Patrik Orcutt 12.29.22
Roland Tyson began making outside gear on an outdated industrial stitching machine in his childhood bed room in 1983, at 17 years outdated. As a younger outside fanatic, Roland realized that he had a ardour and a expertise for creating cutting-edge outside gear. Soon he was designing and manufacturing gear for different Australian adventurers. By 1991, Sea to Summit was born after outfitting an uncommon first ascent of Mt. Everest (a 1,126+ kilometer, 8,848 meters in elevation trek from sea degree to a solo summit).
Today Sea to Summit is a multimillion-dollar outside model juggernaut that produces top-quality gear in every thing from tents to tenting towels. This previous summer season I used to be invited on a 10-day tenting journey in Glacier National Park Montana and needed to pack as gentle as attainable to keep away from paying for further checked luggage. In my seek for a compact sleeping bag and mat I got here throughout a few of Sea to Summit’s choices and settled on their Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat for my journey.
The Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat or UIASM as I will probably be referring to it for the rest of this evaluation was independently bought on my own, and Sea to Summit has had no enter on this evaluation.
The UIASM was examined over the course of 5 months on a number of tenting journeys in the summertime months of Montana to the cool autumn months of Maine.
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat (Regular) – Specs
- Material – 30D / 40D nylon with anti-microbial liquid-extruded TPU lamination
- Insulation – Exkin Platinum cloth and Thermolite
- R-Value – 3.1
- Season Rating – 2.5
- Thickness – 2 in
- Dimensions – 72 in x 21.5 in
- Packed Size – 5 x 9.5 in
- Weight – 16.9 oz
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat – Comfort
The UIASM affords a shocking quantity of consolation given its dimension and weight ratio. Coming in at 2 inches thick, there’s a shocking quantity of cushion included with this mat. Sea to Summit packed is their Air Sprung Cell design that delivers stability and assist to your again. The Air Sprung Design at the side of many dot welds creates small pockets of air all through the mat giving it, its distinctive design. One small draw back I discover with these dots is that they are going to gather dust or sand over time if not shaken out. One benefit to the dot welds is that you just received’t have to fill the mat with as a lot air which means you received’t get as light-headed late at night time when organising camp. While with reference to inflation, the Stuff sack that the mat is available in can also be a pump sack which means that you could gather air within the sack and easily roll it onto the pad. I discovered this to be a really helpful characteristic and allowed me to fill the mat in a short time. Lastly, the isn’t a loud mat however is actually not fairly both. Personally, I’m a heavy sleeper so this didn’t trouble me a lot however once I would get up it was actually the loudest individual in my tent at instances.
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat – Weight and Packability
As talked about earlier than I selected the UIASM primarily for its dimension and packability as I didn’t have a lot area in my bag for something apart from an ultralight sleeping pad. This mat is available in at 16.9 oz for the common dimension mannequin and will be packed all the way down to an extremely small 5 x 9.5 in. This is by far the UIASM’s greatest draw and for good cause as its dimension is very aggressive in its market. Most different mats that I personal whereas, not within the “ultralight” class are no less than 30% – 40% bigger making them way more troublesome to pack up. This mat was actually designed with weight and dimension in thoughts and it reveals all through.
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat – Warmth
The UIASM mat is marketed as being a 2.5-season mat and coming with an R-Value of three from Sea to Summit. The R-value for insulation is a strategy to measure how a lot resistance the insulation has to warmth circulate. The greater the R-value, the extra resistance and the higher the fabric is at insulating you from the chilly. Since more often than not when tenting, you can be sleeping on one thing chilly, it’s a good suggestion to have a mat with a good R-Value.
While summer season days in Montana will be heat, the nights can get very chilly, particularly within the mountains. I discovered the R-value of the UIASM to be excellent for summer season tenting within the mountains however as soon as I into the autumn, not a lot. I’m an individual who generates quite a lot of warmth naturally and likes to sleep in colder rooms and even I discovered this mat to be not heat sufficient for fall tenting the place the temps get beneath 40 levels Farenheit. I feel this can be a nice mat, I simply additionally assume it’s extra of a 2 season mat and never a 2.5 as marketed.
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat – Durability
Durability on the UIASM has been nice in my testing. While I’ve not had this mat for a full 12 months, I feel it can final a really very long time. The mat is constructed of 30D / 40D nylon with TPU lamination giving it a light-weight but rugged really feel. The solely place I may see a possible sturdiness problem is with the purge valve that you just use to inflate the mat with. I lately had one in every of my Sea to Summit tenting pillows with the identical system fail on me after 5 years of use. This isn’t a knock on the mat however quite simply one thing to bear in mind.
Likes
- One of the smallest mats you may get in the marketplace
- Decent consolation is given its dimension and weight
- High-tech supplies and manufacturing processes result in perceived long-term sturdiness
Dislikes
- Not very huge for bigger campers
- Materials are noisy
- Not as heat as its competitors
Sea to Summit, Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat – Wrap up
Overall I feel Sea to Summit did precisely what got down to do with this product. The Ultralight Insulated Air Sleeping Mat is extremely light-weight and packable supplying you with the liberty to convey it on extra adventures. It’s not the warmest mat however that’s additionally not what it was designed for. I’d suggest utilizing it for summer season excursions or when dimension and weight are of the utmost significance. Coming in at $150 MSRP for the common dimension, I feel it additionally strikes a very good steadiness of worth and efficiency.
