Gear Review

Thermarest Prolite Pads

effective insulation
small pack size
sleeping comfort

Thermarest's inflatable sleeping pads have come a long way. Originally plagued by leaky valves, punctures, and poor insulation, the mattresses nonetheless took the backpacking world by storm thanks to their unmatched comfort.

The Prolite series represents Thermarest's newest, lightest line of inflatable pads, and the improvements are evident.

While they remain heavier than a simple foam pad, the Prolite pads are surprisingly light: a four-season Prolite 4 pad weighs only one pound, eight ounces in a size regular.

That may seem a lot, but consider that you're getting enough insulation value to sleep comfortably on snow.

Pack it Down — 3/4 size pad

If you don't need quite that much warmth, you can switch to the three-season Prolite 3 pad — just 13 ounces in the three-quarter (short) length.

Thermarest remains king of its domain in the comfort department. Since buying my Prolite pads, I find it gets harder and harder to leave them at home.

It's hard to measure the worth of good night's rest in ounces, but given the gains in comfort you likely won't begrudge the extra weight of a Prolite if you're used to sleeping on a Ridgerest pad.

The Prolite's micro dot textured surface provides friction between your sleeping bag and the pad, insuring that your pad won't slowly migrate away underneath you.

And in the morning, you can deflate your Prolite pads and roll them up into a nice tidy package that fits easily in your pack, unlike a bulky foam pad.

Dust getting into the valves was one of the banes of the original Thermarest pads. They've tweaked the valve design to make it much more resistant to that issue.

Of greater concern is the threat of punctures: especially in winter, if you puncture your pad, its insulating value plummets to near worthlessness. That prospect is dire enough to recommend carrying a patch kit (available from Thermarest) at all times in snowy weather.

How easy or hard is it to puncture a Thermarest? Obviously, any sharp metallic object, such as a steel crampon point, will do the trick. Sleeping directly over sharp rocks can also do it, if you're not careful. If you do puncture your pad, Thermarest will repair it for you. Send it to them with a check for $20 (as of this writing), and they'll fix it and ship it back good as new.

I find the extra thickness of the Prolite 4 nice even in summer for the added cushioning, but then again I may be going soft. The three-season Prolite Pads will be the best choice for most hikers—unless you're a sleep-on-the-bare-ground ultralighter. You'll never look at a plain foam pad the same again.