Hammock camping opens up a ton of possibilities for outdoor enthusiasts. For starters, you’ll have access to camping space, since you’d be able to hang up your hammock on slopes and inclines, rocky or snowy terrain or ground soaked with runoff, and still get a great night’s sleep. Hammocks are also a great means of limiting the footprint you leave on the environment – unlike frequent camp sites where you’d have to set up your tents and sleeping bags, the natural growth of the area is not affected and subjected to top-soil erosion and so on.
All this is great, as well as the fact that you’re not immediately exposed to critters crawling on the ground, and the circulation of air around your hammock can keep you cool during warm summer nights. However, the situation’s a bit like a two-sided coin – what about cool weather? Hammocks by themselves don’t provide the appropriate insulation, and waking up to stiff, sore and cold hips and shoulders and numb fingers and toes is the last thing a camper or hiker out in the wild would want. The solution is simple – sleeping pads to keep you warm when hammock camping.
KEN’S PICK
Klymit Hammock V Insulated Sleeping Pad
You’re certain to keep cozy in the depths of this all-encompassing sleeping pad, designed specifically with hammock users and campers in mind. 180° Klymalite Synthetic Insulation works to slow air-flow between the top and bottom of the sleeping pad, the lower half buffering the cold while the warmer upper half encloses you in a blanket of warmth to snuggle down in. An impressive R-value of 4.4 makes this a great sleeping pad for winter weather, the side rail wings fully allowing you to cocoon yourself in warmth within your hammock, the special, V-shaped structure of the pad ergonomically designed to support your body and deliver maximum comfort so you can snooze without any discomfort. We love that this sleeping pad is specifically designed to sit in a hammock without shifting around underneath you, the non-slip structure ensuring it doesn’t slip out and you don’t wake up shivering and cold.
The polyester fabric covering has a denier rating of 20, making it both soft, comfortable and breathable as well as quite wear and tear resistant and very durable in adverse conditions. Anti-microbial laminate also works to discourage the growth of microorganisms, minimizing odors, preventing mold and mitigating other forms of damage, and generally keeping your sleeping pad a hygienic and safe place to relax in. Weighing 35 ounces and folding into a compact storage bag, not taking up too much space in your baggage and certainly not as cumbersome to carry around and set-up as tents, the sleeping pad can be inflated with 15 to 20 breaths, the flush flat inflation and deflation valve enabling you to pump air in and let it out quickly and efficiently. The bag comes with its own repair kit incorporated into the storage bag, so it’s ready to carry and use at all times.
KEN’S BUDGET PICK
INVOKER Ultralight Inflatable Camping Sleeping Pad
Highly budget friendly and a great option for keeping cozy in your hammock, this inflatable sleeping pad weighs 1 pound 3 oz in its deflated state just small enough to tuck into a pocket in your backpack. The sleeping pad has an R-value of 2.7, great for warding off the slight cold you might otherwise experience at night when out camping during warmer seasons. Recessed air chambers trap and hold air to create a stable but comfy mattress to deliver the best support to you, ready to use in just 25 seconds using the built in foot pump! Structured out of sturdy 20D nylon, this sleeping pad is water-resistant, as well as holding up incredibly well to wear and tear while remaining comfortable and breathable to sleep in, a handy valve enabling you to deflate the unit quickly when you need to pack up and hit the road again.
RUNNER-UP
EcoTek Outdoors Hybern8 Ultralight Inflatable Sleeping Pad
Flexcell technology provides this sleeping pad with its honeycomb structure – when inflated, the air passages constrict and air cells isolate themselves from one another, preventing the free movement of air and therefore the loss of heat. Preliminary testing by third-party facilities indicates the R-value of the pad is between 1.8 to 2.3, great for warm to moderately cool environments, the versatile shape brilliant for use in sleeping bags and of course hammocks to keep you properly cushioned, as well as warm and cozy. Inflating fully in just 10 to 15 breaths, the inflation and deflation valve also lets you expel all that air when it’s time to pack the unit up, weighing just around a pound and lightweight to carry in a backpack, folding into a 10 inch by 3 inch bundle. Polyester of denier rating 70 offers impressive durability, resisting wear and tear and moisture damage, while still remaining comfortable and soft to the touch and breathable to lay back in.
This sleeping pad is also an ideal choice for the environmentally conscious consumer – for each purchase of a sleeping pad, the brand pledges to plant a tree to restore national forests damaged by wildfire, disease or other disasters or epidemics.
Why you should ditch your tent for a hammock!
There’s no doubt that camping in a good old fashioned tent certainly has its benefits. It provides shelter from the elements, livable space, and the feeling of being protected from whatever lurks in the woods! But what if you could have a camping experience that takes you so close to nature that you don’t need to feel protected? An experience that means you blend into those woods instead of separating yourself from them? What if your camping location wasn’t restricted to dry, flat ground with no vegetation on it? And what if you actually managed to sleep well for a change when camping?!
Elevate your camping setup to the suspended sling of a cozy hammock, and you get to experience all those things, and more! Hammock camping offers a whole new way to enjoy sleeping out in the wild, and it is also way more accessible to beginner campers than you might realize. Still not convinced?
These benefits of camping in a hammock may just sway you:
Thanks to coolofthewild.com for this graphic.