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jay.hendren
6
May 7, 2014
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The job of a crash pad isn't to be soft when you fall on it. Falling feet-first onto something soft, e.g. a mattress, is a fantastic way to roll an ankle.
Think about it this way. If you're falling from 20 feet or higher onto a 3x4 foot, 4 inch thick pad, would you rather have the cheap pad below you or the top-of-the-line engineered-to-perfection pad below? A crash pad is safety gear. It's rarely a good idea to skimp on safety gear.
A crash pad needs to have a high-quality foam that's relatively stiff to prevent rolled ankles. It needs to be made with high-quality durable and weatherproof shell to prevent rips, tears, and falling apart from abuse. After all, you're going to be taking this thing out into god-knows-what weather and falling onto it hundreds of times. It should have high-quality, durable straps and buckles so you can stuff it with your gear. Same goes for the shoulder/hip straps, since you might be lugging this thing for miles on your back to get to that classic alpine boulder problem. It also needs to be lightweight for the same reason.
So no, don't get a cheap pad. Cheap boulder pads are a terrible idea. I've fallen on some good crash pads and I've fallen on some cheap ones. I'll take a better, more expensive pad any day.