One of my favorite comfort items..a nice foam sleeping pad...easy to pack and makes naps so much more comfortable

Been debating that. Never used it in the army, but now I'm thinking that its an extra layer of protection from the cold, wet ground.

The older, and more arthriticie I get, the more I appreciate a good sleeping pad!

I carry a large square of closed cell blue foam as an insulated situpon pad. Have used it to sit under a poncho back up against a stump waiting out thunderstorms and for someplace to sit in a snow pit when x-c skiing.

I carry it in my daypack for the possibility of spending the night out tending my survival fire. Good insulation is really important.

For backpacking I like the Ridgerest pads. Thicker cushion for sleeping but much more durable than the Thermarest inflatable. (I tend to bushwhack and the pads get a bit frazzled)

Most sleeping bag ratings stipulate a ground pad underneath. Your body weight will compress the bottom of the bag killing most of the loft. You really need a pad in cold weather.

Couldn't agree more about the insulation benefits of a foam pad.

I've always considered a sleeping pad one of my essential pieces of gear after sleeping on the cold hard ground a time or two. Without one the ground can/will pull the heat out of you & make you even colder.

getting a pad into a survival kit would be quite a trick,in a BOB which is sort of a camping kit,not so hard.for my camping trips i use a 2 inch thermarest and it's much better than blue foam or even a 1 inch thermarest.thats one bit of gear i don't cheat on even if it's a bit heavy.i sleep well but do wake up at least once a night to turn over.anyone who have been in the Army will tell you that along with a hot meal that sleep,and just not rest,will recharge your battery for whats next.not having a pad in my ditch kit i would go all out to make some sort of a soft spot to sleep.

In an internal frame pack, roll it loosely ad pack stuff inside it.

I carry a closed cell foam sitting pad (approximately) 30cm x 40cm (12in x 15in) in the back(inside) of my two day packs. I use this every time I stop just to make breaks more comfortable and my posterior dryer.

In a Survival Situation I would supplement it with the day pack itself. These are all backed with closed cell foam. Between the sitting pad and my bigger day pack I have a fairly good mattress.

I would place these above my Four-Finger Bowbed and/or any other biomass the forest might have if their is no evergreen bows.

Improvisation keeps us comfortable and alive in the wilderness and a mattress can make the difference between descent sleep and no sleep.

We tend to have a lot of winter in my area. Hence I tend to do a lot of winter stuff.

In winter, I always have a rolled up closed cell foam pad secured on my pack. Mine is about 3/4 length. If I get stuck out overnight (even above timberline) I can use my avy shovel to improvise a shelter (snow cave, tree well, ranger trench, whatever). I can then use the pad plus my pack to lie down on. I consider the pad to be an essential peice of winter gear.

Closed cell foam pads are also an excellent first aid item. They can be used to make several different kinds of dandy improvised splints. The can simultaneously immobolize, cushion, and insulate an injured limb. If everyone in a team carries one, you can put one under an injured person, and use others to splint him/her.

This is a great thread.

So, I guess I'd ask what is better, the closed cell foam (ensolite?) or one of those waffle looking pads?

Currently I carry a Thermarest type of inflatable but am not sure if that is the best/most durable.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

When I was doing some great bushwhacking backpacking trips my regular partner and I carried Ridgerests. Never worried about them. Sometimes they were carried as a big open tube lining our packs, sometimes rolled tightly and strapped outside where they got fairly shredded sometimes.

I think the corrugated Ridgerest is more comfortable than the harder smooth stuff. But it takes up more space. For camping on snow one of each would be good.

A 3rd occasional partner carried a Thermarest. He had a bad night when the mattress sprang a leak and he had no patch kit (nor would that have helped at 0200 in the dark woods). We DID have a big lump of white open-cell foam that some careless camper had left in the woods that we'd policed up to carry out when we broke camp so John stuffed that chewed up foam under his tent floor and made-do. (brief story here: http://estes.on-line.com/rmnp/reports/teratomah.html)

Learn what you will out of that.

I like half length (seven folds) of a Z-rest. Folds up nice and compact and gives enough padding. Supplement with a pack for the lower half of the body.

That's my thinking exactly!

Yes, I found that out this weekend. 22*F on Friday night with a dusting of snow, 13*F last night with 4" snow by the time we woke up. Brought an REI 3.5" for me, Ridgerest for the pooch, and my Neoair as a backup, which is good because one guy in the group didn't have a decent pad.

I use the Neoair on by GHB. It is small enough to fit in one of the outside water bottle pockets, but I carry it inside the bag to help prevent damage. For an air mattress it does a good job of insulating.

A sleeping pad is NOT a comfort item in the winter, it is essential for not freezing. That said, I like the Z-Rest for its ease of folding and not going flat because of a hole.