Gear Review

RidgeRest Sleeping Pad

1. light
2. virtually indestructible
3. economical
4. no-frills

Try this fun home experiment with your expensive inflatable pad: poke it randomly with a pin. Take a knife and cut a deep slash through the middle. For good measure, crush the value with pliers. Now try sleeping on sharp rocks.

A classic Thermarest RidgeRest pad will suffer the same abuse and worse, yet still provide a good night's rest. Durability and reliability are two key reasons to choose a RidgeRest over an inflatable pad. They don't cost much, either.

The old-school RidgeRest tends to be a favorite of the hardcore crowd, who just don't want to fool around with a leaky inflatable mattress in the backcountry.

No other pad can match the RidgeRest's combination of light weight, comfort, and warmth—and you can take a pair of scissors to it to shed even more weight.

The clever bit here is the pad's ridged design. No, this is not done merely for swanky style: the ridges actually improve warmth, by creating pockets of trapped air.

Also nifty is the comfort boost you get from the ridges, which better adapt to uneven ground, as well as giving the foam a 'cushier' feel. Finicky sleepers beware: if you're generally not comfortable sleeping on the ground, the RidgeRest probably isn't for you. In terms of ultimate comfort, a 1/2-inch pad isn't going to compete with a top-quality inflatable mattress such as Thermarest's ProLite series.

If comfort isn't your only objective, however, the RidgeRest is well worth a look. Ultralight backpackers will like the RidgeRest's low weight and customizable size. By the ounce, the pad's insulating quality is hard to beat. Winter mountaineers often combine a closed-cell pad with a short inflatable for an extra layer of insulation on snow.

Even ordinary backpackers will find the Ridgerest's versatility useful: toss it on the ground anywhere you like to eat lunch, catch a short nap in the shade, or sip tea and watch the sunset. There's no need to worry about puncturing or otherwise damaging it—and dust and dirt brush right off. Because the RidgeRest is made of closed-cell foam, it is fully waterproof and will dry in minutes.

Really the only disadvantage of these pads is their bulk: you can't compress them, which means they don't tend to fit inside an internal-frame pack. I just tie mine to the outside of the pack. This makes the pad easy to access whenever you want to take a break.

The RidgeRest is a no-frills pad, to be sure, but its low weight, customizability, and absolute reliablity make it a prefered choice for many experienced mountaineers. If you're tired of carrying the extra weight of an inflatable pad, give one a try.

weight (regular): 12.8 ounces

» Bottom Line: The Ridgerest Rules! (for minimalists, at least)

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