us to climb, a little away from the water.

Tough walking

Here the trees are spreading out from the dense heart of Abernethy Forest, owners RSPB having long ago removed the sheep that grazed here and reduced deer numbers. As the trees thickened so did the ground vegetation and walking became even harder. The regenerating forest was marvellous and inspiring though.

The Nethy in the forest

Once we were in the old forest we rejoined the river. There were dry channels where it had flowed and many trees in the water where it had undercut the banks. The Nethy is very mobile.

We were aiming for the end of a vehicle track. On reaching it progress became a little easier. Long abandoned, it was overgrown but less tussocky than surrounding terrain. The river was again below us running through another gorge.

Eventually the track started to descend to a side stream. Here many trees had blown down and we had to clamber over these to reach boggy open ground near the burn where we hoped to camp. A little searching and we found a spot that was reasonably dry, reasonable flat and very sheltered.

Dawn on the first morning at the second camp

The site proved more comfortable than the first one and we decided to stay here for two nights. Light snow fell overnight and dawn came with a dusting on the ground and ice in the water bottles.

I decided to go back up the track and have a look at the gorge the Nethy ran through. The track was set back from the edge and we hadn’t really seen it the other day. Tony headed off the other way to see what the walk out would be like the next day.

I stuffed various items into the roomy kangaroo pocket of my Paramo smock and set off. As I hadn’t worn or needed my gaiters the day before I left them in the tent. That was a mistake which I only found out when I’d gone far enough that I wasn’t going to return for them. The ascent up the track was fairly dry but once I reached the flat upper section I was pushing through vegetation wet with thawing snow. My legs were soon sodden from the knees down. My boots and socks quickly became the same. I had dry socks back in camp and I reckoned my feet wouldn’t get cold as long as I kept moving.

The lochan in the forest

Leaving the track I wandered through the woods to a lovely little partly frozen lochan. Here I paused a while, relishing the peace and beauty of this hidden gem, one of those surprises that can be found away from well-known places and popular paths.

A view down to the Nethy

When I reached the edge of the ravine I found it quite hard to see into as the forest on the slopes was thick and luxuriant. Only in a few spots could I see the river far below. It looks impressive. Maybe I’ll come back and walk into it from downstream one day.

Tony well-wrapped up

Back in camp we sat outside for hot drinks and snacks. It was cold, just a few degrees above freezing, but calm. Watching the clouds racing across the sky high above made us glad we’d changed our plans. Down here it was peaceful and relaxing.

Night

During the evening the skies cleared and I was back out of the tent looking at the glorious stars. The constellation Orion was dominant, low in the sky between shadowed pines. Magnificent!

Snowing at dawn

The clearance didn’t last. I woke once in the night to look out and see snow drifting down. At dawn the snow was heavier. By the time we were taking the tents down it had stopped and there were hints of sunshine.

Blowdowns!

Tony had told me that the first half kilometre or so along the old track had even more blowdowns that the section we’d descended. He was right and progress was very slow as we clambered over the fallen trees or circumvented them in the forest along their edges. Zigzagging from side to side we probably covered at least three times the straight-line distance.

Approaching Ryvoan Bothy

The hard walking ended when we reached the main track through the forest. Now we had an easy stroll back out of the trees past Ryvoan Bothy, and then back into the trees through Ryvoan Pass. It had been a good trip.

I made a little video of the trip:

Book Review: The Corbetts by Rab Anderson

The Corbetts is the latest volume in the superb Scottish Mountaineering Club Hillwalkers’ Guides series. Like the earlier books The Corbetts is beautifully designed and illustrated. According to the publishers it’s the third edition of a guide first published in 1990 as The Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills but in fact it’s so different that it’s really a new book. Everything is new – route descriptions, illustrations, maps. The format is bigger too, even though the ‘other’ hills have gone.

The Corbetts are Scottish hills between 2500 feet (762m) and 3000 feet (914.4m) high with a reascent of at least 500 feet (152m) on all sides. Although lower than Munros many are no easier and some are amongst the finest hills in Scotland. That 500+ feet of reascent means that linking Corbetts is hard work. Many are best climbed singly. They cover a wider area than the Munros too, with Corbetts in the Southern Uplands where there are no Munros and on six rather than two islands. These are hills deserving of respect.

They deserve a book like this too. The 1990 volume is good – my copy is well-thumbed. This glorious new guide is much better. Credit must go to the author Rab Anderson who also did the layout and took many of the photographs and to the publishers, the Scottish Mountaineering Press.

The Introduction has a brief biography of John Rooke Corbett, who first compiled this list of hills in 1939, followed by notes on the route descriptions, safety, and other useful information.

The hills are organised into twenty geographical sections, each starting with a lovely double-page photo (I especially like the dramatic one for section 14 of Beinn Airigh Charr across Loch Maree) and then a map of the area with the Corbetts marked. There are maps for each hill or group of hills too. The maps are in colour and show the routes and the topography. They are lovely to look at but I must admit I find the simpler non-topographical maps of the original guide easier for actually locating the Corbetts.

The hill descriptions are excellent and have advice and information as well as the bare bones of the routes. Each one is accompanied by one or more photographs, most of them superb. This is a book you can browse just for the photographs. They certainly lured me in, reminding of many Corbetts I haven’t visited for many years and inspiring me to go and climb them again.

This is a book for all lovers of the Scottish Hills. You don’t have to be a Corbett bagger to enjoy it. You might be after flicking through its pages though!

The Corbetts is published by the Scottish Mountaineering Press and costs £35.