The Big Anges Rapide SL is one of the most comfortable backpacking sleeping pads on the market. It’s thick enough for side sleeping, is easy to inflate/deflate, is quiet, and made of durable, long lasting material that can take some wear. It’s a bit hot in the Southwestern US summers, when paired with a sleeping bag, for hot sleepers, but works well in the Spring and Fall. You’ll get some great sleep on this pad, but you’ll certainly pay for it, with its premium price.
Big Agnes Rapide SL
Package includes:
- inflation sack
- replacement valve seal
- 3M repair patches
- stuff sack with BA logo
Pros and Cons
Pros: Super comfortable pad thick enough for side sleeping, double valve with one-way intake makes inflation/deflation easy, quiet with no crinkly sounds when moving, high tensile strength laminate material provides significant impact resistance and shock absorption, light and compact for backpacking, naturally antimicrobial but inside treated with antimicrobial chemical.
Cons: Premium priced pad, feels hot in the south-western summer for hot sleepers using sleeping bags.
Features
- quilted texture with raised side rails on the sides to keep you on the pad
- 3.5 inch thickness with 4.25 inch thick side rails
- double valve system with one-way intake with micro-adjustment button
- ASTM R-value of 4.2
- PrimaLoft® silver insulation
- high quality thermoplastic laminate used for inflatable boats/rafts, diving vests, etc.
- comes in a variety of standard lengths/widths that coordinates with typical tent floor dimensions
- light and compact enough for backpacking
- comes with an inflation sack for easy inflation
- comes with a stuff sack
- comes with replacement valve seal
- comes with 3M repair patches
Comfort
As long as you don’t blow it up to 100% capacity, where it doesn’t have much give when lying on it, this pad is super comfortable. I usually get a better night’s rest on this pad than I do at home. It could be its thick, quilted shape, or that it has plush, side rail bumpers, to make you feel like you’re not going to fall off the pad in the middle of the night. Whatever it is, I’ll just say it’s designed well for comfort.
I originally bought this pad, as it is supposedly a good side sleeping pad. I’m often a side sleeper, but have slept on it in all four orientations, and it lives up to its reputation. Side sleepers need not shy away from the Rapide, with its 3.5 inch inner thickness, and 4.25 inch bumper edge thickness.
Warmth
The Rapide SL has a ASTM R-value of 4.2, and as such, for hot sleeper like me, it’s uncomfortably hot in 70F°+ ambient temperatures, when in or on top of a sleeping bag. Your best bet for hot summer night time temps is to sleep on it with just a sleeping bag liner, like a Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor type liner.
It starts to feel good in the low 60’s/high 50’s, based on a few Lake Arrowhead Dogwood Campground trips, and feels even better in the low 50’s/high 40’s, based on a Hearst San Simeon Washburn Campground trip.
The verdict here is that for hot sleepers that want to use a sleeping bag, this is a 2-season pad. I would much rather be on a low R-value Klymit pad, in the summer, with a Therm-a-Rest Space Cowboy bag or plain bag liner.
Related: Check out my review of the uninsulated Klymit Static V Luxe sleeping pad, based on my use of it in Big Bear Lake, CA.
Noise
The Rapide SL doesn’t make noise when tossing and turning on it, while you sleep. Some pads on the market have the crinkly reflective material inside of them to beef up their heat retention. The Rapide doesn’t use this material, so you can rest assured that you won’t get woken up by crinkles, as you move your head or body when you sleep.
