Tarps pushed to the limit – tell us your stories
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As you may have gathered from the stories and articles on this site, using a tarp in bad weather can take some skill. You can read all the tips and tricks you want, but sometimes it really just takes a royal screw-up to figure things out.
I overconfidently set up my little 5×10 tarp in a lean-to somewhere in the badlands to watch the sunset and a thunderstorm roll by in the distance. I set up for the view, not using the natural protection. Fell asleep to peaceful conditions and was rudely awoken sometime in the middle of the night as a gust blew my tarp down like a plastic bag and sent my teeny ti stakes sailing away. As I jumped up to retrieve it, my ultralight quilt and pad also blew away! Cursing the wind shift, my tiny tarp, my tiny stakes, my tiny headlamp and the huge thundercloud that was now over my head, I jammed everything in my tiny pack and ran back into the hills. With the weather in the forefront of my mind I found a little hole in the leeward side of a knoll and set back up. Didn't sleep well after that, but it worked out.
Point is, I took my ultralight gear and Internet knowledge out into conditions I didn't know how to deal with. The gear could have, but only if I knew exactly how to use it, which I obviously didn't.
It was a hell of a view though
James' pitch looks like he was asking for it. I wouldn't wanted to have been there at midnight when the storm rolled in!!
I have read tarp camping in inclement conditions and have to wonder how this pitch works in 48mph winds when the wind could shift. You could have a rain storm blowing straight into you. It seems inconceivable but I am sure Ryan go it to work. Can anyone shed some light?
That's why I think actually having both ends open is best. At least if wind shifts it can blow through without lifting the tarp, pulling the stakes, and well, you get the picture. Below is an example of what I referred to earlier. Having the silnylon panels at the end has been more than adequate to prevent light wind blown rain. If I was to do it over again I would probably put a fully solid panel at the head end. The foot end is already fully solid.
there is also this awesome setup, but it requires being in a forest with lots of trees/branches to tie off to.
Here is how to do the back end of a tarp like Justin's using just sticks or hiking poles. It is how we did it on outward bound. Only tarps were used all season throughout the Pacific Crest area. In may we used pyramids.This is the tarp I used for many years:
It was made by the Gerry Company of the 1.9 oz PU coat 70D nylon that was common at the time, and was a completely flat tarp with beaks front and back. The beaks don't show in the photo, as they were kept rolled up when not being used to deflect rain or snow. When extended, they covered out to the point where the two guys converge on each side into one line that leads down to the stake point.
Pole sleeves were sewn on to the sides above the beaks to make a tunnel shape. The poles were stiff ALU at each end, with flexible fiberglass in the middle so the poles would form a more parabolic shape for a solo shelter about 4' wide. A floor was connected inside by mini snaps and came up inside about 3" on the sides. There was also insect netting that rolled down inside the beaks at the front and back.
Condensation was mostly along the sides, 6-12" above the floor, but with the 4' width, was not a problem.
The tarp was used year round, once on a X-C ski trip to Little Rock Pond on the Long Trail during the winter where the temp fell well below zero F. The above photo was taken on Mt Madison in the Whites in May going through the Presidentials. There was ice and deep snow everywhere below the tree line. We had to change our route back down due to the thigh-deep post-holing. After Mount Washington, we enjoyed watching some skiers tip over the lip above Tuckerman Ravine, but we couldn't see them plummet down because the drop-off was too steep for us to look over.
As you might guess, whether I stayed dry depended on how strong rain was, and from what direction it was blowing. But windwise, the structure never failed, and it never leaked. A number of times rain did blow in, usually at the head end, and I got soaked at that end before kind of scrunching up toward the other end.
Eventually, I got tired of getting wet in windy downpours, and moved to tents.
Here is how to do the back end of a tarp like Justin's using just sticks or hiking poles. It is how we did it on outward bound. Only tarps were used all season throughout the Pacific Crest area. In may we used pyramids.
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