Aluminized Cuben Shelters

I wonder how these would work for search and rescue. Locally we've lost a number of weekend warriers due to sunstroke and dehydration. A small tarp that fits in one's pocket could be very valuable.

Would this be a good material for a ground cloth? Seems like the durability would be worth the slight increase in weight over standard cuben, plus potential benefit of radiated body heat. Wonder what a 4'x7' flat size with a 4" bathtub edge would weigh? or cost? Could also use as emergency signal too, like a giant signal mirror.

I used to use one of those heavy-weight space blankets (red on one side) as my ground cloth and liked it alot, until I actually weighed it (11.5 oz) and had to leave it behind.

The fabric is 54" so you would end up about 3'10" wide.
My 54" x 8' tarp with 6 tieouts including 4 linelocks came in at 6 ounces. I thought the price was good for a cuben tarp.

I've been talking to Nathan at Cascade Craftworks and am very interested in this material. Nathan has been quite helpful but if anyone has some additional experience to share I'd love to hear about it. Thanks.

Any words on the flame resistance of the material yet?

Using very crude methods, I can see no difference in this materials' resistance to flame vs a standard 1.0 oz cuben fiber.

They both melt readily when confronted with a flame.

The advantages I found are shade and privacy.
It is slightly heavier and slightly less packable.
Like foil, it has a shiny side and a dull side.
You can see shadows through the dull side as well as variations in the aluminum application process. The shiny side doesn't show these.
I think it would make an awesome looking tent, especially set up in the snow. I find it not as intrusive looking as I feared. Awesome at a very slight penalty, in some cases excusable.
I will vouch for Nathan's work. He is easy to work with and he comes up with some unique products.

Terran Terran: thanks a million.

Thanks Nathan.

I will experiment with 30D silynlon before trying aluminized cuben for MYOG shelter. :)

Cheaper, and at least I know if it doesn't work with silnylon, it probably won't work with cuben either.

Too bad it's so heavy.
Even 0.7 cuben is very durable and considered overkill for shelters. I know my 0.7 cuben tarp survived a big branch falling on it from the top of a tall oak tree.

The fact that it provides better privacy and reflects sunlight would be a big plus in my opinion.