HELINOX Chair Zero Highback Review

How much is comfort worth in grams? I often find myself asking that for my various outings. Should I take the heavier jacket that’ll insulate better, or should I just plan on keeping moving and shivering it out if need be? For camp chairs, all the more. Do I want to keep it light and just sit on the ground, or do I take on the extra weight to be comfortable around camp? With the HELINOX Chair Zero Highback, I bring the chair more often than ever before.

HELINOX Chair Zero Highback Features:

• High, supportive back panel and ergonomic design offer comfort
• Supports up to 265 lbs.
• Compact size makes it easy to pack and carry
• Sets up quickly, thanks to a single shock cord and pole structure
• Tucks away into a 5” x 16” storage sack
• Weight: 672 grams (stated weight aligns with my scale; packed in storage sack)
• MSRP: $180

Lightweight and Very Comfy

It’s hard to put into words the difference a good seat makes after a long day of double-digit miles in the alpine. Numerous times in the past, I’ve found myself unreasonably thrilled at the sight of a somewhat concave looking rock of about knee height. Nature’s chair. Sometimes, they’re excellent. More often than not though, these rocks disappoint, and I stare covetously at my partner, who has prioritized a chair in his gram-counting pecking order, comfortably reclining as he heats up food (which I am also jealous of). And you know what all the rocks in all my life have never had? A comfortable back.

Coming in at significantly less than the weight of a comfortable rock, the HELINOX Chair Zero Highback doesn’t make nearly as big of a dent in the overall gram count as most chairs on the market. For some quick comparisons, Nemo’s Moonlite chair (an ultralight competitor, but with a low back) is 956 grams, Big Agnes’ Skyline UL chair (another ultralight, low-back competitor) is 794 grams, and REI’s Flexlight Air chair (yet another ultralight, low-back competitor) is 454 grams unpacked. Those are great brands, great chairs, and great weights, but the Chair Zero Highback not only hangs with the best of them at 672 grams packed, it does so with a high back.

Why a highback? For me, I find myself hunching in low-back camp chairs just in order to relax. I’m a somewhat tall person (5’11”), and quite a bit of my back sits above the back of a standard camp chair. To deal with that without tipping over backwards, I have to either engage my core or hunch. So what should be sacrificed – relaxation or posture? Neither. Both relaxation and posture matter, so low-back camp chairs are out for me. Ultimately, highback camp chairs are significantly more comfortable.

But let’s move on from my low-back vendetta and shift towards ease of use. The Chair Zero Highback is quite easy to set up and to stow away again. The storage sack is easy to fit the chair into and out of. It even comes with a little carabiner clip loop, which is great for external pack attachment. Even if you did want to store it inside your pack though, it’s quite small. During testing, it easily fit inside the compact Nathan TrailMix 2.0 12L pack, with loads of space for other goodies.

When it’s out of the bag, all its poles snap themselves into place with internal bungee cords, doing most of the setup job for you. Then, all that remains is to attach the seat to the poles. For some camp chairs, this step can be a challenge akin to putting on a wetsuit one size too small or forcing your head through the arm of a sweater. Happily though, the Chair Zero Highback is much easier to situate. You slide the seat onto the upper poles, then a brief negotiation gets the lower poles into their pockets.

Once it’s all set up, it is, as I’ve alluded to previously, quite comfortable. You can lean your head back and relax in reasonable posture, suspended in your cradle above the ground. Like the vast majority of backpacking-focused camp chairs though, it does sit low to the ground. That does make getting into and out of the chair a bit more onerous, but it’s also the widespread reality of chairs on the market today. That makes sense, of course, given that we’re trying to save weight, but it’s something to be aware of.

Of all the camping, backpacking, and climbing trips I took the Chair Zero on, my only real piece of negative feedback is this: I done went and burnt a hole in it. I could reframe that as increasing the chair’s natural breathability, but I’ll own up and call it what it is. I sat too close to a fire, had some little embers float down onto the chair, and found that the material melts. This was not something I was hoping to test. My chair is fine, and I’m going to be using for some time to come, but it is a bit speckled with holes at this point. So be aware: the fabric does melt. Personally, I can live with that.

Buy Now: Available at REI