Camping Chairs

A seat that travels on the back rather than in the boot

The camping chairs held here are backpack and chair combinations: a rucksack with a folding seat built into the frame, so the pack carries the load out and becomes somewhere to sit once it arrives. That solves a problem car campers never meet. A conventional folding chair is fine lifted from a boot to a pitch fifty paces away, and useless once the pitch is an hour up a track. The combined design exists so a seat reaches places a separate one never would.

Who is a backpack chair actually for?

Anyone who walks to a spot and then stays put. Fishing on a bank, a wait at a viewpoint, a touchline, a festival, a rest stop on a walk with children. The common thread is a stationary hour or more on ground that is wet, uneven or simply cold. Sitting on the ground drains heat from the body faster than most people expect, and the value of the seat is measured in how long the stop lasts rather than in how comfortable the first minute feels. That test applies to the rest of the pitch kit in camping furniture & cooking too.

Which parts of the design matter most?

• Seat height: a low seat is stable and light but hard on the knees getting up, while a higher seat is easier to leave and tips more readily on a slope.
• Frame material: aluminium keeps the weight down, steel takes rougher treatment. The difference is felt on the walk in, not once seated.
• Foot design: wide feet or crossbars spread the load on soft ground; narrow tubes sink into it.
• Pack access with the chair folded: the point is lost if the seat mechanism has to be opened to reach the contents.
• Carried weight: the seat is dead weight for the whole walk, so it is worth being honest about the distance involved.

How do you keep it steady on soft ground?

Set it across the slope rather than facing down it, and press the feet in before sitting rather than after. On grass, mud or sand a flat stone or a folded mat under each rear foot stops the frame working its way in over the course of an hour. Peat and fresh snow are the two surfaces where nothing helps much, since both keep compressing under load. Lean back gradually the first time, since the point at which a light frame lifts at the front is discovered quickly.

Does it replace a mat?

No, and the two do different jobs. A chair keeps the body off the ground while awake; insulation is what keeps it off the ground while asleep, which is the role of a camping mattress. Trying to sleep in a seat wakes the back long before morning.

What else makes a camp comfortable?

A surface to put things on, chiefly. Cooking, eating and repacking all get easier once a stove and a mug are off the grass, which is what a camping table provides. Set up in that order, seat first and surface second, and the pitch arranges itself around where people are already sitting.