The Rock Entrance 350 Professional Ultralight Backpacking Mattress combines a 900 fill energy down quilt and a sheet with a pillowcase attachment to create a draft-free sleep system when mixed with an inflatable sleeping pad. The result’s a sleep system that can hold you toasty heat all the way down to 36 levels F. The mixing of the quilt and the sheet makes use of full size zippers, draft tubes, and draft collars to marry the quilt and sheet and remove aspect drafts. Rock Entrance is a cottage gear producer in Ukraine that makes ultralight quilts, sleeping baggage, tarps, bivies, and clothes.
- Quilt weight: 605g / 21.34 oz (21.9 oz measured)
- 900 Fill Energy Insulation weight: 350g / 12.35 oz
- Quilt Development: Field baffles
- Temperature score: (Tcomfort/Tlimit) +2°C / -4°C | 36°F / 25°F
- Sheet weight: 130g / 4.59 oz (4.7 oz measured)
- Compression sack weight: 40g / 1.41 oz
- Weight of the set (blanket, sheet, compression sack): 775g / 27.34 oz (1.71 lbs)
- Materials: Ripstop nylon 10d with DWR, YKK #3 zippers
- Price: $341
- Professionals: Ingenious manner of eliminating aspect drafts, very light-weight
- Cons: The zippers are simply snagged on the quilt shell cloth; a single zipper failure renders the system unusable.
Facet drafts
Backpacking quilts can undergo from aspect drafts as a result of they’re not connected to your sleeping pad and air can sneak in alongside the sides and chill you. That is in all probability the principle motive why folks complain that the temperature scores of their quilts are incorrect. A number of quilt firms have give you a wide range of strategies for coping with aspect drafts, though most quilt firms punt on the difficulty fully.
For instance,
- Zenbivy covers the sleeping pad with a sheet that wraps over the sting of the quilt and blocks drafts.
- Warbonnet makes use of aspect elastics that hold the perimeters of the quilt near your torso.
- Katabatic Gear makes use of “stretchy” edges to restrict aspect drafts.
- Neve Gear positions their quilt pad straps 18″ from the sting, creating what quantities to aspect draft tubes on your quilt.
Rock Entrance addresses the aspect draft drawback by utilizing zippers to attach a quilt to a sheet that covers your sleeping pad. The quilt has down-filled draft tubes that drop down over the zippers to forestall drafts from the perimeters, in addition to draft collars on the head and foot ends.
When configuring the Rock Entrance sleep system, you connect the zipper tooth that that run down the perimeters of the quilt to the tooth on the sheet, utilizing zipper sliders on the foot finish of the sheet (see above). The highest and backside zippers overlap to assist remove any air gaps. Getting the tooth of the quilt and sheet to attach requires some fantastic motor expertise, though it will get sooner the extra you do it.
The quilt, which Rock Entrance refers to as a blanket, has a drawstring footbox with a tube of down insulation alongside its border, very similar to a draft collar. That further insulation and materials fully block footbox drafts when the footbox is scrunched closed.
The left and proper sheet zippers curve in as they strategy the pinnacle finish of the blanket so as to shrink the dimensions of the opening across the prime of your shoulders and neck. The neck of the “blanket” additionally has a draft collar and drawstring closure. When tightened, so no air can enter or escape, the enclosed space between the blanket and the sheet turns into noticeably hotter and stays that manner all night time lengthy.
Getting out and in from below the blanket is simple; you partially unzip the aspect you want to exit from. However breaking down the sleep system into its element elements requires a fragile contact to keep away from catching the 10d shell cloth within the zippers. It’s a must to keep in mind that that is ultralight gear and needs to be dealt with fastidiously.
Pillow case
I haven’t talked about the pillow case element of the backpacking mattress but. It’s linked to the highest of the sheet with webbing straps and buckles, and when used, does an excellent job of holding a pillow in place. The lengthy aspect of the pillow case is open, so you may slide your pillow inside, cinching it closed with a twine lock to forestall the pillow from sliding out.
A couple of extra observations
- The sheet solely matches sure sleeping pads and never others. Sheet-to-pad compatibility might be spelled out in better element within the product specs. Rock Entrance requested me what pad I deliberate to make use of with the Backpacking Mattress once I ordered, so I’d suggest checking with them, since feedback on their web site point out that sure pads are incompatible.
- The quilt has small webbing loops sewn simply contained in the aspect draft tubes, which Rock Entrance suggests might be used to make the quilt right into a hammock underquilt. I haven’t tried that but (I solely simply noticed it flicking by their web site photographs), however it’s an fascinating possibility.
- Rock Entrance sells a pad attachment system that permits you to use the quilt as a conventional backpacking quilt with out the sheet.
- The stitching, supplies, and high quality of manufacture are glorious.
Advice
The Rock Entrance 350 Professional Ultralight Backpacking Mattress combines a 900 fill energy down quilt and a sheet with a pillowcase attachment to create a draft-free sleep system when mixed with an inflatable sleeping pad. Facet drafts are fully eradicated when the quilt is zippered to the sheet and the down footbox and neck draft collars are cinched tight.
Whereas efficient on this software, zippers do fail (see our article Why do Backpack and Tent Zippers Fail?) and aren’t essentially the most dependable fastener one can use in backcountry gear. That’s actually my one reservation with the Rock Entrance Ultralight Backcountry Mattress. However when you’re keen to babysit its zippers by maintaining them clear and lubricated, and changing the sliders when essential, then the Rock Entrance Backpacking mattress ought to handle your wants properly.
Disclosure: Rock Entrance offered samples for evaluate.
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