Winter camping usually means sleeping on snow which means you re going to need a winter sleeping pad setup that blocks the cold beneath you from stealing away precious body heat.
Best sleeping mat for winter camping.
A pad with a 5 r value or you can add a foam pad under your air pad is great for cold sleepers or sleeping on snow.
Most sleeping mats are very lightweight with backpacking in mind while others are the ones you d want if you were camping in the same place for a few days the kind you wouldn t want to lug across somewhere extremely wild.
We slept on 15 different sleeping pads on a total of five car camping and backpacking trips as.
Best sleeping pad for winter camping.
So the higher the r value the warmer and more insulating it ll be and the better you will.
To accomplish this you have two options.
Therm a rest neoair uberlite and klymit static v2.
It references a camping mat or sleeping pad s ability to retain your body warmth during the night.
5 exped s downmat has an r value of 7 8.
In general you ll want a sleeping pad with a value greater than 5 for comfortable winter camping.
Recommended sleeping pad r values.
Therm a rest neoair xtherm best 3 season sleeping pads.
16 ounces give you an r value of 4 2 a packed size roughly equal to a liter bottle and a lot of.
The therm a rest uberlite is an excellent choice for ultralight backpacking in the warmer months weighing in at 8 8 ounces but it s not warm enough for winter camping.
Our favorite pad for ultralight backpacking is the therm a rest neoair xlite.
Winter camping on snow.
The new astm standard all current sleeping pads above are now rated based on a standardized atsm international test which is new for 2020.
The first is to combine two summer weight sleeping pads to create a double layer of insulation.
Best three season sleeping bags.
For summer something in the 2 to 4 range should work for warmer nights.
A good sleeping pad can transform hours of tossing and turning into a night of a least decent sleep.