ALPS Mountaineering Chairs, Cots and Camp Furniture

What ALPS Mountaineering makes for hunters and campers

On this site, ALPS Mountaineering shows up in four kinds of gear. The grid above filters by them:

• Camp chairs: folding quad chairs, a low chair, a padded chair, a recliner with a footrest and a folding rocker
• Cots: two aluminum cots and one steel cot
• Tables: two roll-top aluminum tables and a small stool that doubles as a side table
• Tents: one-, two- and three-person tents and a one-person bivy

That's a camp's worth of furniture from one name. It's also a list that changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the groups and what separates them, not about how many of each are listed this week.

Most specs in the grid come from the Amazon listings, and the grid marks those values. Where a listing doesn't say, you'll see a dash. I didn't fill gaps from memory. A dash is honest. A guess is a Saturday-afternoon fix waiting to happen.

Every ALPS Mountaineering chair folds, but not the same way

Every ALPS Mountaineering chair in the grid folds for the truck. What changes is the frame, the seat height and what your back does once you're in it. Here's how the lineup sorts, per the listings.

Standard folding quad chairs: the Adventure and the Padded Camp Chair

A folding quad chair has four legs that scissor together, and the whole thing goes into a bag like a closed umbrella. The Adventure Folding Camping Chair lists an aluminum frame, mesh fabric and a shoulder carry bag. The Padded Camp Chair lists padded polyester fabric, a tall back, an aluminum and steel frame, a cup holder, and a design that folds flat rather than into a bundle.

Folds flat matters more than it sounds. A flat chair slides behind a truck seat. A bundle chair rolls around the bed until it finds the one corner where the spare tire lives.

The camping chair page compares folding styles across brands.

The King Kong is the heavy-duty one

The King Kong Camping Chair is the chair the brand gets searched for most. Its listing names a steel frame, a folding quad design, two mesh cup holders and pockets, and an 800 lb weight capacity, the highest of any ALPS chair in the grid. The listing calls it compact and foldable. Compact is relative. It's a steel chair built for a big capacity, and it packs like one.

If you're shopping the heavy end of camp chairs, the heavy duty camping chair page lines up the big-capacity chairs from several brands, so you can read the King Kong's numbers next to others.

The Rendezvous Low sits closer to the ground

The Rendezvous Low lists a steel frame, arms, a mesh center panel and a carry bag. Low chairs put your seat nearer the fire and lower your center of gravity on uneven ground. They also make standing up a two-step process past a certain age. I'm past it. I mention it so you can decide with your knees before you decide with the color.

The Escape Lounge reclines and has a footrest

The Escape Lounge is the recliner in the group. Its listing names a steel frame, a reclining back, adjustable armrests, a footrest, a cup holder and a carry bag. Rule of thumb: a recliner is a midday chair. Nobody glasses a field from a footrest, but plenty of people nap in one after lunch. (Danny claims the footrest "helps circulation." Danny's circulation is fine. Danny wants a nap.)

The Outdoor Rocking Chair

The Outdoor Rocking Chair lists a cushioned polyester seat over a locking steel frame, sold as a folding beach and camp chair. The grid files it with beach chairs because that's how it's listed. A rocker wants firm, level ground; on a soft spot the legs dig in and the chair stops rocking. The rocking camping chair page covers rockers from several makers.

The Simmer chair

The Simmer Camping Chair is in the grid, but its listing doesn't give a frame material, a style or a capacity in the fields this site reads. So I'll leave it at that. Read the listing itself before you order it.

ALPS cots: two aluminum, one steel

The three cots split by frame and by height, per their listings:

• Escalade Cot Large: aluminum frame, single cot, an 80 by 31 inch sleep area, 325 lb capacity
• Ready Lite Cot: aluminum frame, a low and compact design, 300 lb capacity, packs to 18 by 3 by 8 inches
• Lightweight Cot: steel frame, single cot, a 74 by 30 inch sleep area, 250 lb capacity

My one opinion on this page: pick a cot by the sleep area before the capacity. Quick check you can do with a tape measure: 74 inches is 6 feet 2 inches. Add a sleeping bag's hood and a pillow, and a six-footer on a 74-inch cot sleeps with his feet past the end. The 80-inch Escalade gives you half a foot more. Measure yourself lying down, not standing up. (Shop-class rule: the board you measure lying flat is the board you cut. Same goes for the man on the cot.)

The Ready Lite works the other way. It's for the hunter who carries the cot farther than from the truck to the bunk room, and the packed size in its listing is the number that sells it. The camping cot page has frame types and heights across brands.

