ALPS Mountaineering  Outback Mat - L

Got this for my wife who has bursitis. The "instructions" mention a valve that needs to be rotated to allow the air to come in. Huh? I remove the grey cap, which is the only place that air could possibly go in or out. All I see is an orange flap over a plastic grid, which will obviously only let air OUT. So I stick in a pencil to hold it open, and let the mattress self-inflate for the recommended 30 minutes. I seal it and my wife tries it. She hates it - it's too soft, and she goes right to the floor. I was going to return it, but spent a few minutes online to see if I was missing any parts. Deep in an Amazon review, I learned the trick: the valve doesn't rotate like clock hands, it flips over like it's a gyroscope. Completely non-intuitive. Once I figure that out, and flipped the valve so air could only go in and not out, a few breaths brought the mattress to a serviceable pressure. She approved! I give the mattress 5 stars for performance, minus 1 for terrible, inadequate instructions.

Great for car/tent camping. Much more comfortable than a standard air mattress. This also fits in the back of my SUV for times I do not want to get the tent out. This is too big for backpacking.

This is obviously not a pad I would take backpacking, but for car camping its amazing! It inflates well and I find I only need to give it a few blows to get it to the firmness I like after it has self inflated.

The alps mat is truly a joy to sleep on, with it's 4 inch depth. I never noticed touching the ground, no matter which side of my body was lying on the mat :) The inner baffling also helps give it more of a mattress feel, rather than just a bag of air, which gave it a more supportive feel all over the body :)

Great mat, very comfortable. This is because it is rather large. When stowed, it is the same size as my exped duo which is twice as wide. When deployed, it is very long and I don't make full use of it.

The most comfortable mat! I originally ordered the XL size for my husband but this one is plenty big. He has multiple back injuries and says this will make camping 100% more enjoyable.

Really comfy. I've never used a "thick" mattress before. It was nice! Can't comment on durability, as I've just used it once so far. But definitely so far, so good! I would recommend it.

Incredibly comfortable mat, I returned a $300 one and kept this one. Better than my bed. Does take some work to deflate the first time, but totally doable.

comfortable & quick inflation. i won't freeze or struggle with my boniness being a problem because my cot is a cot anymore. looking forward to sleeping soundly at neo and ww this year!

I purchased this mattress for a camping trip, I inflated it once and after the first night I woke up and saw that there was a massive bulge where material had clearly not been properly manufactured. It was an abscess that was roughly 4" x 3" and a height of almost 2". Absolutely worthless now