Weight and Pack Size
I have the ‘wide’ version of the pad at 25″ x 72″ (64 x 183cm) but there are lots of options to go with. I’d personally like to have two wide pads, than the double wide 40″ x 72″ one. But I know some tents can’t handle two wide pads though.
| Size in inches (and centimeters) | Rolled size in inches (and centimeters) | Weight in oz (and grams) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 x 66 (51 x 168) | 4.5 x 7.5 (11 x 19) | 18 (510) |
| 20 x 72 (51 x 183) | 4.5 x 8 (11 x 20) | 19 (539) |
| 20 x 28 (51 x 198) | 5 x 8 (13 x 20) | 21 (595) |
| 25 x 72 (64 x 183) | 5 x 8.5 (13 x 22) | 24 (680) |
| 25 x 78 (64 x 198) | 5.5 x 8.5 (14 x 22) | 26 (737) |
| 40 x 72 (102 x 183) | 6 x 11.5 (15 x 29) | 40 (1,130) |
The pad works well in my Gregory Paragon 58L pack where it takes up only a little under 3 liters of volume.
Ease of Use
Inflation and Deflation
The pad comes with a inflation sack that easily fits inside the stuff sack. Using it, the pad is easy to blow up with 5+ minutes of effort. The double valve system, where there is one 1-way intake valve, and one deflation valve, makes inflation a breeze, as your not having to fight escaping air as you go through the inflation process. The inflation valve also has a micro-adjustment button on it to let a little air out if it’s too blown up for your preference.
The inflation sack attaches to the pad’s intake valve and stays put, without falling off during the process of inflation. Afterwards it pulls off easy. It has it’s own cap over its valve coupler, which keeps dirt and debris out of it during a multi-day venture. The pads intake valve of course has a well built cap as well, that’s fairly easy to put into place after inflation.
Deflation is straight forward also. You can remove 98% of the air, by simply opening the deflation valve, rolling the pad up, capping the valve, and unrolling, then folding the pad up to ready it for its stuff sack. You may notice after folding that there is a little bit of residual air left, and sometimes you have to reopen the valve to deal with it. I’ve tried actually sucking this little bit of air out with my mouth/lungs, and while this is effective, the air inside the pad has a nasty, manufacturing chemical flavor, and is probably not the best thing to be breathing in.
Use Inside the Tent
Like any backpacking sleeping pad, once inflated, it’s a little hard to firmly grab and precision place inside the tent. You’re obligated to push the pad on its edges to get it to go where you exactly want it. Pulling it to a position is a lot more difficult, with its slick surface, especially if your sleeping bag is already in place on top of it. Campers with quilts at least have the advantage of pulling it via their strapped on quilt. Bag sleepers are just a bit out of luck. But I always manage to get it where I want, so this is just a minor inconvenience.
And like any pad, it can lose some air pressure in the middle of the night as the ambient temperature drops. I’ve never lost so much air that I’ve touched the ground at a pressure point on the pad. But I will tend to blow a few puffs of air into the pad in the middle of the night if I get up to go to the bathroom. I mainly do so for piece of mind, as I’m a side sleeper.
I’ve actually had to inflate this inside my backpacking tent before, during a rainstorm at Joshua Tree, and it was easy to do so. Actually that night, no air pressure was lost in the middle of the night, so I wasn’t obligated to go through my night time, topping of ritual mentioned above.
Quality and Durability
The pad’s double ripstop nylon material instinctively feels durable. It’s a thermoplastic polyurethane laminate product, meaning it has excellent flexibility, tensile strength, bearing capacity, impact resistance and shock absorption. TPU laminates are often used in buoyancy jackets for divers, life rafts and inflatable boats, and other critical applications.
Basically the pad is engineered to be wear and age resistant. Lie on it; sit on it in one section; it doesn’t mind. It further didn’t mind the pebbly hard ground at Los Padres, when I was up that way a few days, or the sandy, pebbled ground at Joshua Tree’s Indian Cove campsite. Reviewers up to 225 pounds are giving it 4 and 5 stars on REI.com. And I know you’re not supposed to keep it in its stuff sack during storage, but I do, and haven’t had any wear issues in doing so.
The Rapide is also waterproof, and anti-microbial by the nature of its laminate material, but is further treated with an antimicrobial chemical on its inside, to discourage mold growth from the humid air of the user’s breath, were they to forego the inflation sack method of inflation.
Further Reading
Check out my camping gear and hiking gear pages for more reviews!