Looking forward to an honest review. May still be out of my budget but when I saw the video all I could think was “Of course, a lightweight slim packing Viking chair. Why hasn’t this been a thing before now?” I dunno, maybe it has. I could see something like this living n my truck and taking a few hikes.
I received it a bit ago but had been out of town for work and just started playing with it this weekend. I already owned both the Helinox and the Nemo folding chairs and was looking at this for a largely similar use case. It is very light, its sturdy (I am 6'2 170lbs so cant comment on how it would feel for a larger guy) and comfortable. Its hard to make a direct comfort comparison as its a bit different but I would generally rank it roughly equal.
A big thing is speed of deployment, you can separate the pieces and be sitting down faster than I could have taken either of the other two out of their bag. I could see if I kept it strapped to the outside of my pack that I would use it for lots of short breaks or sits where I never would have bothered to get out one of the others.
I guess the downside is while the other two are small cylinders that easily fit in any pack this one will only work when strapped to the outside of one so will be great with some packs and not great with others. My portage pack for example for canoe camping might be an issue without rigging something up.
Another noteworthy feature would be its useability as a shovel. I am not sure I would want to lift something heavy but for light snow, sand, ashes, etc it seems like it would work fine and could replace my mountaineering shovel for some winter trips. In a real pinch it could also function as an emergency canoe paddle.
I could see it also working as a shooting platform if you tossed a small bag on it, maybe does not matter as I am not sure it would be better than a pack but there is zero chance either of the other chairs in question could have been used that way.
I will for sure get it out this summer and see if and how it fits in my overall backcounty tool kit.
The other big question would be is it worth the considerable cost? I bought it on a whim nearly a year ago, I dont know if I would have spent that $$ today but since its already sunk cost I for sure intend to at least try and use it. If I were to guess, I think it will become by primary hunting and back packing chair in cases where it can be easily attached to my pack.
Will post back in a month or so once I have some real use with it.
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