Hi Indu

got any UK links to the Mammut mattress ?

It looks really good

Cheers
Geordie

I'm using a similar system and last time out was too hot to sleep at minus nine outside. The layers are:

Tent with extra ground sheet
Picnic blanket inside
Steel frame bed
Thermarest
MOD Arctic sleeping bag
Wool hat
wool/fibre pyjamas
wool socks.

A couple of things no one has really mentioned:

Change clothes before you sleep. If might feel cold at first, but fibres without skin oils in them work a lot better.

Eat or drink before you sleep. Have something sugarry to hand if you wake up in the night. 4 hours sleep, a biscuit break and another 4 hours is a better night that just the first few hours. Letting off a chemical heat pack at the biscuit break is nice too.

Be careful with alchohol and caffeine. Get ****ed or fill up on coffee and it makes a real difference. Vodka plus gin plus plus gluhwein plus something Russian that tasted like beetroot will guarantee about two hours sleep at minus twenty, but the next seven hours are no fun! I don't want to talk about that one

Oh, and don't use metal bottles when nature calls in the night, there are some places no one should have frost bite

Andy

it should be, its over a hundred quid! you can get them from mammut stockists, do a search on google

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dave

An alternative to the Ajungilak Mammut is the Exped Downmat 7, 7DLX or 9. The number refers to the depth of the air mattress. Like the Mammut, the Downmats are down insulated, with the deluxe having extra down insulation.

The 7 can be found for under £90.

Mike

I have slept in a bus shelter on the wooden seat with a thermarest and my thin down bag that has just a sleeve for the sleeping mat as the base. there was snow all around and i slept well.

I always start with layers of clothing and take them off before i sleep keeping everything in the bag with me mostly around my feet also means they are warm and dry to put on again in the morning.

I sleep with a hat on which means i can take it off to cool down. I always sleep in thermals and wear warm dry socks that cover the ankles and glove liners if its cold to keep the wrists worn.

In a tent in the open I will try to camp so I can bulk up the ground with grass etc, helps insulate me from the ground and increases comfort.

You can also use tealights in the tent to warm the air temp (just be careful)

Ditto the wool blankets under and over.

I still need to try a silk liner.

Consider Bulk/cost etc I want to try and be light and compact but stay warm.

Thanks for all the help guys n girls

going to go round the camp shops at the weekend and then try again


Cheers
Geordie

Air bed for comfort not insulation.

Some reports of leakage from the very comfortable Exped. New versions available soon.

One top tip, I use the closed cell foam from laminate flooring underlay under the groundsheet of my tent. Makes a serious improvement when sat on the groundsheet and tent is warmer all round. Also helps with older more porous groundsheets. It's cheap, light and very effective. Anyone who has put a laminate floor down is likely to have enough spare.

Next, keep a wide mouth plastic pee bottle (guys), pee without leaving the bag (you know what I mean) to keep the heat in. Seal the top of the bottle and get 1 hour hot bottle for your feet.

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"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -Bertrand Russell

Blacks and Millets staff are useless. Told one shop assistant in one of their shops in Gateshead Metrocentre that I needed a lightweight tent with a really small pack size to strap on to the back of a motorcycle. Get this, he then tried to sell me one of those crap pop-up tents that fold into a big flat circle. If you need advice on how to score E's at festivals (which I don't), these are the people to speak to but look elsewhere for advice on kit.

I'd given up on the Thermorest and Exped mats as I simply couldn't afford them at the time though they did seem a great idea. Found these completely by accident in a outlet shopping centre.

Millets Trek Self-Inflating Compact Sleeping Mat

This is the compact model which I bought and is the same thickness as the regular one but is about 3/4 length. Pack size is about half the diameter of a traditional Karrimat. It will roll up far smaller than they are displayed in the shop too. I know people will turn their nose up at it as Eurohike are Millets/Blacks own make but it's been on 3 trips with me now and I've never had to open the included repair kit. Can't go wrong for £17.

I've also got a Gelert fleece liner but I also find it too bulky so other suggestions welcome. The tip about taking a hat to wear at night is sound advice.

the hot water bottle is a good idea, fabric conditioner bottle rims are wide and quite hard to miss.

these days i use watertight food bags, with a ziploc. BUT dont forget youve got bags of pee or worse lying around because when you tread on one (always in your socks or barefoot) it goes off like a grenade and your friends dont want schrapnel on their kit.

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dave

Is a silk liner any good? There's one here for £11 - 'DD sleeper'.

DD Hammocks - Products

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I've a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore.

This is one of the times when air does NOT insulate - on the contrary.

Great point Indu - that gets to the bottom of... ... I cant work out why my airbed which ive used for the last 5 years was so cold

It is the material inside the self-inflaters from Mammut, Exped and ThRest, etc which helps slow down the conduction of heat from your body to the ground. It can be closed cells (air bubbles), like in the old karrimat days (which crippled so many of us!), or in self-inflating mats: open cell foam, foam chips or more extravagantly, down (lighter, packs better, over 100 quid!).

Plus a hat.

Ch

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

They're excellent. Mine came from Lidl at £9.99; it squashes down to about the size of half a cucumber and the extra warmth it provides is unbelievable. It's also good on its own for hot nights. Another benefit is, because it's almost frictionless, you can turn over without tying yourself into knots, as you do with fleece liners.

Regards, Mick

Thanks for all the tips n info

Im tied up at the mo trying to get my local bike club website up and running (tis nearly done, just got a little bit tidying up to do).

Going to look at the mats next week

Cheers
Geordie

Handy thing, fruit and veg. DD says their liner squashes down to the size of an apple.

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I've a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Thanks for the tip on the silk liner. I'll give it a go.

Can remember seeing them in Aldi or Lidl last year. At the time, I thought how could something that packs down so small, be better than the fleece liner. Kicking myself now over why I didn't buy one.