The REI employee who told me my sleeping pad was too thin, at 19 degrees it clicked

Last February I took my 2.5 inch pad to Big Bend, woke up shivering at 4 AM, and swore the guy at the Austin REI had it wrong when he said insulation R-value matters more than thickness. He suggested adding a closed-cell foam layer underneath, so I tried it on a Shenandoah trip in 30 degree weather, and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else found that combining pads beats buying one fancy one, or am I just cheap with my gear budget?

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ward.fiona3d agoMost Upvoted

Layers beat one big purchase in a lot of places, not just camping. Same reason you wear a base layer and a puffy instead of one giant coat, and why people stack blankets in winter instead of buying one super thick comforter. Cheap foam under a decent air pad gives you redundancy too, if the air pad fails you still have something. It's the same logic as carrying two smaller water bottles instead of one huge one, you can split the weight and you're not screwed if one cracks. People get hung up on the single fancy item when combining two mid ones usually wins.