Thread: Sleeping mat, insulated or not?

I spent years using the old foam roll mat and taking the piss out of mates with inflatable mats for being soft.

Coldest night of my life was on a foam roll mat and a spread-out climbing rope. Set up camp in the dark on the only flat bit we could find, mates side of the tent was on snow and he wasn't warm but wasn't uncomfortably cold either, my side was on hard ice and utterly miserable despite a 4 season alpine sleeping bag - losing most of my heat into the ground.

Not long after that experience I bought an exped downmat and wondered why on earth I hadn't done it years earlier, even downsized to a lighter sleeping bag once I wasn't losing that heat to the ground.