Helinox’s Lightest-Ever Chair: Chair Zero LT Review

As a decade-long backpacker, I used to scoff at the idea of bringing a chair with me. Why on earth would you add so much weight to your pack for an entirely unnecessary item? (Just sit on the ground!)

But on a backpacking trip in Washington that involved long miles, I felt a severe pang of jealousy when I watched a friend set up her Helinox chair at camp. I sat hunched on the wet ground with an achy back, while she reclined in comfort. After that trip, I immediately went out and bought Helinox’s Chair Zero L, the lightest-weight option from the brand at the time.

Helinox is constantly tweaking its designs, and recently unveiled the Chair Zero LT ($160), its lightest-ever model. I put the Zero LT through its paces over the spring climbing and backpacking season, taking it with me to the crag and campgrounds in Illinois and Kentucky, as well as on a 40-mile hike on Catalina Island. This item has only confirmed for me that a chair is actually a backpacking essential.

In short: The Helinox Chair Zero LT is featherweight while also delivering on durability, comfort, and function. The included X-strap stabilizer is useless, but the chair is tougher than it looks. This model is the best value for the weight on the market, making it a great pick if you’re looking to add a chair to your backpacking kit.

The Chair Zero LT currently enjoys the Best Overall designation in our Best Backpacking Chairs Buyer’s Guide — check out the lineup to see how it measures up against the rest of the market.

Helinox Chair Zero LT Review

Materials & Design

Ripstop nylon fabric is a standard choice for backpacking gear these days, but Helinox takes it one step further with its “GhostGrid” fabric. This translucent, monofilament ripstop nylon is both light and abrasion-resistant. The brand says the strength comes from the high-tenacity weave, which prevents small holes and tears. If one does happen, the fabric is supposed to resist the hole from spreading.

The poles are made from a DAC aluminum alloy with nylon resin hubs. This is the first Helinox chair to include a nylon X-strap for stabilization.

Setup and Packability

The setup for the chair is pretty simple. Take it out of the bag and connect the poles. Each of the four corners of the chair fabric has a pocket for a pole. In practice, putting three of the four poles into their slots is easy.

But because the chair relies on tension to prevent you from sagging, inserting the last pole into the fabric pocket requires some serious strength. The fabric fights you as you try to pull the pocket over the pole. It’s not a deal-breaker, and you get better at it with time, but it does require some thought.

This is the first chair Helinox designed with an X-Strap stabilizer. You insert the four points of contact the chair has with the ground into one of the strap’s pockets. Ultralight chairs can be notoriously wobbly, so in theory, this strap is supposed to help you from tipping over or sinking into the ground.

In reality, this scrap of fabric did nothing and was a pain to set up: The strap was fiddly, and inserting the ends of the poles took even more strength than setting up the chair.

I sat and shifted my body weight around in the chair both with and without the X-strap. There was no difference. And if you’re on muddy, soft ground, and sit down in the chair, it’s going to sink a little, strap or not. After the first few times using this chair, I just ditched the X-strap. It did nothing and just added weight.

The chair is a snap to put away. Fold up the poles, roll the chair fabric up like a burrito, and put both in the provided bag. I appreciated that the bag was slightly larger than it needed to be to fit the chair. You didn’t need to roll it up perfectly right to get it to fit.

It packs down to the size of about a Nalgene, which amounts to not much space in my pack. It’s slim enough to put in an external water bottle pocket or lash down if your pack has external bungee straps.

Comfort

When I go to climb outside, I push my body to the absolute limit, so having a nice chair to sit in after I battle with the rock is a welcome respite. I would get to the crag, set up the chair, and then slump in it and chug Gatorade after I fell off my project.

The design of the Helinox Chair LT gives you plenty of back support; I could lean back and keep my achy lower back flush with the chair. I’m 5’6″ and found the ergonomics of the chair to be comfortable: I didn’t feel like it was forcing my knees up too high. For people over 6 feet, however, I could see how they could feel a little cramped in the chair, or like their knees were in their elbows.

The chair also dries fairly quickly. I left it out in a thunderstorm overnight in Arkansas, and the nylon fabric was only mildly damp and dried out once I left it in the sun for an hour.

No camp chair this lightweight is as stable as a classic camp chair, but I’ve never felt like I was going to fall out of the LT, even on rocky scree. You can’t just fall into it like a La-Z-Boy, but if you just sit down as you would at a kitchen table chair, you’re fine.

It is worth noting that the maximum weight of the chair is only 265 pounds, which really isn’t that high a threshold. Other lightweight chairs, like the CLIQ ClassiQ Chair, can hold up to 300 pounds.

Durability

If I’m going to spend $160 on a chair, I want it to last, and the LT passed that test with flying colors. I was not careful with this chair: I flung it around camp, put it probably slightly too close to the campfire, and let my dogs sit in it. The fabric looks as good as new, and I think you’d really have to try to break the DAC aluminum poles.

Weight & Price

The trail weight of the LT clocks in at 1 pound, 3 ounces. If you ditch the X-strap as I did, it’s probably an ounce or two lighter. The LT is lighter than any other Helinox chair: The Chair One is 2 pounds, 2 ounces, and the Zero L is 1 pound, 7.5 ounces.

It’s also far lighter than NEMO’s Moonlight Reclining Chair (1 pound, 14 ounces). It is slightly heavier than REI’s FlexLite Chair (1 pound), but this model is way more tipsy and unstable than the LT.

The LT’s combination of durability and weight savings doesn’t come cheap, with a cost of $160. Oddly enough, this is cheaper than the heavier Helinox Zero L ($170) and Nemo Moonlight ($170). REI’s Flexite is $70 cheaper than the Zero LT, but it can’t really compete on comfort. If you’re going to buy a lightweight camping chair, it makes sense to invest in one that will actually help you take a load off at camp.

Helinox Chair Zero LT: Conclusions

If you already own the Helinox Zero L, it doesn’t make sense to spend another $170 to save a few ounces. However, if you haven’t joined the cult of the lightweight backpacking chair yet, the Zero LT makes an excellent entry point.

It’s the best combination of comfort and weight savings available, and it should last for years to come. Helinox’s decision to include (and market) the X-strap stabilizer is a head-scratcher, but the chair still delivers on function.

If you’re tired of sitting on the cold, hard, or wet ground at the end of a long day on the trail, the Zero LT offers welcome relief. Diehard ultralighters will probably still scoff at the idea of bringing a chair, but you’ll be smiling as you get to lean back, relax, and chill.