Skippy from United Kingdom, Dorset Public Profile

The good thing about this pad is what it isn’t. Yes, a self inflating pad might seem old school but this one takes 7 blows to inflate fully. My last Sea to Summit took 50! And this isn’t noisy and crinkly to sleep on. It doesn’t have air chambers that could ‘blow’ on me in the middle of a long trip out. It’s not so thin of material, my dogs claws won’t puncture it.

Not sure why it’s irregular - other than the stamp IRREGULAR - I can’t tell anything different except half the price. Pads are becoming silly with the cost so I was happy to pay less.

We are a couple that want a tent with a bit of breathing space. That will share the weight of such a tent. That like the small touches that make it a quality tent - 2 way zippers, decent venting, clips that are easy to manage when your hands are cold, color coded poles/clips so there’s no guesswork when it’s pouring it down, a tent you can really sit up in, storage for organizing the chaos, a color that blends with the landscape and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb - thoughtful touches.

We stopped looking at so-called 2-person tents which must be made for garden gnomes and concentrated on 3-person tents. The Copper Spur UL3 was the best of the lot and we even chose a year old one for the more substantial pegs. New isn’t always better, or more durable. It’s just new. And new still needs to prove itself.

So far just a few nights out and it’s all we wanted. In a couple weeks we’ll have a 2-week backpacking trip across Scotland which we think will be the true test. But, since it’s our 3rd Big Agnes, we probably won’t be disappointed!