Ultralight comfort sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what this pad delivers on mild-weather trips. For just 14 ounces, it provides head-to-ankle comfort on 2.5 inches of air—so it’s longer, fatter, and less bulky than many pads of comparable weight. Testers said the Ether’s weight-saving trapezoidal shape is best-suited for ounce-counters and static sleepers who aren’t likely to roll off a pad.
After two nights in northern Colorado’s Dinosaur National Monument, with temps in the 40s, a tester raved about the mattresslike cushion. And on a weeklong trek in the Alps, testers loved its tiny packed size—rolled up, it’s almost small enough to fit in a one-liter bottle. On less-than-level campsites, the raised diamond-ripstop pattern on the pad’s 33-denier nylon shell held sleeping bags firmly in place.