Sea To Summit - Ether Light XT Insulated Air Sleeping Mat

Im a side sleeper. I have the XLite. Often feels like the baffles lack structure at the sides so in the mornings I'm fidgeting around feeling like im rolling off the mat. Not used a Tensor although I have heard it offers much better support for side sleepers. Also, the Xlite suffers from mould spots on what seems the outside. For comfort though, from all the mats ive laid on, sea to summit are the most comfortable

I tried the r-3.2 model, found it too cold. Exchanged it for the womans model, which has a slightly higher 3.5 r-value, and also found it too cold. (This was during spring trips at sea level.) I have not had this problem with other pads with roughly those r-values. There’s just something about the design of the old model, down insulation plus cold spots, that makes it sleep colder than the r-value would suggest. At least for me.

The sea to summit is 10cm thick, which is amazing for it's size and weight. But it's made of a noisy fabric

When I did Baker I brought a closed cell pad (Nemo switch back) and an inflatable (Sea to summit) for comfort and redundancy. You'll be hard pressed to find a new bag that's also lightweight for $200. You'll probably need to see if you can find something used or I would recommend you see if you can rent one.

Ended up getting a couple sea to summit mats on sale for $60.

I got some Sea to Summit Ether Light XT pads on sale a few months ago for the kids and they seem to be happy with them. So they may not need something as nice as a megamat for a little while.

Big Agnes and sea to summit checks all your boxes. Small/compact, uses vertical baffles to prevent that bouncy castle feeling and provide actual support

Test both and then decide, because everyone has a different body. I personally switched from the Sea to Summit Ether Light XT Insulated (size L with similar baffle structure to the Tensor) to the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite NXT (size RW). Both are wide, the NXT is just regular length and as a side sleeper, I’ll never go back. I think the crucial point is to inflate it to the right pressure because overinflation won’t be comfortable. My preferred pressure is when I sit on the pad I almost touch the ground, but when I lie down, it feels perfect.

Rapide sl is peak. My favorite pad. Ive got a sea so summit pad that i love too but can't remember the name of it. It has like a 7 or 8 r value tho.

Self-inflating foam mats seem like a good middle ground. I hadnt seen the nemo flyer. Looks very similar to the new sea to summit pursuit self-inflating that i just got (5cm thick, 600g). It's extremely comfortable and i cant wait to try it out, after getting zero sleep on my etherlight xt recently. Do you have the zlite for extra padding, or for extra warmth?

Ive used the sts ether light xt and the ba zoom ul, and the zoom ul is more comfortable for a side sleeper imo. Not sure if the xr is much better than the xt