Owner Review: Therm-a-Rest Lounge Chair

April 20^th, 2005

Personal biographical information

• Alex Wolf Morris        
• 28
• Male
• Height: 6’ 2” (1.9 m)

• Girth: wide
• Weight: 230 1bs (104 kg)
• alexanderjmorris@yahoo.com
• Bay Area, CA

Backpacking History: I started Backpacking in Yosemite in 1988.  Since then, I have backpacked all over California with particular dedication to the Sierras.  I also explored the deserts and parks of Southern Utah, the Tetons, Hawaii, National Parks of the Pacific Northwest, and Nepal’s Everest region.  For four years, I worked as the Assistant Manager for UCLA’s Outdoor Adventures Program.  I am very particular about my personal gear.  Depending on the trip, my backpacking style ranges from bring-it-all-and-suffer, to lightweight-but-not-quite-minimalist backpacking.  I never leave my chair at home, for instance.  In general, I pack heavy on food, and light on everything else.

Product information

• Manufacturer: Therm-a-Rest
• Trekker Lounge Chair
• Purchased in 2001
• www.thermarest.com
• Product Size: wide – 25 in (64 cm)
• Product Length: Full Length
• Listed Weight: 24 oz (680 g)
• Actual Weight: 24 oz (680 g)
• Color: Green and Black
• MSRP – not listed

Field information

• High Sierras, Utah Deserts, Lost Coast of California,
• Nearly every type of weather, elevation, and climate
• Anywhere from below 0 degree F (-18 degrees C) snow camping to 65 degrees F (18 degrees C) nights in Joshua Tree

Few gear items really make or break a backpacking trip.  I rank my Therm-a-Rest Lounge Chair as my single most important creature comfort while backpacking.  Using a Therm-a-Rest Guide-lite ground pad, I use my Lounge Chair on every trip – snow, sand, beach, mountains.  I am full of praise not only for the value of the Lounge Chair but also for Therm-a-Rest as a high quality manufacturer that stands by their lifetime warranty. 

 

Firstly, the Lounge chair must be differentiated from the other Therm-a-Rest chair option, the Trekker Chair.  I find that the Lounge Chair is easy to set up and use.  The Lounge chair also protects my inflatable ground pad, so I don’t ever need the ground pad stuff sack.  The Lounge Chair adjusts for different forms of sitting, from an upright eating posture to a legitimate shameless lounge.

 

I am notably cruel and unforgiving with my gear.  If it is not tough enough, light enough, and valuable enough, I toss it quickly into the back of my closet or garage.  My Lounge Chair has earned an irreplaceable spot in my backpacking gear arsenal.  The fabric has never torn.   The green color of the fabric, though unimpressive and earthy, hides dirt and smudges.  The buckles and clips are as tough as I have seen.  I have never broken a buckle on my Lounge Chair, despite the large continuous pressure the buckles endure when I sit in my chair for hours at a time. 

 

There are a few problems with Lounge Chair.  Most importantly, the poles will gradually wear through the pole-sleeves.  After three years of heavy use, one of the poles had worn through the reinforced area of the pole sleeve, right at the bend corner (or rocking point) of the chair.  Perhaps, beefier reinforcements at the most vulnerable locations on the sleeve would prevent this problem, but I believe that my use of the chair in three years equals six or more years for the average backpacker.  When the sleeves wore through, the poles poked through into the ground and dirt.  This problem impedes use of the chair and on my chair one of these two poles become bent and broken from sneaking out of the sleeve while the chair was in use.  With a busted pole, the chair became awkward and unbalanced. 

 

Fortunately, in just five minutes, I found the quick and easy warranty process on the Therm-a-Rest website.  All the products are covered under a lifetime warranty for most defects or problems.  Therm-a-Rest always repairs or replaces my Lounge chair – I have done this twice in the past four years – within two weeks. 

 

Lastly, I want to list a few other areas where the chair could be improved.  The chair can handle uneven ground, but it doesn’t work too well when sitting sideways on a slope.  I don’t know of any chair that works well sitting sideways on a slope, but it remains a problem.  Also, the chair’s fabric becomes wet and dries too slowly, particularly if I sit in snow and then carry my chair in to my tent to sleep.  Perhaps newer lighter mesh fabrics will improve the chairs weight and drying time.  Also, there are a few straps on the chair which I rarely use.  These straps can be used to roll the chair up, if one takes the poles out, and they also hold a pillow in place at the head of the pad.  I never take the poles out, and I never feel the poles at the bottom of the ground pad while sleeping on it.  I hesitate to cut these superfluous straps off because they could be useful to create a sturdy splint in an emergency.  If I didn’t lead groups in the outdoors, I would cut these straps off and save a few ounces of weight.  Finally, the Lounge Chair only works well with inflatable ground pads, though it is possible to use it uncomfortably and awkwardly without a ground pad or with a Z-Rest type of foam pad. 

 

Overall, the Therm-a-Rest Lounge Chair is my backpacking chair of choice.  It is lighter, less redundant, and much more comfortable than a Crazy Creek chair.  Among the few essentials of backpacking – a backpack, a spoon, sunglasses, good socks – I always count my Therm-a-Rest ground pad and Lounge Chair.  Plainly put, since I like to sit around at night while in the outdoors, the Lounge Chair makes backpacking great.