Which shelter?

[Lizz Roe]

Dear all, I'm going away for a weekend two weeks time, so the end of February in Britain, will be wet, possibly cold, windy with moderate cover from trees. I have a choice of 4 shelters:

1. Gatewood Cape and inner tent thing with washtub floor
2. Integral designs poncho tarp with inner tent with washtub
3. Hyper light Mountain Gear echo2 with beak and inner tent with washtub floor
4. Terranova laser competition tent with inner and additional footprint

I'll have a thermarest, silk liner, 4 season quilt, plus thermals to wear, and platypus hot water bottles. So I think I'll be warm. But I am interested to hear which lightweight system you might opt for if you had the choice? (Bearing in mind it's March, it's Britian, it's a temperate zone and I'll be camping and walking in semi woodland). And the factors I'm thinking of include:

Pack ability
Use ability
Easy to put up ability
Withstand rain ability
Suitability for stay out ability

[Franco Darioli]

Ease of setting up.

I strongly suggest that, if you can, you should try it for yourself before you do it on the trail.
setting up shelters is something that is very easy and intuitive for some (it is for me) but not so much for others, even after years of going camping.
Some of the shelters you mentioned are probably not the easiest to do .

[Stephen M]

Nm

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I'd go with the TN Laser for many reasons but mainly for its ability to withstand high winds better than your alternative shelters.

Similar to the TerraNova Laser is my Tarptent Moment DW (W/X-ing pole shortened and moved inside the fly). It's very aerodynamic and has easily withstood 65 mph winds. That's in the 120 KPH range, I believe. It's a nice size for one with two doors and vestibules.

As a former Nordic ski patroller and Army ROTC winter survival instructor my experience is that winter conditions, being far less forgiving, require more robust gear. Tarps just do not cut it in winter storms. Been there, done that, don't like it.

BTW, UL winter gear is to 3 season UL gear as 4 wheel/all wheel drive cars are to 2 wheel drive cars. i.e. sometimes you can get away with less but never count on it.

Gear weight is all relative to season, altitude and worst weather that can happen, regardless of the forecast. No, latitude does not compensate for altitude after 8,000 ft. Just ask Hawaiian's who ski there.

[Author]

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