This is a review of the Tarptent Notch which I bought to see how it compares to my Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=102 and Borah Gear super wide Cuben bivy http://www.borahgear.com/bugbivy.html
Pitch ready and seam sealed Notch with 6 decent pegs: 894 grams (31.5 ounces)
Pitch ready seam sealed Trailstar with Cuben bivy and 6 decent pegs: 938 grams (33.1 ounces)
Notch Benefits
- Fast to pitch
- Not as messy to pitch as the Trailstar which requires a lot of adjusting. Sometimes 5-10 minutes worth. This isn’t fun at the end of a long day. However the Notch still requires a small amount of fiddling which a heavily poled tent wouldn’t. But who wants one of those – they are too heavy!
- The Notch is easier to get into than a bivy.
- The Notch is nicer to sleep in once you are lying down. You don’t have a bivy cloying around you.
- The Notch has large dual vestibules – awesome for gear storage. It’s very nice to have gear on either side of you.
- The Notch is easier to sit up in, something you can’t do without getting out of a bivy – yuk.
- The Notch has a fairly tight pitch if you guy out the roof with two additional pegs. As others have mentioned, I believe this is essential for a taut pitch.
Notch Issues
The Notch has a narrow sleeping area. Some have found it coffin like but I don’t find it too claustrophobic. However I did find myself touching the mesh walls a little. This doesn’t really matter as mesh holds no dampness from condensation.
Under high condensation I found a bit of water dripping from the roof onto my sleeping bag and the inevitable water entering after a midnight toilet call where you brush the walls and drag some water in with you as you enter. However my camping partners with standard tents also got a little wet under such conditions. This isn’t a deal breaker but it’s a definite issue.
The Notch is a breezy shelter. Yes you can lower the poles but there will still be a breeze blowing through it. With temperatures under about 7 degrees Celsius (44F), I find this uncomfortable. This suggests the partially solid inner may be better as it is warmer and would stop wind. However, because you brush up against the sides under high condensation conditions I reckon you’d get a wetter bag when it’s damp with the partially solid interior.
Sleeping in a bivy made with an Argon top is a drier experience than the Notch. Argon is incredibly breathable, noticeably so compared with Momentum or Pertex Quantum which was used for the tops of bivys before it. A bivy also provides a microclimate that adds warmth to your sleep system. But it’s awkward to enter and not as pleasant to be in.
In terms of storm worthiness, the Trailstar can be pitched a fair bit tighter and lower than the Notch. Albeit this is time consuming because of the multiple pitch adjustments you have to make to get it right. The Trailstar can also be pitched really high, up to 145cm and this is my preferred pitch height that I use 90% of the time in non-high wind situations. That creates a cavernous space for 2 but they both need bivys.
Verdict
In warmer conditions, the Notch is the winner. It’s a more useable and comfortable to sleep in and the time taken to pitch the Trailstar isn’t warranted.
But in humid condition or cold conditions I think I am tempted to stick with the Trailstar. Another possibility is the Notch fly, which is lighter than the Trailstar, with a bivy inside. I might have try that out as it will be faster to pitch than the Trailstar and the bivy will cut the breeze and remove the condensation issues of the Notch. A pitch ready seam sealed Notch without the inner and with the Cuben bivy and 6 decent pegs weighs 766 grams.
That’s my 2 cents worth, hope someone finds it useful :-)
