Glen Van Peski’s Shelter–Wedge

[Jason McSpadden]

I've been reading Glen Van Peski's gear lists over at Gossamer Gear. And looking at the pictures of some of his trips. He often lists his cuben fiber(?) wedge shelter and carbon fiber stakes. Does anybody know the dimensions ie-length, width, shape, etc. of this shelter? Was this shelter ever listed for sale on the Gossamer Gear Site? I've seen Joe Valero's site with a picture of a 6×9 cuben fiber tarp that looks similar. I wonder if that might work? I guess I'm thinking that if it is good enough for Glen it is certainly more than good enough for me.

Glen has not yet publicly released a CF Wedge for sale.

You are correct in going the direction of ZPacks for such a tarp. You could also consider MLD (mountainlaureldesigns) for it. Either of them would probably require a custom design so expect to pay a bit extra. I have gear from both of them and both of them are top-notch.

If I understood things correctly, the CF "Wedge" that Glen uses is a modified design from the original wedge design, and I have never seen him publish the diagram for his CF version, if indeed it is a modified design, which in looking at his photos, I suspect it is.

[Jason McSpadden]

John, thanks for the insight. Have you seen diagrams on the Wedge before? Do you think it is a trapezoid or just a long rectangle?

Jason

Hey Jason,

I think what he did was take a rectangle piece of material and terminate the ends with a half squared triangle.

Looks to have seven (7) tie-out points. One on each end, four corners and a single tie-out in the center.

https://dpcr19kltm61a.cloudfront.net/backpackinglight/images/audio-interview-glen-van-peski-sub-3-pound-trip-2.jpg

What is going to be hard to determine is just how long the actual rectangle part of it is. Suppose a person could calculate the length of the GG LT4's in the photo, calculate the width between them, and determine it from that, but that is more work than I care to take on. A simple email to Glen and you could probably have the answer quickly enough, and might even be able to talk him into building one for you.

It is a little hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like he might be using 0.7 material, which is overkill in my opinion. Could easily get away with 0.5 CF for what this little tarp is designed to do.

[Glen Van Peski]

The rectangle portion is 6' long (for reference, I'm 6'4"). If you email me I can dig up a sketch with dimensions and send it to you. I did use the 0.7 CF, have not messed around much with the lighter stuff.

–Glen

glen(at)gossamergear.com

[James Marco]

The tarp is a variation of the hunters tarp. Note that in most instances you only need 5 stakes. The wings make up the tieouts for two. They are great little shelters. Light for their coveage, and, fairly wind resistant from three compass points. I have made up 6-7 of these over the years. Lately, I have been adding a 16"x(length of front) "hood" to the open front. These are called a Wheelan Tarp from the early 1900's. A couple
tieoffs to the side wings makes them fairly weather tight. They work well in the ADK's with all the rain up there.

I looked into using CF for a new small one, but went with Sil instead because I could not get the required width (body is 72"x66".) It takes about 7 yards of material, including wings & hood. It weighs about 11oz in pre-2006 Sil(I had a few yards left.) The new chineese stuff is slightly lighter. In .7cf it should weigh about 5oz. Not finished yet…

One of the coolest tarps I think I have seen is the GargoyleGear 'Ogee Tarp' which seems to have at least two dozen different ways you could configure it. Pure craziness, but such amazing options it offers!

[Jason McSpadden]

Wow! Is this a great and helpful community! Thank you for all of the feedback, ideas, and help. Special thanks to Glen for the invitation to contact him. As soon as I get my daughter off to college this week, I'll be in touch. This is a project that I want to work on over the winter.

Jason

[John Chong]

I've been wondering the same as well, do you think you can forward that dimension page to me as well after receiving it from glen?

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