I just returned from a trip to the Adironacks with a friend. He was new to backpacking and huge, so I took a Tarptent Rainshadow to make sure he was comfortable.
I didn't get to test it in rain, so I'm not writing a review, but I wanted to share a few observations with the group:
1. The shelter is massive. In addition to me, it could easily hold a wife and two middle sized kids. Three adults would be cinch.
2. At that ratio, the per/person weight is quite low–just over 10 oz per person for full coverage. Even for 3 adults the per/person weight is 14 oz. A Spinntwin/bivy system shared among two people translates to around 11 oz/per person, so the Rainshadow is not far off from one of the lightest shared systems on the market.
3. However, it can only be "shared" bewteen two people–poles to one and body to the other.
4. The tent is basically an A-frame tarp with a sewed in floor and netting sewed over the ends. With the mesh zipped up, the shelter is the functional equivalent of a tent, notwithstanding the great quantities of mess: In low light the netting is nearly as opaque as ripstop. At night the shelter has no better visibility than an ordinary tent. I also found ventilation to be less than I had hoped.
5. On the flip side, if you don't want the mesh, there is a huge mesh door which unzipped would effectivly convert the shelter to a tarp.
