Tall person’s support thread

So I am 6'3 and totally agree only marginally tall and happy for that.As my brother is 6' 7 so I know what a pain it can be Big people small world type of deal haha. I have never mountaineered but I would imagine a 2 person shaped tarp (MLD trail star Golite shangra la maybe) and a extralong bivvy might do the trick. I have used a tarp bivvy combo in some pretty wet and windy conditions so I can attest to the effective ness of the combo. You should totally get into MYOG a bivvi is a great first project and you can find some pretty nice sewing machines on craigslist. Plus if you get good at it you will no longer be subjected to the mass produced short people products!! Good look my friend
Happy trails
Matt

I'm under 6'2" and can only begin to feel your pain – as I am envious of to tiny shelters, packs, clothing, etc. I see others carrying. But it helps in Sports :)

As suggested, MYOG is great; but you have to want to do it.

Cottage makers are often willing to do custom work.

Glad you found clothing that works for you!

Duluth Trading has their "anti-plumber's butt" T-shirts with an extra 3" of length in the torso in many styles and colors for around town us. Including some in a wicking fabric that works well for me (only 6', but a long-torso'ed Celt) with lots of extra length for overlap and tucking in. Then you're not paying speciality prices.

Pre-internet someone managed to set up a shoe-matching service. For people with very different feet. I sold a pair of hiking boots in 7 and 11 to a guy who wore the 7R and 11L and sent the 7L and 11R to his match since they each always had to two pairs of every shoe. So hook up with a short guy. He cuts 4" off the length, and you sew it onto your clothing / tent / tarp. More seriously, get to know a seamstress who can modify garments – adding fabrics or making the Big&Tall stuff into Tall only.

Arr…I sing your lament, and I'm just a shrimpy 6'4" (was six five, but..shrinkage). I was almost going to get a Hilleberg Unnum last winter when I came across discussion of the pitch angle and realized I'd just bought a 2" high neoair. One thought I've had before is to have a shortie footbox over-bag. Small section of polartec 100 or 200 sleeve over foot of your bag so condensation/wicking via contact feet-to-wall of tent is (theoretically?) alleviated.

Duluth: their t-shirts are wonderful, but beware of their shirts. All those underarm gussets and the like are worthless–IME. NOTHING beats a real long sleeve. I'm speaking as a stick-man with desk jockey shoulders but 38 sleeve. If the sleeve doesn't bunch at the wrist hanging down, you're showing half your forearm when ski-poling. "Tall" sizes where they just widen the shoulder yoke are the worst.

Have had great luck with parkas, but seems like patternless luck. One Patagonia, an REI, a great First Ascent, but looks like they are going bye bye.

TENTS
"Tents are an issue. Even a tent with a purported 90" floor is probably too short"
Yes.
The linear measurement is NOT a good indication of the usable space available.
In fact if both ends slope inward , a 6'3" may have problems fitting inside a 90" long tent floor.
I'll show you soon a tent that has an 84" floor that will accommodate you on top of a thick mat.

First the idea is to measure your own personal "box", that is the cubic space you need for your sleeping style.
So get your mat and sleeping bag out measure both the length and height you require.
Now find a tent that you can fit that box in.

(the tent struts are about 2" past the end of the sleeping bag. The perspective in this photo makes them look otherwise)
Here is the 84" example I had in mind :

note that above the floor end you have 29" , you also have some extra space outside the floor ends , so you would fit under that.

Mind you it helps when you have detailed dimensions like that..
franco@tarptent

I gotta chime in, I guess. I'm 6'5", about 205, and have plenty of rants.

Clothes: I thank my lucky stars for Eddie Bauer/First Ascent. I have their down jacket, several tall hiking shirts, several fleece items, a (no longer made) wind jacket, and I forget what all else. Most of my day to day clothes come from there, too. In my experience, tall guys can find all kinds of clothing that fits if they also happen to be big. (There's a reason those stores have "Big *and* Tall" in their names.) Average to thin tall guys have a much harder time.

Tents: Are a pain. The Tarptent Rainbow fits me, but I have serious unrequited Stratospire envy.

Hiking boots/shoes: Probably my biggest problem, if only because I have to fight the battle every other year or so. I've gotten by through the years mostly with Vasques (Arc Tempo last), but they're phasing out size 15s. Every new shoe stops at 14. I could cry. There are other 15s out there, but none I've found that have the right curvature for my weird, bony feet.

Packs. I know how load lifters are supposed to work, but I've never experienced them myself.

Pants: REI Saharas work, but I'd prefer something with a little stretch. Too bad.

Rain gear: I have never seen a pair of tall rain pants. Ever. Well, that's not completely true; the 8-lb yellow things they wear on Deadliest Catch come in Paul Bunyan.

Jolly Green Giant has a lot of knowledge for tall folks.

http://jolly-green-giant.blogspot.com

Fortunately, I don't have your problem (only 6 ft) but I like a roomy shelter. I bought a Big Agnes Slater UL1+ and have REALLY been enjoying the extra length. This tent is 96 inches long and it's truly usable space. If I put my sleep mat too far down toward the foot of the tent I can't reach the zipper in the door! Nice and wide too for you larger guys. Check it out.

"Fortunately, I don't have your problem (only 6 ft) but I like a roomy shelter. I bought a Big Agnes Slater UL1+ and have REALLY been enjoying the extra length. This tent is 96 inches long and it's truly usable space. If I put my sleep mat too far down toward the foot of the tent I can't reach the zipper in the door! Nice and wide too for you larger guys. Check it out."

Nope, it's end-entry. Been there, done that, won't do it again. "Hey, waddaya say we put the door on the *short* part of the tent!" Never take tall advice from a shortie. :-)

Someone I hike with who is 6`8" has a neck of a time finding collapsible hiking poles that arelong enough…and when you hike with carbon poles extended to the max, apparently they break much more easily.

