Crash pads are an essential tool when bouldering, as they allow you to scale small rock formations without ropes or harnesses, all while ensuring you land on a cushioned surface if you ever do you fall off. Of course, those same pads also double as cushioned seating, giving climbers a more comfortable surface to rest in between climbs. The Metolius Crash Pad Couch turns that safety mat into a functional couch that you lets you turn the outdoors into your giant living room.
A flat-packing collapsible bench, it’s designed to use standard-sized bouldering mats as cushion once assembled, allowing you to enjoy the conveniences of a couch while enjoying the outdoors. Whether you’re spending the day bouldering at various spots, exploring trails on an ATV, or just chilling with drinks at camp, this thing gives you comfortable seating that’s as good as any portable couch you can probably get.
The Metolius Crash Pad Couch consists of five wood panels – a large piece that serves as the seat, another large board that serves as the backrest, and three smaller panels that make up the bench’s supporting structure. Sporting precise cutouts, each of the panels are designed to simply slot into place, allowing you to assemble the whole thing without the need for fastening hardware or tools. While there’s no listed assembly time, we imagine you should be able to put the whole thing together in a couple of minutes. Same with taking apart when it’s time to pack up.
Once assembled, you simply place your crash pad on top of the seat to give it a sofa-like cushion. If you want cushioned support in the back rest, you can fold out one panel of the bouldering mat for that. How comfortable is it? We have no idea. It does, however, look pretty sturdy, so we imagine it’s a lot more comfortable than squatting on the ground or using a rock as a stool.
The Metolius Crash Pad Couch has enough room to fit two people comfortably, making it a great way to bring the creature comforts of home to any campsite. You can hang out with a buddy on there, cuddle with a girl, or even chill out with your dog while you nurse those bruises you got after slipping off an overhang from this morning. It weighs just 22 pounds, too, with included carry handles that you can attach when it’s flat-packed, so you can easily carry it by hand when moving from spot to spot. Construction, by the way, is a thick plywood material, so it should be durable enough to support a pair of grown adults, although they don’t have a listed maximum payload on the product page.
While the collapsible design makes this an excellent option for taking to camp sites and beaches, we imagine this will make a great couch option for dorms, bedrooms, and other spaces where you want temporary seating. Provided, of course, you own bouldering mats that will fit on it, although it doesn’t look that uncomfortable when used as a cushion-free bench, either.
The Metolius Crash Pad Couch is available now, priced at $119.95.