Building in redundancy when solo hiking using a shelter that requires two poles

[Richard A]

Hi All,

I’ve become increasingly aware of my dependence on both of my lightweight poles for my shelter when hiking solo above treeline.

I use a mid shelter that requires a pole length of about 155cm (Nigor Wikiup 3/ SL3), and have become attached to using lightweight poles (Alpkit CarbonLites) which weigh 140g each and consist of 16mm, 14mm, 12mm diameter sections. I use a small aluminium connector to link the two poles together when pitching the shelter.

My question is how one might go about building some redundancy into this system? While I haven’t had any catastrophic failures, yet, over about 3 years of frequent use of this system, i have lost a pole tip and had to deal with slightly bent/damaged connecting points on a couple of occasions, and i wonder if others here who also use a shelter requiring two (both) poles have any kind of backup system? A couple of obvious options would be to carry heavier duty poles (eg BD alpine carbon corks – which i think use 18mm, 16mm, and 14mm), or a dedicated center pole… neither of which appeal in respects to the additional weight. Are the narrower diameter poles ‘stupid light’, or am i over-thinking something that is unlikely to be an issue?

Thanks for any input,

Rich

[Kevin Babione]

I think your biggest concern is breaking a pole (as opposed to losing one).  I use GG LT4’s and to date have broken three of them (always when slipping and falling on them).  It’s been a hassle for me, but for you something like that would be a disaster.

I think fixing a pole in the field so that it would continue to support your shelter would be the way to go.  Duct tape by itself wouldn’t be enough, but if you have a small piece of rolled up aluminium (or Ti or SS) sheet about 3″ square (which would be enough to go around a pole) and some duct tape you should be able to repair your pole enough so that you can use it as a shelter support.

It would be light (I already carry a little duct tape anyway) and you’ll hopefully never have to use it.  Alternatively you might be able to use your stove windscreen as the sleeve to strengthen your pole.  You could then use rocks to build a windbreak for your stove.

[Ken Thompson]

Do you have a hang loop at the top?

[Richard A]

Kevin, I agree that breaking a pole is more of a risk than losing one, and more explicitly what i’m concerned about. Highlighting that is useful in foregrounding repairing a broken pole as opposed to replacing one, so thanks for your reply! I usually just use a micro rocket and gas, and don’t carry a specific windbreak (i use my ccf pad or backpack if i’m not cooking in my shelter), but i’ll look into sourcing a small sheet of aluminium to supplement the duct tape i have with me. Of what thickness would you recommend? Any other ideas for patching together broken poles?

Ken, the shelter does have a hang loop but nothing obvious to hang it from. I live in Quito and hike mostly in the Andes where i’m usually above treeline in paramo country or rock…

[Terry Sparks]

As a thru-hiker of the PCT and CDT, I’ve considered using a small branch as my backup if I were to snap a trekking pole.  If by chance you are hiking above timberline, or in the desert, find some material along the trial,  or use what you have (cutting up a plastic water bottle, extra stakes, wind screen to stove, etc. works)to make a splint and tape it up with your blister tape.

[Kevin Babione]

Richard – I don’t think it would have to be very heavy – you could probably start with an aluminum soda can (which can be cut with a good pair of scissors) and see how that works.  I’d round the corners of my square to eliminate sharp edges.  Test your splint with some dowels roughly the same diameter as your poles and see what it does.  Probably the best place to store your splint while hiking would be to wrap it around one of your poles just below the handle and secure it with duct tape.  That way it’s right where you need it (and in the right shape) in the hopefully unlikely event that you ever need to repair your pole.  Murphy’s Law dictates that you’ll have to repair your pole in the middle of a terrible storm where all you want to do is to set up your shelter and get inside.

[jscott]

I’ve carried an aluminum cylinder precisely for this purpose for years. It weighs, I don’t know, 2 ounces?

Another possibility–maybe overkill–is to get a single dedicated pole for your tent. I have one for my Zpacks solomid. Zpacks sells them–again, I can’t remember precisely but the weight penalty is small.

[Philip Tschersich]

I snapped a trekking pole needed for my shelter recently and used 2 small v-shaped tent takes as a splint along with some Tyvek tape. The pole was 100% solid. I was amazed how well the splint worked. I also broke a pole on an earlier trip (well, I actually broke the same pole 3 different times on that trip…) when I was traversing the whole length of Kodiak Island and the only splint material I had with me was to roll up my Fozzils plastic folding bowl and bind it with Voile straps. That was kind of wobbly and unstable, but I made it through.

[Richard A]

Thank you all for the good ideas. I think experimenting with a small sheet of aluminium and a couple of tent stakes, along with some duct tape, will be a great start.

Another option i neglected to think about would be to carry a pole jack which would enable me to get by with a single pole were one to break. Zpacks’ option seems like it might just be long enough for my uses with a 135cm pole, and MLD recommend a maximum of 33cm which would work – i question the stability but as a backup it could be a good option. For now i’ll stick with some lower cost DIY options and see how they fare.

One more thing – looking at Alpkit’s website (the brand of my current poles), i see they now offer them in an extra long, 150cm length, presumably for pitching taller mids – could be of interest to some here…

Thanks again for the good ideas

[Mark Fowler]

Another vote for V stakes and a bit of duct tape.

I use a Solplex and have chosen to carry the short pole for a weight gain of 25g rather than need both my walking poles to erect it.

[Ralph Burgess]

Yeah, trying to splint a snapped hiking pole to be robust enough to use as a hiking pole would not work.   But splinting it to be strong enough to use for a shelter is much less demanding.

[Chris H]

When I bought my solplex, I picked up the custom single poles for it along w/ the flex poles.  My intent was more ‘flexibility’ depending on where I was going (shelter site options) and whether I was going to take trekking poles (I only typically take them if I am doing heavy downhill to help save my knees).  But I’ve started to carry either the flex poles or the custom single poles, one or the other, regardless.  Sometimes both if I don’t take my trekking poles.

This solution has also afforded me other options.  One, I have a backup.  Two, I can leave my tent and sleep system setup and dry and while I jet off on a day hike and still take my trekking poles.  And three, but this really only applies to shelters like the solplex (or a duplex), but I have more flexibility in site selection when I have the flex poles along (freestanding vs not).

 

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

You can stick a stick in the broken pole too. Sticks come in lots of sizes. Your chapstick might fit, too, depending on the pole.

Once I was backpacking with my boyfriend and it started to rain very coldly. My rain gear got shredded to uselessness in about 5 minutes of hiking in the scrub. So I went as fast as I could knowing that the next safest spot to set up camp would be this big huge oak tree where there was a campsite. When I arrived, I stood out under the tree for a long time waiting for my boyfriend. I started to get chilled and started to shiver. I knew I had to set up the tent soon or else I might get too cold to be able to do it. But I didn’t have the tent stakes. I managed to figure out how to set up the tent without stakes. I used sticks and rocks.

About an hour or more later my boyfriend finally showed up. He was already shivering uncontrollably so I was able to warm him up in the tent.

It’s good to think about how to set up your tent without all the requisite parts should they break or you get separated. Do you think you could set your tent up as a shelter using boulders, kind of use it more like a tarp than a tent?

Once I was not able to set up my tent at all because wind was too strong but it was raining so instead of setting it up I just got inside of it like being zipped inside a bag. Damn thing beat me to death in the wind all night but I stayed dry.

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