A ranger at Glacier Point told me my sleep pad was overkill

Last summer I hauled a 4 inch thick inflatable pad up the Panorama Trail in Yosemite. It weighed like 3 pounds and took up half my pack. Some ranger at the top saw me struggling to strap it on and said, you pack like you are sleeping at a Marriott. He suggested I try a closed cell foam pad under a 1.5 inch self inflater. I switched on my next trip to Kings Canyon and woke up just as comfortable, but my back felt way better on the hike out. Now I check the weight per ounce of warmth instead of just cushion thickness. Has anyone else ditched a luxury item after a ranger or guide talked some sense into them?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

tessa_adams31d ago

I carried a foam pad for years because I was too cheap to buy anything else, then swung the other way and bought the thickest thing REI had. My pack looked like I was moving apartments. A guy at a hostel in Bishop watched me roll it up one morning and just laughed, didn't even say anything, and that was somehow worse than the ranger comment. Went back to a thin inflatable plus a foam layer and my shoulders stopped hating me by mile eight. Turns out the guy who laughed was right and I wasted like eighty bucks finding that out.

6