KAMPA self-inflating mattress KIP Highrise DOUBLE

You made your bed, now lie in it! Taken literally, the old saying holds especially true in the Great Outdoors, whether it’s “just” a short camping trip, a long overland trek or an expedition. Good sleep and hence physical recovery can make a crucial if not life-saving difference in challenging conditions. Very often, though, picking a good outdoor mattress or sleeping pad ranks only a distant second behind the choice of the sleeping bag. But experience shows, if you have a good tent or vehicle to sleep in, that approach is most likely the wrong way around. In fairly sheltered conditions, the right mattress can make more of a difference to a good night’s sleep.

For their range of Kip Highrise mattresses, UK brand Kampa promise sleeping comfort “like your own bed”. Big words, convincingly backed up by a 10 cm die-cut and open-cell foam core. This structure guarantees that the mattress will accommodate for the sleeper’s body shape and will insulate extremely well from low ground temperatures. The soft and slip resistant stretch-comfort surface is luxurious and inviting. So, if nights out camping make you think of yesteryear’s rubbery, squeaky and bouncy air mattresses, you couldn’t be more wrong. With the deep and comfy Kip Highrise, you can rest easy, literally, even when you have company. A useable sleeping surface of 201 x 128 cm is achieved by vertical sidewalls, just as with your “proper” bedroom mattress at home. That makes for sufficient and cozy space for two sleepers. In addition, the firmness of the mattress can be finetuned by adding air while setting the valves to “Inflate Only”.

The Highrise also hits the sweet spot between comfort and mobility when it comes to setting up/breaking up camp and packing everything away. Two easy-to-use quick-flow valves with three settings regulate air intake, desired firmness as well as fast and complete deflating. The surface material is water repellent and easy to clean. After use, the deflated Highrise is quickly rolled up and stowed away in its own stuff sack.

It is these features and the low weight of only 5.2 kg for a double that made us select the Kip Highrise as the mattress of choice for our Roof Lodge roof tents. In stark contrast to foam mattresses, the inflatable Kip Highrise can be easily rolled up and stored inside the car and not the roof tent. This option is of crucial importance if your car’s dynamic roof load is already challenged by rack and tent alone.

Size: 201x128x10 cm
Weight: 5.2 kg