New solo shelter for Sierras, looking for some opinions

For what it’s worth: I use a cuben Locus Gear Khufu (287 grams/10,12 ounces) above threeline in the European Alps and never had a problem.

The Khufu has more or less the same specs as the Duomid, but it’s slightly lower and thus has less steep walls. It’s a bit lighter, too.

Give your length, you could look into the Duomid XL; I really appreciate the extra vestibule-space.

One option that would save you buying a whole new tent could be to get a door for the front of the tarp. As Tucas used to sell a triangular door for the Trailstar that works with an A-frame tarp. It should keep the worst of the wet off you, though it wouldn’t be as secure as four-walled shelter.

I used to do the bulk of my hiking in the Sierra and also share you dawn to dusk hiking style. I ended up switching from a cat tarp to a Cuban mid a couple of years back. I ended up making my own cubes mid based roughly on the MLD Solomon with slightly more compact dimensions. Why smaller? I only use my shelter if it’s going to rain and I wanted the smallest footprint and the smallest wind profile to be bullet proof. I also wanted the simplest setup possible given the number of times I set up in the dark. I have been very happy with this setup and use it either with a net inner or a bivy depending on the season or hiking location.

Alex, before you give up on your square tarp I suggest you try a few things.  1) try to raise the back pull-out a bit higher (more  room space at your feet height), 2) I second William’s suggestion. Add a curtain in the front.  (Basically a triangular piece of waterproof fabric) that will go a bit inside the edge of the open side).  You can make one out of cheap material like silnylon just to get a feel of how it would work for you and if it does you can make one out of a more expensive / lighter material (like cuben 0.5oz/yd).    3) You can also try an even more storm proof pitch like this one. But then you probably will need to add (Glue only, no stitching) some reinforcement (i.e a 4″-6″ circle of 1.4oz/yd cuben) where the handle of your pole goes against the tarp panel.  Some cushioning like a circular piece of close cell foam would also probably work (so you don’t need to alter your tarp in case you decide to sell it).  What you are trying to avoid too much pressure on the original tarp material where the handle of your pole pushes against the cuben fabric by spreading that pressure over a larger / stronger area.

Here is a couple of pictures to illustrate what I’m suggesting.

Here a Hoodless Tarp-Poncho (56″x114″) with curtain.  (You can make the curtain a bit larger if you want more coverage on the bottom).  If you want to avoid the tiny gap at the top you can put the curtain inside the pole, but being this a tiny tarp is nice to have a bit of a “vestibule”/extra space for cooking, etc under foul weather.

This is a 106″x106″ cuben fiber tarp I made out of 0.5oz stuff set up on the configuration I mentioned before.  If you carry an umbrella with you (Great for desert hiking as well) that is all you need to close in the front end.

ive got a trekkertent stealth on its way … basically its a a tarp with a beak …

http://www.trekkertent.com/home/home/3-stealth.html

marc can build it out of a variety of materials including cuben …

you can also get the tarp by itself without the inner tent …

they are built and tested in scotland where its quite windy and rainy … he says he tests the stealth just fine to ~100+ KM winds + rain

;)

@ Mario,

Hey, you’re in my spot :)

Seriously, if one wants to see how their shelter holds up to wind, Crissy Field is a good place. Wind every day and a grassy field that holds stakes well. Scenery is not bad either.

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful replies, it gives me a lot to think about.  The triangular door is certainly an interesting option.  It would be a good modification for my current setup, but the smaller footprint and overall better protection of the pyramid definitely seems appealing at the moment.  I’ll have to mull over this option a bit more though.

The trekker tent also looks vey interesting.  Impressive that it stands up to Scottish winds and rain; sounds like it would certainly be sufficient for the Sierras

Hiking Malto – how many perimeter tie-outs did you use for your MYOG mid?  With how many perimeter tie-outs there are on my MLD square tarp, I am a bit surprised that there are only 6 on the solomid.  Almost seems like it would be nice to have more to spread out the tension, but maybe it is not necessary.