Camping in treeless alpine terrain in rain- anyone use a tent AND a tarp? If so, how?

1. tarp as a stand-alone cooking fly

2. tarp as an entrance "porch"/cooking area. IF the fly extends to the tent's back so runoff stays away from the front you are better off. The alternative is to place the tarp so it is nearly touching the ground on the windward side and high enough to get under conmfortably on the leward side. This puts most of the rain on the ground at the windward side, not on the tent's front.

3. tarp to connect two entrances (same caveat as #2.

(Never as a "ground cloth" unless on snow)

nm

Someday I'll learn to read….

On a ridge in the Glacier Peaks Wilderness: My 8×10 Cooke Custom Sewing tarp, plus my brother's TNF Rock 22. This was a very solid setup, pitched low in a bid to limit the intrusion of the clouds that were wisping through. Very luxurious.

The tent is side-entry, so very different from what you are using, but on this it was great.

Eric- I'm thinking of #2, using it as a stand-alone awning over the entrance to my tent.

Ryan- Thanks for the photo, that's pretty much exactly what I'm envisioning. Hopefully I can execute it that well.

This is EXACTLY the terrain we backpack in in the Uintas of Utah.

Assuming you have a light ground cloth, you could conceivably create a patio by fastening your tarp to where your two arch poles connect to the ridge beam. This might require adding some grommets to your ground sheet at those points (these can't be in the corners because that ridge beam isn't long). Then add grommets to the corner of the ground sheet in the opposing corners and attach some trekking poles and guy lines to create a taut patio to the side of your tent. Nothing you could stand under, but definately a place to sit. I think it would be easy and not very heavy at all.