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The REI clerk's sleeping pad advice was spot on after 3 cold nights near Asheville
Before a trip to the Pisgah National Forest last fall, a clerk at the REI in Asheville told me to skip the inflatable pad and get a closed-cell foam one if I was camping in October. I figured he was just pushing the cheaper item, so I ignored him and bought a $45 self-inflating model instead. By the second night at 4,800 feet, I was waking up every hour with cold seeping through the bottom, and the valve kept leaking air anyway. Has anyone else found that foam pads really do beat inflatables when the ground temp drops below 40?
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paul3461mo ago
Learned that lesson the hard way on the AT one time. Foam pads are just warmer, period. The ground steals heat way faster than people think, and foam blocks it better than any air pocket. Plus you never wake up on a flat balloon at 3am. That self-inflating thing was probably a dud from the start too. Foam's not comfy but you sleep better when you're not freezing.
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