photos of your packed tent / tarp ?

Here's the TNF "Mountain Marathon" I just sold on the bay.

That's a one pint (Imperial) beer can.

You can stuff your tent as tightly as you wish — it's not a sleeping bag and there's no worries about damaging any insulation and fluffiness. Just make sure that when storing in-between hikes, you store them clean, thoroughly dry and away from sunlight and heat.

Your tent a space eater? I always store my tent outside my pack. Picture hiking in a downpour. Storing your tent inside, you then have to open up and expose your pack to the rain. But stored outside, you can set up your tent first, then open up your pack underneath the protection of your tent.

When striking camp, I pack and close up my pack under the protection of my tent. I then put on my rain jacket, take down my tent, stuff it inside the tent sack, attach it to the outside of my pack — and am ready to hit the trail. No worries about packing a wet, muddy tent inside your pack either.

I prefer folding and then rolling up my tent — with the poles and stakes in the middle. All that fabric wraparound serves to protect the poles. I then work the roll into the tent sack.

Rog, that's great — thanks for the shot.

I've been trying to stuff the compressed double wall tent horizontally in to the pack and then store the poles on the outside of the pack somehow (both compressed tent and poles would not fit horizontally in to the Gorilla), but it seems that both you and Benjamin strapped the tents externally to your packs.

I am going to try that tonight.

Benjamin, where and how to do you strap the tent on your pack? Vertically or on top of the pack once it is closed? My current tent has carbon poles, and so I liked the idea of wrapping up the poles in the tent and fly first for protection.

I am also curious as to whether you save that much space with a single wall or tarp to make the space savings in a pack worthwhile. That, in large part, was probably another motive for the post, as I am thinking of jumping to a tarp or tarptent at some point.

Thanks again for the prompt responses.

I use slim packs with no side pockets so I can strap my tent to the side without compromising elbow swing. You never know when you are going to need to throw your arms around for balance when you are rock dancing. With frameless packs I like to use my collapsed tent poles as pack stiffeners, jammed between the coils of my sleeping pad. Like Ben, if it's persisting it down as I pack, the tent, poles and all, go on the outside and I sort it out later.

Omar:

What pack do you use? For me, packing the tent outside is not just a matter of saving pack space. It just makes a lot more sense to me. Coming to camp, I reach for my tent first — I like having it set up before the weather should change, etc. And striking camp, my tent is the last thing I pack up. So it makes little sense for me to have the tent packed inside. That plus camping in the rain as described above. Do you really want the wet, muddy thing inside your pack?

I use a 4 lb double wall, and strap it to the top. Mostly because it's always wet/muddy, and putting on top means I don't have to figure out how to counterbalance the weight with stuff on the other side. I'm thinking of going to a tarp though, in which case I'll put it on the side, to make it easier to get in/out of the pack, and reduce the top-heavy balance of the 5-6 lb (wet) tent on top.

Benjamin,

I am using a GG Gorilla, which I love, but definitely is a little snug for more than a 3 day venture.

Okay, Omar, you asked and included tarps in your query.

I just got this yesterday, a BPL Nano tarp. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet. But it was on the desk, so I moved some stuff around so you could get a sense of its size. Total weight with stakes, cords, line-locks, and stuff sack is 7.8 oz.

Omar:

Assuming you have a reasonably light and compact tent / shelter — say a tarptent — you can easily strap it right under your pack's top strap. For the 2 or so pounds of weight, you won't feel any imbalance or top heavy-ness — at least I don't.

Here is my single walled tent with a 35 sq ft floor, full bug netting, 6 MSR needle stakes & 58" pole. Packed it weighs exactly 1.5 pounds and is 13×4.25". The bag is just big enough to fit so careful rolling helps a lot. On the right is a Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1. I thought the BA was small until I built this thing!

Living out of town, this is all that I have with me….

From top – Tarptent Double Rainbow, TT Moment, and Hilleberg UL10 tarp.

Just for grins. here is my Tarptent Moment in the side pocket of my Gorilla. The poles are all that is under the compression strap, since I didn't roll it wide enough. I could fold it and put it in the back pocket, would probably be easier.

Joe:

Your configuration should work for Omar as well.

The Moment is pretty loose in that pocket too.

Joe,

Thank you for going to all that trouble of including photos. It helps enormously. Actually, the single wall I was thinking of making the jump to from my double wall was either a Rainbow or a Moment, so those photographs are terrific.

Quick question: you said at one point 'just for grins' — does that mean you actually do not pack the tarptent on the outside of your Gorilla as you show it? Or is that photo how you actually organize the pack for treks? Just want to make sure I understood the picture correctly.

Nick, if ever there was an argument to make the jump to a tarp, your photo is certainly it.

Bender, out of curiosity at the much smaller stuff sack on the left, what single wall tent is that?

clockwise from upper left, MLD Monk, BPL Nano, Hennessy Hammock, MLD Duomid

I use a ULA Conduit instead of the Gorilla. But I carry my TT Rainbow the same as Joe shows above. I put the Rainbow in the outer pocket including the stakes and poles. It fits very easily and is very accessible on those days you need fast access to set-up camp.

thanks thomas, for the insight.

cameron, are the labels referring to the tarps / tents in a clockwise fashion?

(by the way, at the risk of hijacking my own thread, how do you like the duomid?)

By "just for grins", I meant I was just sitting around, had nothing to do, but had a camera and a Gorilla. That is how I carry my tent in my Gorilla, Mariposa, and ULA packs.

Neat job Joe.

Hilleberg tent with poles shown…stakes are on the other side.

Bailey

bailey, thanks for the photo, where do you put the tent when you carry it? inside pack or outside somewhere?

It's packed as shown…too big to carry anywhere else :(

Bailey

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