 |
Therm-a-Rest ProLite 4 Fast & Light Mattress
Equipment DetailsManufacturer: Therm-a-Rest Brand: Therm-A-Rest Product features: - The lightest most compact 4 season mattress
- Ultralight--Innovative new material reduces weight by 25%
- Compact--Tapered ergonomic design rolls up super small
- Nonslip-- Grip-dot bottom keeps mattress from slipping
- Lifetime warranty
Sports reviews of Therm-a-Rest ProLite 4 Fast & Light MattressCustomer Review: closeout gem Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
This 2007 model has been replaced with newer ones in the same series that go for ~$100, which is more than I wanted to spend. I was lucky to find this on closeout for $50, and am so glad I did - if I had to replace it, I now think it's definitely worth $100. I considered the Neo Air, but it just didn't look either durable or very insulating; I'd wait for more long-term user reviews of that new product.
This pad strikes a great balance between comfort, light weight, and compact size - really the best pad I've ever owned. As a bonus, it fits inside my old 3/4 Guidelight stuff sack. It's both full-length and a lot more comfortable and weighs only 5 oz more (1 lb 8 oz vs. 1 lb 3 oz)!
The only time I feel the need for more padding or insulation is when I'm sleeping directly on snow or very sharp rocks, in which case I put a thin closed-cell foam pad (Texsport Pack-lite; $8/8oz) underneath it.
The reason I had to replace the Guidelight was that it started delaminating and had a big bubble in it that kept getting worse. This was probably because I was always overinflating it to try to make it more comfortable (which you don't need to do with the Prolite, in fact it's most comfortable slightly soft so you sink in a bit). Also, when you blow up a pad in cold weather, the condensation from your breath gets it wet inside, and mildew can grow inside it, which also causes delamming.
Now, after each trip, I now unroll the Prolite then put it in a sunny spot for a few days, periodically squeezing the air out and letting it self-inflate with fresh air, and then store it dry and unrolled, with the valve open. Hopefully this will last a lot longer than the Guidelight.
P.S. If you're having trouble getting it in the stuff sack, try this: to deflate it, open the valve and fold it in four or five layers like an accordion and sit or kneel on it; fold that stack in half and sit again; now close the valve. Unfold and start rolling up tightly from the bottom; when you get almost near the top and the remaining air is starting to reinflate the top part of the pad, ope the valve, finish rolling, then suck the last air out and close the valve. As I said, it rolls tight enough to easily fit in the 3/4 Guidelight sack, which was a much thinner pad. The factory stuff sack calls for folding it in half, which seems like more of a PITA to me.
Description of Therm-a-Rest ProLite 4 Fast & Light MattressOur new Fast & Light(R) mattresses offer unrivaled freedom. They weigh less and pack smaller than any mattresses ever before, facilitating the kind of high-speed, low-weight experience that extreme alpinists, adventure racers, and long-distance backpackers have always craved
|
 |
|
|
|