Tarp camping in the winter with a “dugout”?? thoughts?

[Cody Croslow]

So, we're going on a backpacking trip next weekend, and I expect at least a couple feet of snow on the ground when we get there. I'm thinking of testing out a cattarp 2.5 from oware, pitched pretty low over the ground, but under it, I think I'm going to try to dig out a little sleeping area, maybe 7' by 4' or 5'. So basically, i'll have the front open, and the back closed almost (if not directly to) the ground, and the sides pretty close to the ground. Inside i'll be in a MYOG bivy, and probably use a sheet of visqueen as a groundsheet just in case. I'll throw down a walmart blue foam pad under my insulated air core, and will be on top of those two in a 0degree down bag. I don't expect the temperatures to drop below 6 degrees(F) at night… Do you guys think this shelter system will be sufficient? Or will I probably end up bailing to a friend's 3 season tent? I don't expect ANY rain, and it's in a pretty wooded area, so I don't really expect too much wind either…

Thoughts?!

[David Goodyear]

I think you should be fine. We just got back from an 8 day trip in Canada and we all used flat tarps…many from Oware. Not sure on how to pitch a cat tarp, but we all had fun digging out our shelters. Some people got pretty fancy. My favorite setup was a sleeping shelf – next to a snow lazyboy (back support from my snowshoes) and a cooking platform – all under a flying diamond with a beak pitch.

enjoy,

Dave

[Rakesh Malik]

I don't suppose you have some pictures of your favorite setup, by any chance?

[David Goodyear]

I should have taken more pics, so I will remember how I did it for next year.

Here is the pitch in Jan with not much snow.

and if Feb with a dugout.

Found that the best for me was a sleeping platform on one side and the sled on the other with a lounger in the center. The cooking platform was setup under the beak

I'll get better pics next year

Dave

[Rakesh Malik]

That's a bit of a bummer, but the pics you showed are still enough to give some idea as to how you pitched your tarp. I was asking in order to get some ideas to try out in the future, since I don't have that much experience pitching flat tarps yet :)

Thanks!

[David Goodyear]

Here is the standard flying diamond:

To do the beak – you have to have mid-panel guyouts on the diagonals. I only use this if I really need to hunker down…wind or snow stoms

Hope this helps. I have an old bushman's document on tarps in a PDF if you want – just pm me

Dave

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