Todd Taylor, you wrote, "Rain gear: I have never seen a pair of tall rain pants. Ever. Well, that's not completely true; the 8-lb yellow things they wear on Deadliest Catch come in Paul Bunyan."

Marmot Precips come in 36" inseam. . . http://marmot.com/products/details/precip-pant-new

Is it wrong that my 5'1" self is getting kind of a weird satisfaction from reading this thread about how it is not all rosy on "the other side?" After years of trotting to keep up with you guys on the trail, almost never being able to find used clothing online, use non-adjustable trekking poles, buy pants that I don't have to have hemmed, fit into most UL backpacks, and having to mentally add at least a tenth of a point to most climb ratings, etc. etc, it's kind of interesting and eye-opening to see what you "tallies" suffer through! I have a new appreciation for my superpowers of fitting into any tent, and getting most of my body onto a torso-length pad! :)

No shorties allowed!

>> Nope, it's end-entry. Been there, done that, won't do it again. "Hey, waddaya say we put the door on the *short* part of the tent!" Never take tall advice from a shortie. :-) <<

Wow, giants are very picky creatures. At least with end entry you Amazons could unzip the door and let your head stick out into the vestibule.

Cottage Manufacturing

Custom gear

When you are taller than 99% of the world you sometimes have no other option.

Same goes for the super short

It's the only place where being average would be preferable at times.

6'5" here.

Cabelas clothing has worked great for me. I'll second the REI Sahara conv pants as well- I'm on my 6th season with one pair

Our 2 person tent, SMD Lunar Duo, has more than adequate length

My one person, TT Notch, was recommended by other tall users, and it fits me just fine.

I'm glad I fit in 6'6" sleeping bags, I don't envy you that one.

As far as mountaineering goes, some bivys (bibler?) come in 100+ inch lengths. That BA Slater 1+ looks promising…

"Todd Taylor, you wrote, "Rain gear: I have never seen a pair of tall rain pants. Ever. Well, that's not completely true; the 8-lb yellow things they wear on Deadliest Catch come in Paul Bunyan."

Marmot Precips come in 36" inseam. . . http://marmot.com/products/details/precip-pant-new&quot;

I said rain pants, not sprinkle pants.

"Wow, giants are very picky creatures. At least with end entry you Amazons could unzip the door and let your head stick out into the vestibule."

I've done that! The problem with end entries is you have a choice: either turn around outside and back in to the tent or wait and turn around once you get inside, which is hard to do without either a small frame or offensive vocabulary. Either way, your back/rump tends to bump the top of the door, so the whole process is best described as a slither. And, especially with those BA tents, the vestibule is so short you can only fit small items in it, and then you have to crawl (either forward or backward) over all those items.

"Is it wrong that my 5'1" self is getting kind of a weird satisfaction from reading this thread about how it is not all rosy on 'the other side?'"

No, but go start your own rant. :-)

The Borah Gear Snowyside bivy is definitely a "tall." I'm swimming in it at 6'1". I'm sure you can get it stretched if you email in.

I'm 6'4"

I had Gen over at Yama Mountain Gear extend the length on a Cirriform SW to 8.5' long, I sleep on my stomach, point my toes and throw an arm over my head sometimes so now I have plenty of room at the foot to store some gear as well as around my head. It's a dream come true and comes in at 645 grams.

Me laying on an Exped Downmat DLW 9 (my winter pad)

I admit those Yama shelters are nice and roomy inside. But end entry just blows. Especially with the pole in the doorway.

I look at the front entry as a trade off, I can tip the pole to the side and make it a bit easier but yeah overall its not ideal. However with most side-entry tents like the Light Heart Gear SoLong6 the head and foot are low and I've discovered I really dislike that more than the front entry which gives me ample room above my head and feet.

If you want to get gear designed for tall people, look for companies run by tall people!

I work at Enlightened Equipment, and both Tim Marshall and I are about 6'2" or 6'3", and do not consider ourselves gigantic (in terms of height), so our Long quilts fit up to 6'8", and we definitely don't balk at doing an Extra Long here and there when asked to do one that fits to 7'2". I think most people building gear size the "Regular" to basically fit themselves, and as a result there's a big variance in what is considered a Regular size from one company to the next.

But yeah, tents… Even at 6'3" a 90" tent is usually not terribly comfortable (unless using a two-person tent solo, in which case the diagonal is usually enough for me to make up for it).

Edit:

One thing almost tougher than just being tall, is being both tall and skinny. Finding clothes for someone 6'3" that aren't sized for people who are also larger on the X-axis is sometimes very difficult.

"One thing almost tougher than just being tall, is being both tall and skinny. Finding clothes for someone 6'3" that aren't sized for people who are also larger on the X-axis is sometimes very difficult."

Bingo. When it comes to finding clothes, you can be big or big&tall, but not just tall.

On the other hand, skinny is becoming a rarity regardless of height, so maybe that's not just a tall problem anymore?

At a skinny 6' 3" with 36" sleeves and 36" inseams, I don't have much choice in clothes – especially pants. The Marmot precips mentioned earlier in the thread are a great example. They have a 36" inseam – only in XL. Their size chart is fairly typical for pants with a range of 18" for the waist and an inseam range of only 5". REI has a few items that fit me; Kuhl lists my size, but they don't ever seem to have stock; and I found one pair of Mountain Khakis.

For shirts and jackets, I look for thumb holes. I typically can't use the thumb holes – but the sleeves are often longer – and I don't need a long torso.

Also, all the long stuff bumps up my base weight. My stuff is simply bigger, and I have fewer options, lightweight or other, on clothes, shelter, and sleep systems.

John