making use of Hurricane Sandy?

Isn't Ide in Maryland?

He owns two of every type of cuben shelter out there as well!

Someone get on the horn and deputize Doug for that BPL shelter endurance test we were prom,ised and Eric was so keen on!

Time to make some MYOG stuff

with a manual sewing machine and a candle

How did you know what I was thinking ? I'll be having my MLD Silnylon Duomid up for sure and maybe even try out some others! I want to try some inverted V set-ups in it for this coming winter with a superlight bivy. Oh what fun a good storm is :-) lots of time to read, play with gear, and test out waterproofing and storm pitch modes on tents!

Get some video. Post some photos. Play safe.

> How did you know what I was thinking ?

only because whenever we had a good storm coming I would always either set something up in the backyard or try to take a quick trip somewhere close to get to "enjoy" the weather. My family always laughs at me when I do this :) Used to be I could just drive up to the Lost Coast to get bad weather, but the last several trips have had gorgeous, mild weather, great for enjoying the trip, but disappointing from a testing perspective.

–Mark

Just shortened a pole for the Gatewood Cape for testing tomorrow. I had a 48" CF pole but chopped it to 45" to be able to pitch it lower with a straighter pole. Maybe the Shangri La 5 too.

I don't have an anemometer so I'll have to rely on the news.

And I have a tall ladder and friendly neighbors in case one or both ends up in a tree.

I just hope you Easterners all stay safe tomorrow and Tuesday. Doug, if I were you, I'd take a red-eye flight to Vegas tonight. Just to weather that horrific storm, ya know? Let FEMA test the gear…

While you guys are at it let us know how well your rain gear works. A lot of good reviews could come out of this. But most of all stay safe!

Gatewood Cape is up.
45" CF Zpack pole
Lawson Ti wire stakes
Two extra tie outs are Dyneema

"Isn't Ide in Maryland?"

He is, the bum. But I don't like backpacking alone, I get frightened. Sometimes I cry. And there's no one here with whom to set up shelters in the back yard to ease my anxiety, so I guess I'll have to pass on testing this time around.

Darn.

If you do decide to setup in the backyard Doug, watch out for the coyotes… ;-)

I once set up a homemade shaped tarp in a typhoon here and it was definitely a learning experience. I'm proud to say the tarp was very sturdy, with no flapping whatsoever!

Be safe, everyone!

I, fortunately, AM in 'Vegas. My TT Moment is likely earthquake proof but the highest winds I've encountered are 45 -50 mph gusts. With just one windward guyout line it was very solid.

I now have made prepared guyout lines with small snap hooks and small Tarptent style plastic line tensioners. All I need to do is hook the snaps into the tent and stake them out with MSR Groundhog sakes.

I also added 4 grossgrain tape stake loops equidistant around the Moment's bottom hem for maximum "holdown".

P.S. And finally, I ran my crossing pole inside the tent for more canopy support. If all that doesn't keep the tent in one piece then fervent prayer and supplication to the storm gods is the only alternative.

Okay, to satisfy some of you hungering for real world hurricane testing, I set my MLD bivy outside in the back yard to see if it would stay dry internally while the wind howled and the rain pelted.

Whoever finds it, let me know how it did.

Should have staked that sucker down……

Way to go Doug.. thats the spirit.
I foresee a bottle of BPL's finest singlemalt in your future.

We once had 6 inches of rain fall in eight hours up here in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Yea, that is nothing to what you get out there but anyways..

I set up all three of my shelters in the front yard at the ranch to test their storm worthy-ness.
Then i put on my poncho and hiked up and down the horse trails with a pink umbrella i borrowed from a female roomate just to test the whole umbrella thing ya' know.
Nobody was around so it seemed like a good time for such activity.
Everything was going so well and i was having fun until i came up out of the gully near the road..
Traffic was stopped and all be danged if i wasn't spotted by three people i knew in that line of cars.
That was years ago but those fellas still kind of give me a funny look these days.

