Best stakes

[Anonymous]

“But a tarp? Nope! Been there, done that and did not like it. Tarps are for 3 season camping, IMHO.”

If you bring a large, square tarp, you can do the mock pyramid tent set up–more of a triangular peak tent set up, since there are 3 sides and not 4.

[Adam G]

I started using SMC snow anchors. I tried all sorts of other things that didn’t work. MSR Groundhogs just wouldn’t stay even if used as a deadman in certain snow conditions. I made custom parachute anchors out of silnylon. They worked well except it sometimes was really hard to get the tent set up which sucks in a snowstorm. Also, I had the snow turn into solid ice that was resistant to a metal shovel, and I only could extricate them with the adze of my ice axe. The SMCs are very heavy, but they are quick to set up and quite easy to remove.

[Ron Bell / MLD]

[dirtbag]

Ron!! What is that???? How it work?

[Ken Larson]

Ice Screws …a costly way to go, but definitely “bomb proof”!!

[dirtbag]

Ahhh.. lol. Gotcha.

[Adam G]

Unless you’re using ice screws, I doubt you’ll get anything through a sheet of ice. You should stomp down the snow and put in deadman anchors in. If there’s not enough snow, pile it up on top of your deadman stakes and then stomp that down. I’ve used MSR groundhogs as deadman stakes, and it works well.

[Garrett]

On a side note, what cordage are people using for their deadman anchors in snow? I’ve been looking into some 2mm spectra cord, but was unsure if that would hold a truckers hitch? I’m not looking at retrieving the deadman anchors that are buried aka “sticks”.

[Roger Caffin]

I suggest Dacron rather than straight Spectra; the former takes knots but the latter is very hard to handle by itself. Knots tend to ‘run’ in Spectra.

I have used 1 mm Spectra (strong enough all by itself) threaded into a strong plaited Dacron sleeve, with CL266 ClamCleats as toggles, on my winter tent.

Cheers

[Jens W]

Roger, how much did you pay for the titanium sheets used for the deadman. I checked some prices here in Sweden and each deadman would run me $15 for a 200*80mm desdman, plenty more that even Hilleberg snow stakes.

[Roger Caffin]

Yeah, buying Ti sheet from a local distributor is a good way to destroy your bank account. Not a good idea.

You can buy Ti sheet much more cheaply from China (try ebay), or you could try Titanium Joe in America. I believe the Chinese stuff meets specs and is OK. Ti Joe sells offcuts, and USED to be fairly cheap. Haven’t priced him recently.

You pay for postage of course: posting several pieces fitting in the largest ‘letter’ size can be much cheaper than a large sheet. Current shipping delays amount to months of delay though: the international movement of parcels was all done on passenger flights, which aren’t happening. Fed-Ex and DHL are more expensive but I think they are still running – maybe.

I used 0.8 mm thickness 6Al4V alloy, which is very solid, although you could probably get away with anything down to 0.6 mm or even 0.5 mm. However, if you buy something like CP (non-alloyed) sheet, you should probably stick with 0.7 – 0.8 mm as it is softer.

Cheers

[Author]

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