[pct-l] Cutting Thermarests in half

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

Well thanks to the recent posts on sleeping pad I may have come up with
what I want as far as sleeping pads go.

I have recently been using a ridgerest 3/4 length, weights 12 ounces. 
along with this I was using a Thermarest "sport seat" (weights 5.5 ounces).
 I use a 3/4 thermarest along with my old 3/8" blue foam pad (weights 5
ounces, l9 x47 inches cut down) wnen sleeping on snow.  Like a number of
others on this post, I have problems with my shoulder and hip, falling
asleep and aching  so much that half way through a night, I wake up more
and more, and my quality of sleep is considerably reduced.  I sleep well on
snow because of the added cushiness of the thermarest.  I was using the
sport seat and a 8 inch square of egg-carton blue foam to provide the extra
cushiness  for my shoulder and hips.

The egg-carton blue foam seems to help, but it flattens out pretty much,
and is not nearly as effective as the thermarest.  Also the two pieces do
move around some during the night and need to be repositioned a lot,
especially the egg-carton stuff because it does not have a slippery
surface, and moves when you move rather than staying put.

I have always thought that what I need is either a much bigger sports seat
or a full length thermarest cut in half - something that just covers both
my shoulder and hip when I am lying on my side.  Something around 30-36
inches in length.

With this in mind, I have searched repeatedly for the Therm-a-Rest Company
address, hoping that they would make a custom pad.  There is no pad listed
in any of the catalogs under 20 x 47 inches. Yesterday while reweighting my
thermarest, I noticed that it is made my Cascade designs, in Seattle. A
quick call informed me that no they do not make custom sized pads, but they
do repair the margin seams by resealing them with an iron!

I have two older thermarest 3/4 pads weighting 17 oz. apiece.  I was
prepared to sacrifice one of them in the hopes of getting one, and possibly
two, smaller and lighter thermarest pads weighting less than l0 ounces.
After  measuring and repositioning myself in various positions on the 3/4
thermarest, I determined that if I cut the one pad on a strong diagonal, I
would actually have two pieces that I could use - one larger and with the
value and the other smaller without.  The larger is 23 inches on one side
and 32 and1/2 on the other (20 inches wide), The useful diagonal distance
is 37 inches.  The smaller piece is 14 1/2 and 24 1/2 on the two sides and
a 30 inch diagonal.

I then cut them and was able to reseal both pieces.  The larger piece
weights sightly under 10 oz. and the smaller 6.5 oz.  RESEALING WAS A
DIFFICULT AND TOUCHY PROCESS REQUIRING A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF DEFTNESS,
CAUTION AND EXPERIMENTATION.  I would not recommend doing this unless you
are willing to sacrifice a completely good thermarest sleeping pad. 
Cutting the pad of course voids the warranty.  If you are thinking about
doing this, I will gladly write you what I was able to learn - it is a
fussy project, and would take quite a bit of explaining.

Because I notice little difference between my blue foam and my ridgerest ,
and the ridgererst 3/4 weights more than twice what my blue foam does, I
plan to use the larger thermarest piece ( 10 oz.) with my blue foam (5
oz.), that gives me a sleeping pad arrangement that weights 15 ounces. 
Which is a mere 3 ounces more than my 3/4 ridgerest by itself!  (The
Ridgerest seems to flatten with very little use and doesn"t seems as tough
a material as the old blue foam stuff, but it is slightly cushier, at least
for a while)

When I carry my Thermarest, it is always inside my pack (and usually
wrapped in its own little tube), and I do not sit on the gound directly
with it. But I don"t sit on my pack or stuffed sleeping bag either.  I have
used the same Thermarest sporadically for 20 years, but have also seen
others ruin theirs in a few minutes of bushwaching because they carrried
theirs outside their pack unprotected.

Peace ,
Goforth
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