Hi All,
Like Roleigh, I picked up a Xframe (full size) a couple weeks ago. I took it out for 5 nights last weekend with my daughter, Brenda. I had a good trip but was unimpressed by the pad. I tried various techniques with it but could not get very comfortable except for one night.
I had 8.6 pounds of food for the two of us, and planned to pick up a pack of hot dogs and a couple steaks as we paddled by a town (Inlet, NY). Total pack weight was about 21 pounds. Brenda carried about 10 pounds. We stayed at Alger Island on Fourth Lake, Bug Lake and Brown Tract on our yoyo between Old Forge and Raquette Lake. 4 nights were in Lean-to's and one night was sleeping on the ground.
Generally, conditions were summer with hot, hazy, humid and a chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms. Nights were fairly warm with the coldest night being around 45F. We got rain, a severe thunderstorm followed by multiple showers, all night on one night on the hill at Bug Lake. It drizzled a couple other times but only for short periods of time in the afternoon.
At 72"x18" the pad is a little narrower than either the Nightlite or the Neoair. The narrow pad created some problems in the lean-to's with my tossing and turning. Weight was LESS than advertised, 242g or 8.54oz. The total kit weighed 278g or 9.8oz (including bag and hand pump.) Advertised weight was 9.1oz for the pad and 10.6oz including pump. The Klymit Inertia pad is also a bit thinner than the Neoair at 1.5" thick.
The same narrowness lets it be put inside a bag for increased warmth at night. The holes in the pad (called Loft Pockets) allow the insulation under your bag to loft into them. Since this was about 50% of the pads surface, it keeps you somewhat warmer, though it wasn't really needed in summer. I did the same with the NeoAir a few years ago under cold conditions (~10F) in the High Peaks and it does work pretty well even without the Loft Pockets. The best sleep I could manage was using my bag as a quilt and sleeping on the pad in the lean-to's. The increased ventilation was welcome and should also be mentioned in their adds, though it isn't.
Sleeping on the ground was fine with the Klymit. I simply scraped up some forest duff around the edges and slept very well. Tossing and turning meant staying in the same "nest" on the ground and the pad did not shift around. Quite comfortable. Sleeping in the lean-to's was difficult. I tried two different techniques, pad inside the bag and pad outside the bag. Various pressures were tried, eventually arriving at a fairly firm pressure for sleeping on hard surfaces and somewhat softer on duff. But, I toss and turn at night. I quickly found I rolled off the pad on the hard floors of the lean-to's. (Having a slippery tarp under us seemed to make the problem worse, but, I can easily recoat the tarp...not so for the sleeping bag, or, repairing a hole inadvertently punched in the pad
by a stray sliver.) At every roll I made, I needed to reposition myself on the pad. Annoying, since, I had to be marginally awake to figure out where the pad was. And, due to the body mapping, whether it was too high or low for my body...more than simply pulling the pad under me again.
I used my long johns for sleeping in, but I assumed that there might be a difference with pants and shirt on. So I tried that for two nights. Basically, there was no difference, except when I tried the pad inside the bag. Then my pants seemed to catch on the holes and required me to lift away from the pad to release the catch. Using the pad inside the bag means using long johns for ease of movement. Comparing this to the Neoair in the same configuration, I think that the Neoair was slightly warmer, because I could also wear my cloths over my long johns and the IR baffles inside the Neoair, regardless of the extra lofting of the Klymit. It didn't matter at the temperatures we were sleeping at, but I believe this to be true.
Overall, I was not impressed with the Klymit pad. For me, it was difficult to sleep on in the lean-to's. And it was too small to be used as a pack frame for my pack. I was using the Miniposa because of the arrow shaft stiffeners already present in this pack (though I remove them when I use the Nightlite.) While very effective in the forest, it was not really well suited to lean-to's. For a more strict back sleeper, it would work fine. Because I toss and turn, it was a problem.
My thoughts only . . .
jdm
James D. Marco
302 Mary Lane
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-273-9132 (land), 607-220-9969(cell)
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