Exped Ultra 6.5R Medium Wide: Backpacking Mat, Great Home Comfort in the Wilderness

The mat that puts a smile on my face

Quick Stats

Price: $200
Weight (Medium Wide): 19oz / 540g
Dimensions: 25.6″ wide × 72″ long × 3.5″ thick
Packed: 10.6” x 4.5”
R-Value: 6.9
PFAS-Free: Yes
Warranty: Lifetime
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Exped Ultra 6.5R Medium Wide Review:

I am not going to give you a science lesson. I am not going to talk about R-values, reflective foil technology, or warmth-to-weight ratios. There are plenty of reviews on the internet that will do that for you, and a lot of them will use a spreadsheet. Sometimes I am that person, but not today. I want to share a feeling. One where a piece of gear, the Exped Ultra 6.5R, left a huge smile on my face.

A Little Background

I have spent a lot of time sleeping outside, and I have been doing it for a long time. For decades, I used the Karrimat, a big, iconic, yellow roll of closed-cell foam. It separated us from the ground, provided some comfort and warmth, and was all that was available. I was happy to graduate to an early version of a Thermarest. I wasn’t so happy when it popped on the first night of a five-day work trip in the desert, and I couldn’t fix it. In the last decade, I have had a few different systems, and usually the current one is that much better than the previous one. Of late, I have been trying to reduce my weight without sacrificing comfort. Moving to the Exped 6.5R Wide has felt like a major leap.

The First Night

Do you know the feeling of getting into a sleeping bag on a pleasant night and waking up to snow? Inevitably, the ground starts stealing the warmth from you. Did you eat enough fat before going to bed? Did you generate heat by doing star jumps or crunches? Is it still trapped in the bag’s loft? More to the point, are you feeling the slow, grinding negotiation between your warmth and the earth’s indifference?

The beautiful thing was that, as I woke and watched the fat flakes fall from the sky that morning, the cold did not set in. I lay there, and was warm. No life and comfort ebbing away. Warm.

Genuinely suspicious in my 30º bag, I checked that I wasn’t still wearing my down jacket. I wasn’t. The mat was working harmoniously with the quilt, simply doing its job without ceremony or complaint.

The Width

I chose the Wide for a reason, and I would choose it again without hesitation. 25.6 inches sounds like a number. What it feels like is room. Room to shift position without the anxiety of rolling off the edge. Room to sleep like a human being rather than a pencil. If you are a side sleeper — and I am, one who swaps sides regularly through the night — this is not a luxury. It also fills the floor of my one person tent perfectly, so it is the difference between a good night and sleeping through a restless one. Added bonus – the dog has his mat above my pillow.

The edges are slightly raised, which keeps you centered through the night. I did not notice this feature doing its thing. That is how you know it is working.

The Noise

Anyone who has spent a night on a reflective sleeping pad knows the sound. The shifting, rustling, crisp-packet soundtrack that follows every movement and makes you feel guilty for even breathing. I had braced for it. It never came. This pad is, for reasons I am not going to explain because I promised I wouldn’t, remarkably quiet. You will sleep. The mat will not argue with you about it.

The Pack Size

It packs down a little bigger than a quart water bottle. It goes in the backpack, not on the outside. These things matter at the end of a long day when all you want to do is stop walking. We are aiming for a clean pack with nothing dangling, and the Exped makes this possible with a 30L pack for a weekend.

Some Other Thoughts

It is not strictly speaking a winter mat, but I would use it in winter with a full-sized closed-cell foam mat underneath it. I often take a 3mm foam pad with me in summer. If I know I am going to be camping on solid or rough surfaces, it saves the inflatable mat from punctures and gives me something to sit on during the day. It is also 1/2” thicker than my previous pad, which makes quite a bit of difference and seems to prevent any part of my body from touching the ground.

The inflation sack is my favorite to date. The extended trunk allows me to fill the mat efficiently, so it requires fewer fills to inflate. It also works well as the drybag for my sleep kit – quilt and dry lightweight wool tights, top, and socks.

The Bottom Line

I went up 3 oz to carry this mat, and given that I like my packweight to go down and move towards ultra-lightweight, there has to be a reason – and there is. Ultimately, Exped has found the balance: a mat that is light enough to keep me at a lightweight while still doing a great job of keeping an old man warm and comfortable when sleeping on the ground.

This balance is what makes it worth trying. It is genuinely, stay-asleep-until-morning warm and comfortable. In the Sangres, in the kind of temperatures that make you reconsider your hobby, I did not think once about the ground beneath me. That is the entire job description of a sleeping mat, and this one nails it. When you are able to sleep high on cold nights, you have access to some of nature’s real treats. I hope you get to experience them.

The result of sleeping out on the Exped Ultra 6.5R

Check it out. Your back will thank you. Your sleeping bag or quilt will finally do what it was rated to do. And maybe you will witness a meteor shower or temperature inversion.

Wil Rickards

Wil was born in North Wales and steeped in its rich maritime, mountain and river folklore. In response to the request to “get a real job” he became first a teacher then professor of adventure education.

He then emigrated to where the sun shines for 300 days and snowfalls for 100 (Colorado). During more than 25 years as an outdoor educator, he worked Scottish winter seasons, taught canoeing, climbing, kayaking, and skiing throughout the States, Europe, and Australia. He also regenerated the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Outdoor Education program. His biggest adventure (by far) is fatherhood. It has also been the inspiration for his website www.wherethefruitis.com.

Things he likes to do include (middle) aging gracefully, and skiing (telemark) aggressively. He is happiest outdoors with a good view, good company, good weather/snow and the residue of self-powered adventure; sweat, a manic grin, and wild eyes.

Articles by Wil Rickards

Drawing on his Welsh roots and 25+ years as an outdoor educator across Scotland, Europe, Australia, and the American West, Wil writes with a wry, distinctive voice about the gear that supports his backcountry skiing, splitboarding, and self-powered adventures. His work on Engearment leans heavily toward avalanche safety, backcountry touring, and gear that has to work in the wild places he calls home.

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