Stealthiest shelter fabric color for woodland environment

[Monte Masterson]

No camo. Solid colors only.

I’ve tried every shade of green from RSBTR, Dutchware and Questoutfitters. The one that seems to blend into greenery best is the olive drab from Ripstop. The dark olive from Dutchware and RSBTR  is just too dark, almost brown looking. Questoutfitters’ 30d dark olive silnylon is better, and it’s a quality material, but it’s too heavy at 1.5 oz per sq yd.

Below is the RSBTR olive drab 20d 1.24 oz. I wish a lighter fabric this color was available somewhere. The 15d olive green silnylon on the Gatewood Capes is perfect, but I can’t get my hands on anything like that. Anyone know of anything else?

Here’s the only pic I have of the olive drab silnylon. Not a quality pic but represents the color fairly well. It’s a tad darker than the image appears.

[Bonzo]

In my opinion…

Blending depends on the season, because the background colors change; it also depends on basic geography.  That said, solid colors never blend well; large blocks of solid, uniform color are kind of rare in the natural world.  Your best bet is something in the olive/gray spectrum; that will blend with most woodland tones.  Darker is better than lighter, and pitching behind cover will do more to hide your shelter than sheer cover.  Recognition is often more about outline and shape than simple color.

[David Thomas]

Wouldn’t clear poly sheeting blend in the best?

[Michael B]

I really like the Foliage color on the Membrane silpoly. Not to be confused with Foliage Green.

[Bonzo]

Wouldn’t clear poly sheeting blend in the best?

Never thought of it that way, but yeah, probably!  It won’t do much to conceal anything inside, though!

[MJ H]

The shade of grey MLD and others use seems to work at blending with the woods here. It doesn’t look like the trees, but it looks like the rocks under them.

[Sam Farrington]

What kind of fabric are you talking about?  Sil or Poly.  Denier.  Weight.  HH.

[Paul Wagner]

Sorry–I have to ask.  If your goal is to camouflage your presence, why no camo?

[Monte Masterson]

Two problems with camouflage IMO. First of all it has a little bit too much of a paramilitary look that makes it appear as if you’re trying to be evasive. And secondly, sourcing 30d or lighter camo with a good woodland pattern is virtually impossible nowadays. I have a camo Brooks Range Mini Guide Tarp (6.5′ X 8.75′) made from 20d silonylon and it blends in better than any camo I’ve yet seen. Unfortunately very light woodland camo fabrics with good patterns have gone away from all websites as far as I can tell. RSBTR has some silpoly camos that stands out more than the olive drab… by a lot. Well blending camo in 1.9 oz 70d’s are easy too find though.

Here’s a pic of the Brooks Range camo from Utahoutside.com. Excellent.

And here’s the woodland camo from RSBTR. Not good.

[Mole J]

The A-tacs camo looks quite good?

Available in membrane and 1.1 Oz silpoly

https://ripstopbytheroll.com/collections/a-tacs-fabric

Though I prefer olive drab too.

[Bonzo]

I’ve never thought that the usage of camo makes a person look evasive; for me, that’s more a factor of behavior than gear or clothing selection.  But hey: you do you, man.  If you say no camo, those are the rules.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

I thought the old grey silnylon that Tarptent used was pretty good at blending into a variety of environments when stealth camping. Of course, I didn’t have a choice at the time haha, but was happy enough. Finding some kind of cover, even the slightest bush to break the outline of some of the panels, not breaking the horizon from potential view points, and most importantly camping after sunset and up before sunrise makes a huge difference too.

Tarps have a big advantage over fixed shelters as you can go for a lower pitch to be less obvious.

[Bonzo]

I thought the old grey silnylon that Tarptent used was pretty good at blending into a variety of environments when stealth camping.

Turns out that grey isn’t a bad option, and solid colors can blend well…at least according to this article:

https://blog.cheaperthandirt.com/50-shades-grey-evolution-camo-throwback-solid-colors/

For the tl;dr crowd, the synopsis is this: certain solid colors are much less visible than we might expect in certain situations, because their shade and hue helps to simply blend things in.  Conversely, certain colors stand out quite a bit, despite seeming less-visible.  The article describes a shade of grey blending into an urban setting, but it’s quite easy to see how the same logic can apply to a forest setting.  I think that a medium grey-olivey-brown might work well, there.  We tend to think of forests as being green, but there’s as much grey and brown – if not more – as there is green in the areas that we normally occupy.  Will solid colors blend as well as camo?  No, not in a forest…but it’s more possible than I originally thought.  Interesting stuff!

[Paul Wagner]

Our tents are gray…and that works really well in the Sierra, where they are the same color as the granite.  Not sure it would work so well in a rainforest.

Here’s a photo to illustrate,

 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3fzu3YbMm453mT93IuwKm1M7IHDGYCghCiJgQxYYONsAkgMgbEz0tFmM_0j3wjYUhmZcvCUhOHVNdlQV80uZXV21KkgcYqDe-IbQwqRMxw9BnUblOEjIO6Top9MK5nhPzpxNrFRyTgOK6zY4O-2A35JcA=w1292-h969-no?authuser=0

 

[Bonzo]

I wonder why – with all of our fabric-printing technology – manufacturers don’t offer more multicolor fabric options, and why more tent companies don’t use them.  Price point on both sides?  I know that Ripstop carries a ton of interesting patterns in their OutdoorInk line, but I’ve never really considered using it for a shelter because that’s just not my particular style; if you feel up to making a tarp/tent/whatever, you could make use of some of the multicolor patterns that aren’t “camo” and that would definitely help your shelter blend in.  I think digicam would probably be the most effective, that doesn’t really scream “camouflage!!” at anyone: it’s just a bunch of multicolored squares.  Kind of a modern, minimalist look.  Just a thought.

