Thermarest UltraLite Cot Review
On a recent trip to the Lyngen Alps of Norway, a couple of hours north of the Arctic Circle, I brought Therm-a-rest's UltraLite Cot along with me. Since this was a ski and snowboard trip, why a cot? Well, there was going to be a lot of downtime in the mountains, and I wanted something that I would keep me off the snow and wet ground at our basecamps.
The Therm-a-rest UltraLite Cot weighs just under 3 pounds and packs up nice and small, so it takes up little room in the backpack. I chose this cot because it was the lightest I could find, and it also took up less space in my pack.
Cots are fantastic for several reasons. First, they elevate you off the ground so in case it’s wet, you stay dry; and second, cots smooth out rough terrain providing a comfortable place to rest.
A couple of features that make the Therm-a-rest UltraLite Cot unique is the reflective material that reflects your body heat and keeps the cold ground temps from transferring to your body. They call it ThermaCapture, and according to them, it helps retain your body’s radiant heat. I didn’t spend an entire night on the cot, but spending hours lots of time on it north of the Arctic Circle we were very comfortable. The other bonus of the reflective material is that you can use it for a reflector to bounce light if you are shooting photos.
Here's one last added benefit of a cot. It can be used to block the wind to make your time waiting around more pleasant.
The plastic feet are designed to be nested together, and you can place the spanner poles within cut-outs in the feet. The side poles fit nicely underneath, and you can wrap it all up with the fabric cover.
To be the lightest cot on the market, it does have a couple of downsides. First, compared to other cots, it has a lot of pieces that could easily get lost, and since there are a lot of parts, it takes a bit longer to set up. The only other thing is that when friends tried to disassemble the cot, they bent some the aluminum poles and snapped a piece of the plastic feet, but they still work fine.
If you are looking for a light-weight, compact cot, the Therm-a-rest UltraLite Cot is your best bet.
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