A place to rest our buttocks, that is all we ask. Oh, and it has to be lightweight, packable and hold all the buttocks. With decent back support. You get the idea.
The Helinox Chair Zero pretty much ticks all the boxes. It weighs in at a flat and feathery one pound, packs up into a 4x14-inch roll and assembles fairly quickly. We say fairly because we are talking about eleven pole sections, all connected into one mutant octopus of an assembly. As is the style these days, but it goes together without too much fuss.
Once together, the buttocks are carefully placed into the Chair Zero, for fear the weight and width of said buttocks might cleave said chair in two. Once in place, the Chair Zero provides good back support and keeps you off the ground, pretty much our basic requirements for a camp chair. No fancy headrest, rocking motion or easy in/out here, but did we mention it weights one pound?
For an ultraportable camp chair, the Chair Zero is the one to beat. Our only concern, aside from the eye-popping cost, is durability. The chair is rated for 265 pounds and we would take that seriously. Our own 200-ish pound frame definitely caused the chair to flex side-to-side, and we wouldn't want to make a sudden lateral movement, but if you're the kind of person who is not normally rough on your gear you shouldn't have a problem. We'll be reporting back from time-to-time on our experience, and will let you know if we ever have a malfunction.
Pay attention to the part of the directions where it says put the two back poles in, lay it on its back and then put the seat poles in, you'll have no problem with your erection. Overall the Chair Zero costs a lot but delivers a comfortable, easily packable solution to taking a load off at the end of the trail. Now if they could just do something about that price...
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