Heatsheet as rain wrap?

[Jim MacDiarmid]

I'm staring at my gear list for my upcoming trip to Yosemite/Ansel Adams Wilderness (9/26/-10/1) and trying to figure out if there is any place I could cut oz.

It's shoulder season in the Sierra, so it could be sunny and 60F, or there could be passing T-Storms, or it could dump 2' of snow.

I was planning on swapping out my Golite Reeds for my ULA rain wrap, which could double as my ground sheet, saving a combined ~4.5oz. I'll be wearing either RR Eco-Mesh pants or OR Contour Softshells.

I was originally planning on using an AMK Heatsheet as my ground sheet, because I like the safety of having the heatsheet should things go sideways as far as my down quilt getting wet or something.

Do you think the heatsheet could be used as a rain wrap? I was thinking (I'm at work now so can't test out) that the heat sheet could be folded in half, length-wise for 28" of leg coverage (same as my size M ULA wrap) and then secured with either a piece of duct-tape or the belt from my pants? Other than being a bit noisy, any reason this might not work? At 84" long, it would wrap around my waist almost 2.5 times. Weight-wise it would only save .5oz over the rain wrap/ground sheet combo, but I'd gain the worst case safety factor.

Opinions?

[Ryan Krause]

Have you tried applying duct tape to the heat sheet to see if you can remove it without damaging it? Or would you just leave the tape on and the section of tape that has to be undone to get it on/off would be tape-on-tape?

For a belt – how would you keep the sheet in place? Without loops or a sleeve for the belt it seems the sheet would come undone after a while.

[Michael Ray]

Tape won't work except for maybe masking tape or the low-tack painters kind. You'll destroy the LDPE material trying to remove most tapes. Ryan's idea of tape on tape should work though.

It will also get torn up pretty good if you're going through any brush. Make sure you clear your site of all debris if using as a groundsheet. It will stretch quite a bit before a puncture, but I wouldn't expect it to last more than this trip.

Other than that, it should work fine.

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