Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Trekker
Thirty years ago Therm-a-Rest revolutionized sleeping outside with their air/foam pads. Now they've done it again with an air mattress. Everyone knows that an air mattress is comfortable, but allows convective heat loss, making them just about worthless in cold temperatures.
20 x 47 inches, 9 oz. $119.95 | 20 x 66 inches, 13 oz. $139.95. | 20 x 72 inches, 14 oz. $149.95 | 25 x 77 inches, 19 oz. $169.95 | www.thermarest.com | ★★★★
Thirty years ago Therm-a-rest, by Cascade Designs, revolutionized sleeping outside with their
air/foam pads. Now they’ve done it again with an air mattress. Everyone knows that an air mattress is comfortable, but allows convective heat loss,
making them just about worthless in cold temperatures.
The NeoAir Trekker is different because a series of baffled chambers prevents the air from moving around, and a reflective space-blanket-like coating reflects
body heat. The Trekker is three times warmer than any other air mattress, has an R-Value of 2.5, and is almost as warm as Therm-a-rest’s Ridgerest
pad (R-value 2.6), the standard high-altitude foam pad.
Since the NeoAir Trekker achieves its warmth without down insulation, you don’t need the bulk and hassle of a pump and can blow it up by mouth, without
worrying about saturating the insulation. The pad has a slight crinkly sound as if you were moving on rice paper.
Therm-a-rest calls this a three-season pad, but I used it comfortably down into the 20s. It is also durable. When I wasn’t looking, my 4-year-old boy,
Ari, and my 5-year-old daughter, Sasha, decided it was a beach toy. They placed it by the couch, climbed up to the couch’s arm and repeatedly jumped
high into the air, knees tucked in, yelling Cannonball! as they landed on the gossamer mattress.
Bottom line, good as new, no leaks or punctures.
In short, the NeoAir Trekker delivers the comfort of a foam pad at half the weight and bulk.
- Un-insulated air mattress with nearly the warmth of a foam pad.
- Super light and packs to nearly nothing.
- Internal baffles reduce convection.
- Revolutionizes air mattresses.
—Larry Amkraut