No matter the lengths we may go to in order to find a great campsite, when it comes to the flat and level part of the selection process I can think of only a few occasions when a chosen spot for the night was truly perfect in this regard. Most of the time in the backcountry, instead of finding a spot that is perfectly flat and level, you’ll likely end up finding one that’s flat and level enough. When you combine these types of sites with a slippery tent floor and especially when combined with slippery ultralight inflatable sleeping pads, you can be in for a night of spending nearly as much time re-arranging your setup inside your tent as you spend sleeping due to your sleeping pad continually sliding downhill.

With a little work and / or some extra gear, you can greatly reduce any sleeping pad movement throughout the night.

How to Keep Your Sleeping Pad from Sliding

To combat the problem there a couple different approaches that can be taken. The first is to simply apply a silicone treatment to your tent floor using a product like Seam Grip SIL seam sealer. This is especially helpful on silnylon tent floors, and can be done the same day that you seal the seams on a new tent. For the anti-slip treatment, just utilize the brush included in the seam sealer package to add a pattern of dots, stripes, or any design you wish – you can get creative – on the floor of your tent.

Make sure you let the solution cure fully before packing your tent, and you now have a grippy surface on your tent floor that will hold on to the bottom of your sleeping pad for years to come. Alternatively, you can also apply this pattern to the bottom of your sleeping pad (or both if you need the most grip). For a more aggressive approach and especially if you have a Dyneema Composite Fabric tent, you can check out the sleeping pad slide stoppers from Zpacks.

Another way to combat the issue, although it will add more weight to your pack than the previous methods, is to bring along a closed cell foam pad in addition to your inflatable. The foam pad provides a grippy surface all on its own to stop your pad from sliding, and also has the secondary benefits of protecting your inflatable while boosting the r-value and warmth of your sleep system as well. If desired, these can easily be cut down to a torso-length size to save some pack weight. You can find a wide selection of CCF pads here at REI Co-op, and ULA Equipment offers an ultralight option in their Siesta foam pad.

Final Thoughts

No matter which route you choose to take or in whatever combination, these techniques can help you stop the sliding struggle and will help you stay in place throughout the night on all but the most un-level backcountry campsites.

Editor's Note: This backpacking trail tip originally appeared in Issue 41 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.