Need help choosing a Solo Shelter

One thing to keep in mind is that no shelter "requires" trekking poles. Almost all tarp tent makers allow you to get poles that you can use instead of the trekking poles. This adds to the overall weight (of course) but usually not much (since poles that are just used to support a tent are usually lighter than trekking poles). Even if the maker doesn't sell a pair, there are plenty of other makers who sell poles for tarp tents (they might just charge a bit more because you are buying them separately).

Personally, I'm waiting for the new Cuben Refuge. If I wasn't, I think I would go with the Gossamer Gear "One" tarp tent. This looks like a solid design, with a vent up high.

Hi Justin,

I'd recommend taking a look at the Tarptent Rainbow (http://tarptent.com/rainbow.html) I've personally found this to be one of the roomiest solo shelters out there. It's simple to setup and has a decent vestibule. (Though it should be noted that the vestibule does not come down flush to the ground.) It comes in at about 2lbs. There are numerous reviews on this site and on BackpackingGearTest.org.

Ryan

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How do these Tarptent solo tents fair in a reasonable rain storm? Does the bathtub floor resist flowing water fairly well?

Thanks

Another one to look at . Sierra Designs Velox 1

http://sierradesigns.com/tents.display.php?id=949

Check out the Big Agnes SL series tents. They are extrmely light and come with vestibules.

the gear swap theres an SL2 in there for a great price.

I ruled out the Big Agnes SL1 mainly because of it's weight. I like how spacious it is, but it ends up breaking the 3 lb mark and is heavier than the Mountain Hardwear Stiletto and Marmot EOS 1P — tents I would consider to be direct competitors of the SL1.

Thanks for all the recommendations so far.

Hi Justin,

I haven't had my Rainbow in anything more than a rather sporadic misty drizzle. (Which was of course no problem for it to handle.) The one thing about the Rainbow is that you need to make sure that you seal the seams. I purchased mine from a fellow BPLer here who had actually paid to have Henry himself seal the seams. So I'm confident that this could stand up to quite a bit of rain. That being said, with Tarptents (as with most UL/LW shelters) site selection is key in making sure you keep dry in the event of a storm. When clipped up, the Rainbow's bathtub floor is fairly tall, but I doubt it would handle flowing water well if I setup camp in a depression.

Ryan

I have personally used a squall 2 in continuous, heavy rainstorms with no problems. As to the bathtub floor, these floors are made out of the standard 1.3oz silnylon used in many ultralight shelters. I have not tested the bathtub floor when camped in a full on puddle, but from what Ive read this material will wet through under a relatively small amount of water pressure. In my experience the bathtub floor has worked great and never wetted through. One thing to consider is that condensation buildup on the walls is very common with these shelters, and will certainly occurr with any significant amount of rain. This is not a big deal as long as you dont brush up against the walls. I've used a squall 2 as a solo shelter in a lot of bad weather and it is supremely spacious and dry for me and ALL my gear inside. However, the contrail still may be plenty roomy for you; I have no experience with it.

Finally, regarding the aluminum poles that are available for purchase from tarptent- they weigh 2oz each and are not super stiff. That being said, I have used my squall 2 with 2 of these poles in winds up to ~40mph with no problems. One of the poles did get slightly bent, but it still works fine. Still, I think the tarptents are ultimately stronger with trekking poles.

Hope this helps,
Seth

Justin,

I have had a Contrial for about a year and I love it.

It is a great, light weight solution with complete protection from the elements and bugs, but it is not perfect.

I have been a really bad rain storm in the Contrail where it collapsed and I did spend a night in a puddle of water when the water came in through the mesh along the perimeter of the Tarptent.

To give you an idea of how bad this was…we were on top of a ridge with the rain blowing sideways on us and the wind was pressing the top of the tent above my legs hard against my sleeping bag.

One guy I was with had a REI half dome that was crushed by the wind and bent his tent pole, forcing him to spend the night in a pit toilet stall as his only shelter that night.

To be fair, conditions were horrible and I could have done a better job of staking down my tent.

Points that I would like to make on Contrail/Tarptents:

• They can be a little drafty because of all of the mesh to prevent condensation vs. a traditional tent.
• They are noisy when the tent fabric is flapping in the wind.
• Per the instructions, it is important to retention the lines on the tent as the fabric relaxes as it gets cooler/damp….you want to keep the tent fabric taut to deflect wind.
• Have really good stakes. I now use the MSR Groundhogs.
• Site selection is key to angle the tent properly into the wind.
• If in doubt, put rocks or logs on top of your stakes to keep them from pulling out of the ground.

