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.