The Bottom Line
(4 / 5)
- Middle-range pricing
- Not too heavy
- Comfortable
- Packs small
- Easy to inflate
Purchasing
The Salewa Mat Lite is periodically available on Amazon, but can always be found on Salewa’s website. It goes for around £60 (or often less on Amazon).
General Comment
This is a self-inflating mat, so if you have time it will do most of the work for you (it does tend to need a help to finish inflating), but this does mean that its packed size is bulkier than it could be (it’s still respectable though). It weighs in at 720 grams.
Salewa has its own proprietary ‘Quick Closure System’ valve, which simply clicks open and shut: I’ve never had an issue with it popping off, and this does make a huge difference when deflating the mat fully – other mats I’ve used have screw valves which are a pain to deal with.
Although thin, the Salewa Mat Lite is very comfortable to sleep on, even on rough terrain, but it doesn’t seem incredibly warm. No R-value is given, and I wouldn’t want to be using a quilt on this outside the summer – and certainly not with frost.
It’s not the biggest issue in the world, but the mat is not too easy to clean: mine has become quite stained with use (which I’ve tried to conceal in the pictures), and I’ve not found a good way of cleaning it: for this reason, its important to choose a ‘top’ side and a ‘bottom,’ muddy side and stick with it.
At 51cm (just under 2′) wide and 183cm (6ft) long, it fits well in almost any tent , but the narrowness does make it easy to roll off, although if, like me, you sleep surrounded by gear, this wont be a problem.
Quality
The materials used on this seem to be very good quality, and I’ve never had any issues with air leaking. The material used is anti-slip so despite its narrowness it is easy to get a good night’s sleep without waking up next to your mat.
For these reasons it, along with the Mountain Warehouse Traveller 50 was my go-to sleep system for a long time. I have since upgraded the Salewa to a Trekology UL80.