[Joshua B]

Personally, I think browns hide better than greens.  As Bonzo mentioned, you need a way to breakup the outline of the tent.  The human eye notices straight lines, especially more horizontal lines in nature, because a forest doesn’t offer too many of these naturally.  You probably need to think more along the lines of a ghillie suit to break up that tent outline.  Perhaps just leaving a few branches on top of your tent/tarp while you are away from camp could do the trick.

[W I S N E R !]

I like brown.

[Greg Mihalik]

You can’t hide in plain sight without a lot of effort.  Especially true if the observer is moving and getting different perspectives.  The human brain is just to good at pattern recognition.

Distance and natural covers are your friends.

 

 

[Monte Masterson]

For the Southwest and many other parts of he West that are drier, I’d go with a coyote brown like this Snugpack tarp. It’s heavier than what I’d carry, but the color is spot on. I believe East of the 100th meridian olive drab is best, however, in the coniferous mountain forests of the Western United States, a darker forest green would be better.

[Sam Farrington]

A bright yellow tent would be invisible among Colorado Aspens at certain times of the year.  If you want to be stealthy, camp below timberline and get well off trail where no one will see you.  Or just go off trail for the whole hike, bushwhacking where necessary.

But you don’t have to do any of that:  There are places where I’ve gone for several days without seeing anyone, like the Never Summer Wilderness, to name one.  Since you say your locale changes often, finding such places should be no problem.

As a last resort, get a tent for every season, in every place.

To be a little more serious, and if you camp above timberline, get a a light stone color, like the color of rock; and when you do go below the timberline into the forest, camp off trail well among the trees.

Also, the Forest Service is abandoning trails all the time.  And there are parts of the Rawah Wilderness where the trails are “poorly defined,” and no one else is around.  I’m sure there are similar places all over.

But please remember that if someone is determined to find you, they will.  With bloodhounds, infrared scanners, and other snooping devices.  Even if you remembered to turn your cell phone off and remove the battery.  Under such circumstances, skid row in a big city might work best.  But doubt that is what you have in mind for a vacation.

 

 

[Monte Masterson]

There are numerous reasons why people choose to stealth camp.

1) Some just want to blend into the natural surroundings. More the style in Europe than in North America. Earth tone shelters only.

2) The chances of being attacked by someone while sleeping out at night are extremely low, however, if nobody knows you’re around there’s an absolute zero probability you’ll be harassed. Or maybe it’s not anyone violent you’re trying to avoid, but just somebody goofy and annoying.

3) Perhaps you might want to venture away from camp a little ways. Is it not better to have a shelter that’s harder to see, or would you prefer a loud and bright one that says: “hey thief, please come over and steal my $600 Alpinlite while I’m down by the creek.”

4) Some people actually want to be covert for sinister reasons such as guerilla pot farming, stealing ginseng root off private lands, etc.

5) Others simply camp where they’re technically not supposed to. I admittedly find myself doing this from time to time, but I’ve found a way to absolve myself from any guilt by saying: “I am total LNT, no fires, no cutting of branches or any bushcraft, no trash. When I leave a stealth campsite it just looks like an elk bedded down there for the night.” I like state parks along large creeks. Of course there is a whole cult of underground stealth backpackers on YouTube who get their kicks out of seeing if they can avoid detection. Kind of like a game. As long as there aren’t any POSTED signs around you’ll usually just be ran off if seen. Especially if you’re LNT.

 

[SIMULACRA]

Doesn’t Dutchware have custom printing for his fabrics? You could always have him print whatever design or multi spec you want on it. Like a hamburger. Or in this case maybe a custom color

[john hansford]

“Some just want to blend into the natural surroundings. More the style in Europe than in North America. Earth tone shelters only.”

 

Unfortunately Hilleberg have now started making bright red/orange tents. These can be seen from miles away, and while they may look cheerful to the owner, to my mind look totally out of place in a green and open setting. Strange, because Hilleburg also have a new dark green/grey colour which is very stealthy (but heavy).
Same goes for white dcf.

[Bonzo]

Unfortunately Hilleberg have now started making bright red/orange tents. These can be seen from miles away, and while they may look cheerful to the owner, to my mind look totally out of place in a green and open setting. Strange, because Hilleburg also have a new dark green/grey colour which is very stealthy (but heavy).

Same goes for white dcf.

I’m okay with bright colors, personally; I’ve been stuck in a tent in a storm for a couple of days, at times, and it always feels nicer when the tent is a cheerful, warm color…at least on the inside.  As silly as it sounds, that’s one of the reasons that I like double-walled tents: you can have a low-key natural color on the outside if you want to be less noticeable, but you can still get a bright and cheerful interior to help liven up the tent-bound days.  I’m not that focused on shelter colors, otherwise; I honestly don’t like the cool, bland greenish-greys that abound lately – they look industrial and institutional to me – but that’s my only real color gripe.  Shelter color also doesn’t bother me much when around other people; if someone nearby is being quiet and considerate, I could care less about how their tent looks.

[Dave @ Oware]

“I wonder why – with all of our fabric-printing technology – manufacturers don’t offer more multicolor fabric options, and why more tent companies don’t use them.”

I special ordered a camouflage 30d coated run about 2002 when silnylon was taking off as a shelter fabric. Only a fraction of the end product ended up first quality as each pass thru the rollers for each color of printing and coating left more and more flaws as the light fabric apparently didn’t play well with their machinery. the mill finally canceled my order and sold the beam to others as seconds and said they would not try it again with such a light fabric. They did however make uncoated 30 in the camo.

If popularity is a judge, the silver-gray/foliage green color is by far the biggest seller, about 9 to 1 over brown, tan, green or bright colors.

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