Gear

I've  got a Synmat UL7 - after one inflation using lung power you can actually see globlets moisture clinging to the inside walls. Can't be good. That's why I've been trying to track down a minipump.  which I reason being foam-filled could be used as a base underneath my thermarest small down pillow (80g) inside my sleeping bag hood - trial and error has shown that in the night my head either rolls off clothes stuffed into stuffsacks etc or a folded fleece, or if jammed in my sleeping bag hood, eventually gets compressed into one side of the hood. Not only does this wake me up but it also tends to gives me mega neck ache by the morning, whilst a down pillow doesn't move around in the sleeping bag hood, feels really comfortable and I get a much better sleep. And if you want you can use the down sleeping bag on a plane or coach without attracting stares (!).

Adding the weight of the minipump to the down pillow gives a total around 135g, which for me would be very acceptable traded against a better night's sleep and no worries about moisture eating the inside of my bag or freezing up, and good to avoid a couple of minutes getting dizzy inflating the mat by mouth at the end of a hard slog. Combined wight would be less than the weight of the larger exped pump pillow at 160g.

Thanks for the Facewest tip, Snowdon Ranger - I'll give them a call and see if they can order a minipump.

Hi cathyjc

Ironically it was Elite Mountain Supplies I bought my Synmat UL from a few months ago! It didn't occur to me to ask them if they could order one in.  In the words of Homer Simpson - Doh!

That's an intersting idea, John Clarke 5. I would have thought that should reduce breath moisture getting in.

I would guess, but I am certainly no expert, that one of the advantages of using a pump in very cold weather rather than your breath would be that you'd be pumping in air at ambient temperature, rather than you're relatively hot breath, which might mean that the air inside the mat would be less likely to condensate and create mositure, if that makes sense.

But hey, just speculating here.

I use a synthetic wine cork with hole drilled through the middle and a packliner.

6 grams for the cork and  the packliner I'm carring anyway.

The cork fits snuggly into the inflation valve and just seal the liner with your hand and squeeze away. Three to four puffs and it's full.