Please help a newbie choose a shelter

The Lightheart tents are hybrid single/double wall tents….the fly is part of the tent and rolls up almost completely when you want airiness and views. They might be what you're looking for.

I think the StratoSpire 2 might work well for you. I have the single person version and love it, and if I can ever convince my wife to go out on trips with me I'll get the double. It can be set up with just the tarp (rainfly) or just the mesh/fabric inner. It will offer the bug protection you need and has two vestibules, one for you and your partner.

For your requirements, I would look at:

The LightHeart Duo (with an attached fly that easily rolls up or down).

The TarpTent StratoSpire 2 -or- the Six Moon Designs Haven with InnerNet (each has a separate inner and tarp/fly).

Get the measurements of these 3 shelters and measure out a "floor" from craft paper. You won't have the full picture (like how sloped the walls are, etc.) but it will give you a cheap way to check if your pads will fit.

Good luck!

Of the TT you have listed and based on what you intend to do , I would suggest the SS2.
Plenty of room for two 25" wide mats

(inner only with 3×20" wide mats)

offset head height so that you can sit up facing each other and have some room in between and you can leave the side fully or partially open, something like this :

(just imagine the other side also fully open…)
In that mode if it starts raining you just pull the sides down and clip them up. The floor remains protected even with the sides up.
Franco

Golite Shangri La 2.

John, I got the impression from the LightHeart Gear that the feature you're talking about (they call it Star Gazing Mode – love it!) is only on their 1 person tents, and not the Duo, which appears from the pictures to open up about the same amount as the Tarptent Double Rainbow or StratoSpire 2. I wish it did though!

Right. The view would be about the same in many side entry tents with double doors.

I bet you can get a full view with a net tent, a tarp and some fancy rigging. I'd want some loops to hold the tarp on the ridgeline, and side doors on the net tent would really help.

@ Susannah….from the photos on their website, it looks to me like the Duo can do "stargazing mode." You could email Judy and ask her to be sure.

The Tarptent SS2 looks capable of the same thing more or less. Tarptent is a quality product, as is Lightheart Gear. You can't go wrong with either one IMO.

Sounds like you want something like this: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=50566

You could look into getting a similar tarp for over head coverage and then a net tent for the bugs. I believe Bear Paw WD makes several different net tents and does custom work too.

had a look at that tarp,(above link)
I wonder if rain would drip in at the zip…

I forgot to mention this, but we definitely don't want a shelter with a central pole that we'd have to sleep on either side of. Aside from not being crazy about having a pole between us, we may end up getting a double quilt, and I somehow doubt having a cutout in the middle for the pole would work out so well. So, that rules out the Shangri-La 2 and probably a bunch of other things that could otherwise be suggested.

That sounds perfect. Does a tarp that's just held up at the end by guylines and posts/trekking poles really stay up? That's what it essentially would be when the tarp was held up on the ridgeline, if I'm understanding you correctly.

You'd need guylines that run from the poles to the ground. I'm thinking that the corners of the tarp would slide up those guylines as its deployed. The upper/outer corners of the net tent would also attach to these lines.

Actually, not that a think about it, you don't need extra loops on the ridgeline of the tarp. Velcro straps would be convenient. Something like this could work easily if the net tent has dual side doors. That might a lot of zipper weight, depending on how you configure the doors.

Trailstar or Duomid with inner net for two might meet your needs and has not been mentioned.

Here's something else that could work with dual doors.

Get a custom door in back. It'd go in a pyramid tent with custom dual doors. No pole between you two.

The Duomid appears to need a pole right in the middle and it looks like the Trailstar does too, or at least that the most straight-forward way needs a center pole.

It looks like our options are, once all the criteria are taken into account:

– Tarptent Stratospire 2 (or maybe a Double Rainbow – what are the drawbacks of that model aside from not having a mesh inner that can be used on its own? Just space?).

– LightHeart Gear Duo, although once I add the accessories that are included with the Tarptents, it's about the same price as the StratoSpire 2 and a bit heavier…

– Six Moon Design Lunar Duo Explorer (does the 41 oz weight include the stakes? I can't tell from the website), the Lunar Duo Outfitter would be a nice lower-priced option although I'm worried about re-sale value if we don't like it and I'm kind of done with the musty smell that urethaned fabrics seem to get after a while.

– Learn some tarp rigging skills and get a (maybe custom) net tent to put under a tarp. Anyone have recommendations for awesome resources for learning how to pitch a tarp in various ways?

I don't quite get the point of the oddly shaped net tent to go under a pentagonal shaped tarp unless you already have one, love it, and just want a net tent that leaves a nicely shaped tarp-sheltered area outside of it.

Thank you all for how helpful you've been! I really wasn't expecting this many results so quickly. :)

"The Duomid appears to need a pole right in the middle"

Many folks (well, some folks ………. okay, me) set up a Duomid with an inverted-V pole setup. This allows all the space in the shelter to be used unencumbered. FWIW.

Sandra, if you are camping below treeline, some of the shelters mentioned that can be set up with trekking poles can also be set up using guy lines attached to the peak "tieouts," including both the MLD DuoMid and the Golite Shangri La 2. Thus no pole separating you with your significant other.

Caution about Bear Paw. My experience has been products that are over spec on weight.

The last two years I have bought and sold more shelters than I ought to admit to. My so-called UL journey started with Big Agnes, and I decided I preferred the Copper Spur over the Fly Creek. But there were enough niggles with the CS that I sold the 3P, 4P and 1P models quickly.

Next up were a variety of Hilleberg shelters, predominantly for winter camping. They're not really relevant for this discussion, but I did keep the Soulo (1P) and Kaitum 3, having passed on the Nallo 2, Akto (1P), Nallo 3GT, and Staika (2P).

I ventured into GoLite, with the Shangri-La 1 and the Shangri-La 5. The former was relatively cramped, and I figured I could do better for the weight. The latter was utterly massive, in all dimensions, and was far bigger in person than the specs suggested.

After that I got hooked by Mountain Laurel Designs, and bought a TrailStar, DuoMid, SoloMid, and another DuoMid after selling the first. I still have the TrailStar, but I only expect to use it as a solo shelter. All of the 'Mids bothered me. The centre pole was manageable but the unsupported panels of the DuoMid made for disturbed nights in windy conditions. The SoloMid was just too small ("stupid light" for me).

My epiphany came when I finally listened to a good friend about TarpTent, and specifically the StratoSpire. On paper it seemed like a reverse course to my goal of reducing weight. I took a trip with the friend who brought the StratoSpire 1. It had a large footprint, and it seemed to take him a while to pitch on uneven ground. But in high winds just below the Continental Divide it was rock solid, whereas my MLD SoloMid collapsed on me multiple times that night. Last month I purchased a StratoSpire 2 to replace the DuoMid. Yes, it's twice the weight, and has a footprint not much smaller than the Shangri-La 5, but all of a sudden I realized this is the sweet spot for me when I'm not on a solo trip. At 2 1/2 lb it's half the weight of the Copper Spur 3 that I started with, is far better at wind handling than anything other than perhaps the MLD TrailStar, and has an inner tent that pitches along with the fly (so is never exposed to the rain and keeps the bugs out). It's really generous for two, can easily handle two adults and a child, and can – at a pinch – handle three adults willing to get a bit cozy. Once I figured it out (three attempts), the SS2 pitches faster than anything else I've bought in the same 2-2.5P range. This is my three season multi person keeper.

Given your comments, my vote for you would be the StratoSpire 2.