Refreshingly you are interested in a good night's sleep rather than just shaving ounces. Me too. It's a lot easier to carry a few extra mattress ounces after a good night's sleep than to carry a light weight mattress after a lousy night's sleep.

I'd wait for the new Thermarest NEO AIR. I just got off the phone with a customer service guy at Cascade Designs, who owns Thermarest. He said the Neo Air mattresses are coming out early next year, March at the latest.

The NEO AIR mattress, in Regular size, weighs 14 oz. The next lightest inflatable Thermarest full length mattress, The Prolite 3 Regular length, is 20 oz. Plus the NEO AIR is slightly warmer in R value than the Prolite 3 and definitely warmer than the uninsulated Big Agnes Air Core.

Eric
PS. I forgot to mention another "sleep aid". These quilt guys are onto something besides light weight. On warm nights, I zip my bag all the way open, hook the foot of the bag over the foot of my Thermarest UL mattres and sleep like I'm at home, not in a confining mummy bag. Being a stomach sleeper it works great.


Edited by 300winmag (08/28/08 10:08 PM)
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"There are no comfortable backpacks. Some are just less uncomfortable than others."