Kinda like riding a moped.. it's all fun till your friends see you on one.

"Okay, to satisfy some of you hungering for real world hurricane testing, I set my MLD bivy outside in the back yard to see if it would stay dry internally while the wind howled and the rain pelted.

Whoever finds it, let me know how it did.

Should have staked that sucker down……"

Doug, I've got a hiking buddy up in Cambridge, NY. I'll ask him to keep an eye out for it….

My 19 year old son is doing a SOBO AT thru hike. He's into Pa. now. He's carrying my old SpinnTwinn. We'll see how it does.

I had a great time setting up shelters in my back yard during this past monsoon season. Monsoons are no hurricanes, but you sure learn a lot when you try to set up your tent during a heavy downpour with strong winds. Stay safe you guys.

On a side note, I think that backpackers are pretty well prepared for most natural disasters. For example, I tend to always have several days worth of backpacking food and fuel on hand. Not to mention means to purify water and stay warm.

That's not Mad Max is it ? I chatted briefly last week with a young Flip-Flopper who was racing down to Port Clinton, PA to finish his hike on his birthday (Nov 10th). Either way should be an interesting time on the trail !

No, not Mad Max. He's not flip flopping either. So its a bad time to get hit by a hurricane.

The GW Cape did very well through gusts I'd estimate up to 50mph.

However it performed very poorly under an 80' oak tree. Flat as a pancake. I believe the CF pole failed too but I won't know for a few days. I'd bet the Ti stakes are still good.

Wowsers! It's a good thing you weren't sleeping in it! I guess this reinforces the fact that we should be very critical of our site selection.

First snurricane in history!!

Check this taken today on LeConte and lifted from the "High on LeConte site linked here:
http://www.highonleconte.com/1/post/2012/10/mountain-top-views.html

Also snowing in Boone and West Virginia. Could be getting feet and feet up north in Presidentials and Katadyn. Hopefully thru-hikers on the trail have gotten word on this development. If it's on LeConte then it's hitting the usual spots on almost the entire length, or worse it's sleeting and freezing rain lower and further south.

Checked out my new Z-Packs rain jacket against a Marmot precip on 3 walks the past 2 days; twice wearing the Z-Packs and once with the Marmot. Blowing steady @ 50-55 with gusts 60-70 hiking across and west of Jockey's Ridge and through the re-vegetating forest-to-be north of the dune. Didn't have to worry about bigger trees of limbs getting dropped on me. In some of those treed hollows north of the dune it was amazing how calm it would be on the ground while the wind was roaring about 20 feet overhead. Had to wear goggles for the blowing sand but it was still really fun! 4 miles each trip. Wore a Mt. Hardware wicked lite T and a sort of singlet made from an under armour winter weight mock-t with the sleeves cut off. I love that fuzzy stuff in rainy cooler weather with the brushed inside and the flat "harder" skin it's kinda like a wetsuit and comfortable even when damp.

Not very scientific but I weighed the "T" and the singlet before and after each hike and carefully inspected the inside of the jackets. I had the singlet on next to skin and the T as the outside layer.

The singlet gained @ 1 gram each trip and was not noticeably damp on any of the hikes except just a little around the collar with the precip. The Mt. Hardware "T" OTOH was 2 grams heavier with the precip than with the Z-Packs.(3 vs 1 gained) The precip was also definitely damp/wet across the torso area.

The Z-packs was completely dry in the core-torso area and neither the "T" nor the singlet had apparent dampness.

It rained harder on the first hike with the Z-Packs than either of the following with the Precip or the Z-packs.

Also wore the z-packs rain mitts and they were really a nice treat in these conditions.

The Z-packs jacket was definitely water-proof and also lots more quiet and flexible. The fabric really has a nice supple "hand" I am much more skeptical regarding the "breath-ability" but at 60 degrees and 60 mph winds it didn't really matter!