Tarptent Stratospire Li Review

Having recently come back from another trip with our Stratospire Li I realized that (in the immediately prior post) I forgot to laud one other feature. There are some days when it’s really convenient to take down/remove the inner body before taking down the fly separately to keep the inner body dry when packing up in heavy rain or when what condensation there is on the inside of the fly won’t have time to dry – perhaps particularly after a frosty night and it may be some time before things a) melt and b) dry. We took advantage of that feature in both situations last week.

In comparison to our single wall Dyneema shelter: Not to dump on our roomier (than the SS Li) Triplex, but the SS Li does offer the ability to have your next night’s pitch start with a dry inner, rather than (when conditions or time don’t allow you to dry the inside of your shelter before packing up) pitching a single wall shelter that is is still wet/damp inside from the previous night’s condensation and hoping there’s enough time and airflow to dry the floor between pitching and sleeping.

And I have to reiterate how well the SS Li keeps us dry in heavy rain. We zip it up and don’t give the rain or splash another thought all night.

I’m wondering how easy is it to transition between “normal (full tent)” and “inner-only” configurations?

My use-case: I’d like to set up the full tent normally (inner and tarp) so everything is staked out and lined up, then remove the tarp for a few hours of stargazing, then (maybe) put the tarp back on right before bed or if the weather turns bad.

Is this realistic? How fiddly would it be to remove and/or attach the tarp like this? Simple conversion or tedious hassle?

I’ve never set up the inner only with the SS Li. Others may have more experience shifting from inner only to inner plus fly. (I’ve only done the opposite.)

My sense is that if doing it in the middle of the night if a rain suddenly came, while you can hop out of the tent and throw the fly over willy-nilly to get some initial coverage,  re-connecting corner hooks from inner to fly, staking out the fly beyond the extent of the inner, etc, while not difficult, could – if starting from scratch – take a bit longer than one expects. I’m thinking it’d easily take me a good 10 minutes if I had to do it in the dark from scratch for the first time tonight never having done quite that before with this shelter. But, as you describe in your scenario, if the fly’s stakes were already inserted in place that would make it quite a bit simpler and faster. (Some of the loops on the corners of the fly where you connect the inner are small and in my experience are most easily connected from outside the shelter.)

Or maybe there’s a way to just peel back the part of the fly over your face/torso leaving less to reconnect if it rains.

All something to keep you busy testing and practicing on a lawn in daylight!

PS – if once you remove the fly find you needed to re-tension the lines for the inner only, good chance it may change the shape of the inner a tad and it may then change the alignment of the fly when you put it back on. Don’t be surprised if there’s a bit of playing with the tension of the lines once the fly’s on again.

I have both a  Stratospire Li and a Triplex.   I vastly prefer Henry’s tent. With two caveats.

1.  It’s a pain in the butt stacking it vertically inside of a gossamer gear Mariposa. The Z packs fits horizontally

2.  Set up is a bit more complex with the Stratospire.  But I don’t think in avoid this because it is a double wall. And the complexity comes in at the pitch locks and hanging the inner mesh. The Z packs doesn’t have any iner mesh

Having said all of this I don’t know why I keep the Z packs around.  Since I bought the Stratospire I’ve been on 4 trips.  And when pulling gear out of the closet I don’t even think about pulling out the triplex anymore.

> I’m wondering how easy is it to transition between “normal (full tent)” and “inner-only” configurations?

I just added this photo to the SS Li Product page. Note that each low corner can easily peal back and tension under the fly to the adjacent magnetic fly loop.  This is really easy to do once the SS Li is fully set up and then takes a few seconds to restore if needed for bad weather.

Damn you Henry.  Tonight I have to go set mine up in the backyard and play with it.  My wife expects me to weed a flower bed.  Looks like that is not going to happen.  I’m blaming you.

My wife is a plant lover and is on your wife’s side but I just want you to know I’m right there with you.

Question for an owner: With one of the vestibules pitched straight, how does the footprint of the SS Li compare with a solo tent?

^You can’t leave out support for the vestibules. You can open up the fly and fold it back completely, but you then have to have the extra guy line there which takes up just as much space, although it extends in a slightly different angle.

I think it’s worth pointing out that the asymmetric pole placement and small A-frames (pitch locks?) in the Stratospire tents in practice gives a much bigger useful space/volume than the plain numbers of length and width of the inner floor would suggest. It’s a very clever design.

I’ve got too many shelters and would like to reduce that number.

Can anyone comment on winter performance of SS Li, especially with the solid inner?

Thanks.

A good backcountry shelter can mean the difference between comfort and discomfort or even life and death. The fact that these ultralight shelters like tarp tent require a dedicated forum for “experts” to describe the appropriate finicky over engineered method of setup is proof enough….

I will take my eureka a frame any day over these monstrosities

Polyester is not like dyneema they are very different. Cotton too, but not so much as nylon. The string effect will do more for stability by Friday.

I’ve got too many shelters and would like to reduce that number.

Can anyone comment on winter performance of SS Li, especially with the solid inner?

Thanks.

well I just picked up a used one, so hopefully can report back :)

Interested in hearing your impressions; I’m still sorting mine out.

“The fact that these ultralight shelters like tarp tent require a dedicated forum for “experts” to describe the appropriate finicky over engineered method of setup is proof enough….”

I would like to respectfully offer a slightly different viewpoint: Learning how best/most efficiently to set up one’s shelter is a good thing. In my 50 years of backpacking I have yet to experience a foolproof, set it and forget it, anyone can do it shelter pitch. I’ve used your shelter of choice and found it horribly clunky and impossible to get a good taut pitch.  My Duplex is pitched in less than 60 seconds and adjusted to a perfect, taut pitch in another 60.  Yes, it took me quite a few tries to figure it out, but once I did I find it very easy to do.  I practiced in my yard and consider the time spent to not only be valuable but also quite enjoyable however, I am willing to entertain the notion that I am strange.

BTW…It took the same amount of time and practice to perfect my TT Notch pitch, my MLD Grace tarp pitch, my Durston XMid 2P pitch, etc. etc. etc… and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Now in silpoly!

I wonder if this signals a move towards silypoly in all non-DCF TT models or if it makes more sense in some designs while others will stay in silnylon. Can you share any insights with us, Henry?

> wonder if this signals a move towards silypoly in all non-DCF TT models

Not all but you’ll see more over time.  The SS 1 is also making the move soon.

First time SS1 user here.

For those of you who have used this in in high winds, which face do you pitch into a prevailing wind for best wind shedding/spillage?

I am guessing one of the short edges of the rectangle directly into the wind? Or at a bias, i.e. one of the corners of the rectangle into the wind?

Vestibule into the wind.