My failure was that I had poor site selection and did not place things on top of my stakes to secure them.

With all the rain that I suffered through, the ground literally turned to mud and the wind was able to pull my stakes right out of the ground.

The failure was my inexperience more than the tent.

I can honestly say that up to the point that my stake popped out of the ground, I was staying dry with some rain spray getting into the tent.

The bathtub floor was able to keep the rain out despite my having chosen a spot that had slight depression and I was quickly developing a puddle of water underneath me.

When my stake popped out of the ground and the tent collapsed, the water poured into my tent.

I slept in about 1" of water and looked like Han Solo in carbonite the next morning with pools of water collection on top of the tent making a lovely outline of myself underneath. :)

What saved me was that I have a Marmot Helium EQ 15 degree sleeping bag that has a waterproof shell and I had seam sealed it. (I love that bag).

Having gone through this, I am total confidence that the Contrail could survive any “normal” rain storm.

I think that I would have done better if I had installed another stake for the apex line that goes from above the entrance door.

That probably would have provided more stability for my trekking pole to resist the winds.

Ear plugs might be nice to have if is really windy.

Anyway, my point is simply this….the Contrail is a great tent, but you should know its limitations.

We often focus on weight and glaze over some of the issues and limitations of lightweight gear.

Hope that this helps you.

"I’m fine with having to buy two tents: a 3-season and a winter one."

Hey Justin, depending on the type of winter camping you intend to do, you could satisfy both needs. My winter tent was the Tarptent Double Rainbow (replaced with a Golite Utopia 2+) and I loved it. However, regarding your concerns with flowing water, the floor on the DR isn't a true bathtub floor. It is a little floppy, so even when the floor is clipped up, there is potential that water could flow over the mosquito mesh and into the tent, but it would have to be a fearsome flow.
Steve

>>Points that I would like to make on Contrail/Tarptents:
>> ..Have really good stakes. I now use the MSR Groundhogs.
….the Contrail is a great tent, but you should know its limitations.

I couldn't agree more that there are definite limitations, especially with the included stakes. The Contrail puts a lot of stress on stakes and, frankly, the included 6" Easton stakes are a little underpowered for the Contrail in marginal/wet soil. I have had good testing success with the 8" Easton stakes–the next size up; 1/2ounce per stake–and we'll try to start offering those stakes later this year on selected models.

-H

First off, thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to write. I wish I had asked for help sooner.

I must say that if weight were my only concern, I would have bought a new tent long ago. It's been very clear to me since day 1 of researching a solo ultralight shelter, that there are definitely trade-offs when you shed weight.

The rainbow is appealing to me except for the fact that it doesn't appear fully enclosed like the Contrail. Am I understanding that right? For bug's sake, I think a fully enclosed option will probably need to be a requirement which might rule out the Rainbow.

The GoLite Utopia 1 looks intriguing and reminds me of the Black Diamond OneShot. Neither have a vestibule which is a negative to me. However, I do prefer the Utopia's removable $30 floor which is cheaper than some ground cloths. I like the idea of removable floors because it eliminates my desire to want to take a ground sheet with me (cheaper to replace a removable floor than a sewn-in one.

Of course, my concern with using a 4-season tent for the other three seasons is condensation, which seems to be a recurring problem with most of the reviews I read on these types of tents. Sometimes I wonder why they don't just call 4-season tents "the other season" tents. :)

http://www.bigskyinternational.com/

I'm interested in their solo solutions, but haven't seen a lot about them on the net.

Hi Justin,

The Rainbow is fully enclosed and bug proof unless you order the floorless model.

Ryan

Justin:

The Rainbow is fully enclosed, although a floorless version is available on special order. The 2008 version reportedly incorporates the porch set-up option from the Double Rainbow, which makes it even better.

From all the reviews plus experience, I've come to the conclusion that the geometry of the Rainbow/DR makes it the better choice in a driving rain or high winds and it is easier to set up. The Contrail has the advantage in flexibility of pitch, ventilation, weight, vestibule area, and packed size. I second Henry's suggestion that the longer 9 inch Easton stakes are a better choice for the Contrail.

My biggest concern with any tent that uses an arch pole in a sleeve is that if I manage to somehow break that pole, I can't set up the tent. There isn't room inside the pole sleeve for a pole repair sleeve to fit. Remember, I own a DR and routinely take it into the Sierras so I don't consider this risk to be significant, but I accept that it can happen.

