Golite Hut Spotlite Review

[John S.]

Good review. Two things I have discovered are:

1. It can be pitched with 5 stakes (3 stakes at head end, 2 stakes at foot end) . The foot end is elevated by going inside and jamming the handle end of a completely collapsed trekking pole (in my case down to about 25 inches) in fabric to elevate it. It works fine for me in fair weather. I can touch the pole while sleeping but that isn’t a problem at my 5′ 11″ height.

2. I routinely have the straps as short as possible and my trekking pole collapsed to 38″ holds it up. I don’t see any reason why a 40-42″ trekking pole cannot be used with the straps all the way out. I have not tried it, but it should work fine.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Yup, you can pitch it high or low to suit the weather and venitaltion you need. You can stake the door(s) out and open to catch a breeze or have it all open like a tarp. I found it very easy to pitch: stake it down, raise the poles and tweak the lines. I’d much rather deal with this in a blow than a tarp or even a conventional tent, trying to thread poles and such.

For quick and dirty bug protection you can drape a sheet of bug netting over the head end pole, or tie a hank of of it to the pole to keep it off your face. Tuck the rest around your sleeping gear to suit. You can drape over both poles if you want to get fancy.

I don’t know why anyone would want an open tarp with something like this available. This fully enclosed tarp take on rain and wind without having to mummify yourself in a bivy sack and you can still open it up in fair weather. The vestibule space is big– I think hikers who take their dog would love it. The weight and price are both very reasonable.

[Michael Martin]

John-

Thanks for the 5-stake tip. That’s a great idea!

I don’t have my original straps anymore, but if I recall, I think 40″ is about the maximum limit on the pole length with the standard straps. (The strap in front of the vestibule is the critical one.)

Dale, I too am fond of this shelter — I just wish it was 8 oz lighter. Though I’ve stayed dry with a small tarp/bivy combo many times, I’m always a bit nervous with that setup. My Hut withstood over 20 continuous hours of blowing rain on the Olympic Coast recently while others in our group had their double-wall tent soak through.

Cheers,

-Mike

[John S.]

Mike, I was on a 16 person backpack and we had to cram into a small campsite. People were pitching tents in the trail it was so crowded. My front guyline was crossing a path that everyone was going to travel by and I had gotten a few raised eyebrows. The foot end was also in the way and a couple of people had already stumbled into it, so I stood there wondering how to keep everyone from tripping over my guylines. The front guyline was easily done away with but the foot end change took a while before I decided to try putting the pole on the inside. It does decrease the “footprint” for tighter spaces. There’s nothing like a little “pressure” to get one thinking about how do to something different.

[Anonymous]

I wonder… Do you think it would be possible to add a hood to the Hut1 and have it function like the Gatewood Cape?

-jamieS

[Dale Wambaugh]

I could see where you might fold it in half and wear it like a cape. I would do it with no hood and wear a hat. You could use the Gatewood trick of hanging the long ends on toggles underneath. The Gatewood has two straps with snaps that correspond with the guy line points on the back side. You take a long corner of the cape and put a strap though the stake loop and snap it in place. That keeps it all from dragging. Personally, I would use toggles like are commonly used to hold tent doors open.

My main concern is that the Hut1 has more fabric than the Gatewood. Other than that, it sure sounds possible.

[John S.]

The way I like to now have the straps set up is for all straps to be as short as possible except for the frontmost strap at the front of the vestibule which I keep all the way out (as long as possible). I set mine up as follows:

1. Stake out foot end with two stakes
2. Place trekking pole in vestibule cup and stake out front of vestibule; this holds the tent up for further staking
3. Stake out each side of the vestibule
4. Place collapsed trekking pole inside to lift foot end

This works well at making the shelter taut on the first pitch without further adjustments. Also, after hard rain I was able to simply reach up to my black diamond flicklock and raise the pole to take out all the sagging. I’m liking this shelter more and more. The stuff sack could be a tad larger though because it is hard to stuff especially when it’s cold and the fingers don’t want to cooperate.

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