Nemo Equipment Tensor Elite Ultralight Insulated Sleeping Mat

It depends on the trip, but I can at times be a ruthless gram counter. No, I’ve not taken to plucking out half my toothbrush’s bristles. Nor have I ditched regular undies to go out in a g-string to save weight on the fabric. Not yet, anyway. But I have, in order to head out with the lightest sleeping mat possible, for a long time used a super thin, ¾-length inflatable mat, one with huge sections cut out of it so that it looks like a skeleton of sorts. It’s so light that I’ve put up with its shortcomings (ie no comfort, and an R-value of 1) for years … until now.

This year, Nemo released its Tensor Elite Ultralight Insulated Sleeping Pad. It weighs a SFA tiny 246g. (That’s Sweet Featherweight All, BTW.) Yeah, it’s a little more than my skeleton mat, but not that much more. And it packs down almost equally small as well, to about the size of a Coke can. But unlike the other mat, the Tensor Elite (at least the regular mummy version, which I have, is full length at 182cm, has an R-value of 2.4 (which makes it suitable for three-season camping), and, crucially, has a 7.6cm thickness. That’s pretty plush; not that long ago, even heavyweight mats were topping out around there. This is a genuinely comfortable mat. Oh, and it sleeps quiet, too; it’s not a noisy, crinkly mat.

Be aware that the 246g weight (Nemo claims 240g) does not include the bag, tie-up strap or (importantly) the Vortex Pump Sack. Together, the whole package on my scales came to 323g. But gram counters, here’s the thing: You don’t need the pump sack! Ditch it, blow up the Tensor Elite directly by mouth, and save 62g.

The mat is a tad slippery though; if you tend to set up camp on steeply sloping sites, you may find yourself sliding off it. But overall, this is a mat that provides near-luxury at a seriously incredible weight.

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