With an A-frame shelter like the Contrail or Squall2, if I break or lose a trekking pole, I can make do with a stick, my 2nd trekking pole, or maybe even a long line to a tree.

You don't need to add in the weight of trekking poles that you will use only for shelter support. Henry has an optional aluminum folding pole you can order for $5 and which adds a mere 3 ounces to your shelter weight.

Wandering Bob

I dont see any mention of the Gossamer Gear the "One"
unlike silnylon, the spinnaker will not sag under wet conditions. and silnylon WILL sag. Sometimes depending on the size of the fabric panel, it can sag up to 30% of it's usual taut size. of course this can be alleviated by tightening your guylines but then when the fabric dries there can be enormous tension on it.

Spinnaker suffers not. If I did do silnylon it would be the Lunar Solo E. Im not very impressed with the Contrail or the Rainbow/2 but thats just MY opinion, YMMV.
you might also check out the Seedhouse SL2 from Big Agnes.

There are a lot of people who love the Tarptent Contrail. It hasn’t fired my passion, but it’s a good shelter. Also worth a look(though huge for solo) is the MLD Superfly.

Based on your requirements I would suggest the Gossamer Gear “The One”.

> 1. light include poles?

check.

> works for 6’ 2” people?

check

> 3. vestibule?

Check.

There was a thread about the one a weeks ago and a good thread on practical backpacking. I have only gotten mine out two times.

Here are a few observations from the first weekend I tried it. The very first time I pitch The One, it took less than four minutes, and I was down to two minutes after just four tries. While the pitch I got wasn’t as taut as my Spinnshelter (due to me still learning the shelter and design differences) the shelter did well with gusts up to 25 mph. There was a bit of fabric flap (mostly the vestibule), and some side deflection, but it wasn’t bad. While new spinnaker is more “noisy” that sil-nylon without tension, I found The One generated was slightly quieter than a Squall2 in identical conditions. The first two nights using The One had continuous rain. I didn’t experience the light misting that people sometimes get through sil-nylon in heavy rains, but it was clear that this is a shelter that really needs to be seam sealed before it’s used in heavy rain due to leaks through the seams which then pooled in the bathtub floor. There is a huge amount of headroom in the middle of the shelter, but the aggressively sloping walls takes some getting used to. When moving from a lying to sitting position I bump the side wall on the way up if I wasn’t careful, and I would sometimes bump the back wall as I got in and out of the door. I am sure with a bit of retraining this won’t be a problem. I expect once I get use to the space inside that it will seem luxuriously large, especially after using the Spinnshelter for the last four years. Assuming continued positive experiences with The One, I would highly recommend it for 3 season solo us.

Someone needs to step up and mention the Big Sky option. Let me say I don't own one but I did a significant amount of research when I went looking just like you. I wasn't ready to give up my double wall tent. I think of all the double wall tents out there at the moment the Big Sky is still the best and if I had not opted to make my own from Cuben fiber the big sky was the tent I was close to buying.

There have been some problems with getting the Big Sky delivered but I think this is not a problem any more.

One other tent that I recommended to a friend is a tent made in the UK. I have not figured out how to get this tent but they do have the lightest double wall solo out there. Google Laser Photon and you should find it

So many choices…

I think I'm at least narrowing it down to a tent-style: single-wall with the bug netting at bottom for ventilation.

So this would include:

1. Gossamer Gear The One
2. Tarptent Contrail
3. Tarptent Rainbow

Here are a couple links for the Terra Nova Laser Photon:

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/epages/terranova.storefront/47d6212a00ca7b9c27410a022f0105c7/Product/View/43LPG

you seem to be moving away from double wall tents anyway but if cost and very light weight are not that important you should not dismiss the Acto.It fits your criteria Weight 3 lb. high bathtub floor, bug proof inner, large vestibule . I am not your height but the inner is long and almost big enough for 2. I think you said it is single skin it is not.
The TGO challenge is a yearly walk across the Highlands of Scotland in May, one of the wettest windiest places.It is entered by 300 people every year for the last 28 years. The the gold standard tent for solo walkers is the Acto. Second nowadays would be the Laser Competition or photon but although it is lighter and cheaper it has no other advantages over the Acto.
There is condensation problems in the Acto sometimes in Scotland but only when it is wet and not windy. The inner could perhaps do with a bit more ventilation available at the ends. I think most tents would have problems in these conditions.

nm

I didn't know that Hilleberg was a double wall tent but that would explain the nearly 4 pound weight — the main reason why I'm not interested in it for my 3-season solution. I assume the fly is not integrated and can be removed for rain-free nights?