ALPS tables: two roll tops and a stool

Roll-top tables

A roll-top table has slats joined on a fabric or cord backing. The top rolls up like a window shade and the frame folds separately. The Camp Table and the Folding Camping Table with Roll Top both list aluminum roll tops. The second one lists a 43 by 28 inch top, a 28-inch height, an aluminum X frame, a shoulder bag and a folded size of 42 by 8 by 5 inches.

A 28-inch table height is close to a kitchen table at home, which matters for cooking. Rule of thumb: set your camp chair next to the table in the yard before the trip and check that your knees go under it.

The Sidekick stool or side table

The Sidekick is a small piece that does two jobs. Its listing gives a 12 by 10 inch top, a 15-inch height, an aluminum frame and a 200 lb capacity. At 15 inches it's a stool for lacing boots or a side table next to a low chair, the right height for a coffee mug and a lantern. It is not a table for cleaning fish. Nothing that small is.

The camping table page covers heights and top types across brands.

ALPS tents: small and freestanding

The tents in the grid are the small end of camping: one to three people. Per their listings:

• Taurus 2 Outfitter and Taurus 3 Outfitter: two- and three-person, freestanding pole setups, polyester fabric
• Lynx 1-Person: freestanding, polyester, aluminum poles
• Ranger 1-Person: one person; its listing describes 7000-series aluminum poles, a full rainfly and a freestanding design
• Stealth 1-Person Bivy: polyester fabric, fiberglass poles

A freestanding tent holds its shape on its poles before you stake it. That's handy on hard ground. It's not a reason to skip the stakes, because an empty tent is light, and the wind doesn't care that it's freestanding. The camping tent page covers capacities and setups, and the best camping tents list shows how picks across brands were made.

How to choose within the ALPS lineup

Start with how you'll sit

Upright for meals and cards, low for the fire, padded for long evenings, reclining for naps, rocking for the porch. That one choice cuts the chair list to one or two models before you read a single number.

Then the frame

Aluminum frames show up on the Adventure chair, two cots and the tables. Steel shows up on the King Kong, the Rendezvous Low, the Escape Lounge, the rocker and the Lightweight Cot. The capacities in the listings run higher on the steel King Kong than on any aluminum chair in the grid. If you carry gear a long way from the truck, aluminum is the side of the grid to read first. If the chair lives by the cabin, the walk doesn't matter.

Then the capacity, read against the real load

The capacity in each listing is the maker's number for that model. Read it with your November weight in mind: you, the coat, the boots and whatever's in your pockets. Then check the chair or cot's own instructions for how to sit or load it.

Then the packed size

A cot that packs to the size of a rolled sleeping pad and a cot that folds to the length of a fence post are different purchases. The Ready Lite and the roll-top table give packed or folded sizes in their listings. For the rest, read the listing for the bag dimensions before you plan the truck.

Care that keeps camp furniture going

Chairs, cots and tents all fail the same way: they get put away wet. Big Agnes's tent care instructions say to let a tent dry completely before storage and to store it in a cool, dry place, and they warn that damp storage leads to mildew. The same habit works for a chair seat and a cot deck. Set them up in the garage after the trip and let them dry.

Two more tips from the same care page apply to any fabric gear:

• Keep it out of long, hot storage, like a car trunk or an attic, where heat breaks down coatings
• Limit long direct sun, since UV exposure can compromise waterproofing on tents
• Fold a tent a different way each time to avoid permanent creases

ALPS Brands' own warranty page lists UV damage, burns and storm and wind damage among its exclusions. That's one more reason to fold the chairs when the wind picks up and to keep them back from the fire. Smokey Bear's campfire guidance says to keep a fire at least 15 feet from tents and vegetation. Keep the chairs at a sitting distance and the tent well back.

ALPS Mountaineering facts

Here's what I could verify from the company's own pages:

• The company: ALPS Brands, a family-owned company; ALPS stands for Active Lifestyle Products & Services
• Founded: 1993, by outdoor gear designer Dennis Brune, per the company's about page
• Brands: ALPS Mountaineering, ALPS OutdoorZ and Cedar Ridge, plus two licensed Browning lines, Browning Camping and Browning Hunting Blinds & Accessories
• Facilities: the company outgrew its Lyon campus in 2015 and bought a 100,000 sq. ft. building in New Haven, where most of its warehousing and products are now located
• Warranty: most products covered for the life of the product against defects in materials or workmanship, original purchaser, proof of purchase from an authorized dealer

The pages I read don't say where the products are made, so I've left that out.

Dry it, fold it, put it back on the same hook. Plain and simple, and it'll be there next November.