Need Tarp sizing advice…

Where will you use it? What kind of conditions do you want to use it in? Above treeline?

i am of the opinion, based on limited experience, that a 5×9 is too small unless you plan to always use it in protected areas and relatively mild weather. I think a shaped tarp is a generally a more practical choice. Alternately you can go with a much larger flat tarp but it ends up being a lot of stakes and lines. At that point it makes sense to me to just get a shaped tarp and have a much simpler and more stormworthy shelter.

It depends. Here in the NE corner, we get around 3-4″ of rain every month. I like a shaped tarp 9′ to 6′ over 9′ with a beak. It can handle rain very well, I can fit two under it if we must (though perhaps a bit cozy), weighs about 17oz, including stakes and guylines. It fits easily into a UL kit and handles hail, rain, and wet snow pretty well.

In a dryer area, I would be tempted to go smaller. I have ridden out some bad thunderstorms that raised a nearby creek a few feet over flood stage overnight, though. I stayed dry.

Hi Steve,

This is my go to for just myself when I’m counting grams, plenty of coverage: http://shop.bivysack.com/Cattarp15-TM-1TarpCat15.htm. Oware has excellent build quality and fast shipping.

That said, if you start there and like tarps you’ll almost certainly end up with a 9×9. A little more technical to set-up but it’s a fun, ongoing process and isn’t all that much heavier for what it can do.

Jeff

Thanks, I live in the Sierras. Usually go on 2-4 night trips 2-3 times a year. Avoid the rain when possible when I plan a trip :)

5.5′ wide is on the skinny side. Since it’s pitched in an A shape, it ends up being about 4′ wide, which is only a foot or so of overlap on either side of your pad. It can work, but if you hit harsh weather you need to pitch is really low so rain doesn’t blow/splash in the sides, so it’s hard to enter/exit. In mostly good conditions it can be a good size.

Sierra below treeline or above? Big difference IMO.

As Jeff implied, 9×9 will keep you dry in almost any situation.

But you won’t get any peace of mind until you have tried something smaller and got rained on. :-) Not if you’re anything like me.

(And then I didn’t even return to the 9×9, but switched to tents – almost entirely.)

If you go for a small tarp, you may want to carry an additional triangular piece that can work as a “curtain” to fend off some driving rain or change on the wind direction.   You can leave the curtain out in good weather and deploy it quickly if needed.

Here a couple of pictures from a prototype I made a while ago to see how thing would work.  For the final project I did increase the size of the “curtain” and the length of the tarp-poncho.  My final hoodless tarp- poncho is 9.5’L x 5’W.  Also I carry a very breathable Bivy which I use with this setup.

Half Pyramid:

or in A-Frame (More room, but just one open end covered.

You may wonder what is the point of trying to get a small tarp if you will have to carry an additional “curtain” and a bivy.  IMHO it gives you modularity.  The 5×9.5 tarp is also my poncho  (anything much bigger would not be practical on that capacity), the “curtain” gives you additional protection in driving rain and or change in wind direction, without having to re-pitch the whole shelter, and the bivy adds quite a bit of warm to your sleeping system by cutting down drafts.  I also use it may times by itself if weather forecast is good and I decide to cowboy camp.

Here a picture of my final tarp-poncho in half Pyramid.  Notice zippered slot where I put my head thru when used in poncho mode.  I made this out of Silpoly PU4000 while my prototype was off regular silnylon, the difference in how tout they pitched was noticeable.

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I totally agree about the modularity of bivy + tarp. I prefer the simplicity of sleeping in a bivy if weather is not an issue. That said, a shaped tarp like a Deschutes, Hexamid or MLD mid makes more sense to me because of fiddle-factor, stake count and protection.

I played around with an MLD Simple Poncho Tarp (about the same dimensions) for a spell last year, and wound up migrating to the Grace Solo instead. I didn’t use it that many times, but I did do a night in the backyard with a windy thunderstorm and some overnight rain. My overnight pitches were all low-ish pitch A-Frames. I used a splash bivy.

Overall, while I was confident in my ability to use it effectively and safely as a shelter for the trips I take (last few years have been some combination of cherry-picked fair weather trips in the mid-Atlantic and 500-1000 mile PCT sections), I ultimately decided that I wanted something with a bit more room. The A-Frame pitch felt perfectly adequate (if bare bones) even for the rainy conditions, but most of the other pitches tried just didn’t feel like they offered enough coverage. There are certainly plenty of people who use them, and successfully/happily, but even as a reasonably minimalist fella, I didn’t love the experience.

The Grace Solo feels like a palace comparatively (so much so that I actually went back to check and see if they’d accidentally sent a Duo), and I’ve found that, in a pinch, you can still pitch it in a passable version of a lot of the popular flat tarp pitches (half-pyramid, lean-to, etc.)- I probably wouldn’t try it in seriously heavy conditions, but it works well enough if you like playing around with your shelter setup on a night-by-night basis.

I agree with 9×9. But, I quickly found that there was 3 areas where improvements were possible, even in the torrential rains we get here in the NE. So, I cut the rear down to 6′ extending to the 9′ length. I used the two triangular pieces to create a front beak. So the whole shaped tarp has a flat triangular section out the front which I pull out as the beak. I also set this up as a lean-to sometimes, and only a single pole is needed, the side and beak mean the tension from extra long guys holds it out in shape.

It takes a total of 5 or 6 stakes to set it up, normally. I carry 7 stakes, assuming I can make a couple for the sides if weather turns real bad (windy and rainy.) Again it can be done in about 3 yards of 60″ wide sil, but you can also make a smaller (1 person) and about a third lighter version out of cuben (DCF.) Both will work and keep you dry iff you select good ground. (Bugs can be another problem.)