TT Notch owners: tips for rainy weather?

Hi Anna,

After using the Notch for two week-long trips and a few shorter trip, all 3 season trips in the WA and ID mountains, here are some observations regarding your questions:

• Cooking in vestibule: Have never done it and would not do it in the Notch. Have only cooked in the vestibule in mountaineering and winter trips in poor weather, for which I would use a different tent anyway.
• Taking off wet rain gear: Doing the following things in quick succession has always worked for me: take off the rain jacket while standing close to tent, shake the jacket once or twice, unzip the fly quickly, dive in the tent and zip up the fly again quickly. Once your butt is in the tent and feet are sticking into the closed vestibule, you can take your time removing your wet pants and shoes. It’s best to keep your sleeping pad and bag shoved to the far side of the tent in rainy weather until you’re ready to sleep so you don’t sit on them with wet pants when entering.
• Exiting tent: Reverse above steps, or if breaking camp for the day, remove the inner net first so you have lots of room under the tarp to put your rain gear back on.
• Wet clothing storage: Hang wet stuff from trekking poles so as to drip away from the inner’s netting rather than onto it.
• Retightening guylines: Takes a few extra seconds during a pee break during the night to tighten head, foot and both vestibules.
• Wrapping up the inner if fly is wet: I unclip the inner if the fly is really wet and store the fly (tarp) on the outside of my pack. Unclipping the inner is difficult because the net tent’s mitten hooks are very hard to unclip from the D-rings on the tarp, especially with cold fingers. I intend to replace these mitten hooks with UL side release buckles or something comparable if and when I use the Notch again for a longer trip (I’ve switched to a shaped Cuben tarp for most 3 season trips now).

Another observation about the Notch – if you unzip both doors completely and tie them back, a portion of the inner net tent is exposed to rain because it sticks out a few inches beyond the door opening. I rigged an extended hook on each door’s tie back point. The door zippers can be zipped down 10 inches or so from the top and the elongated hook can be used to hold a several-inch-wide portion of each door like an awning over the ends of the inner net, providing 100% vertical coverage of the inner net from the sky. This prevents rain and dew from falling directly onto the inner net, if it’s not windy. I can post some photos if this is unclear.

Lester – Ooh, that awning idea sounds great. Would love to see some pics!

I have similarly found the inner to be pretty difficult to unclip due to the mitten hooks. Franco recommends just twisting to unclip, so you don’t have to press on the tongue at all, but it’s a pain even so. I’m considering turning the mitten hooks into simple J hooks by breaking off the tongue. Less secure, but maybe they’ll stay in anyway.

EDIT: Lots of great mitten hook alternatives in this thread.

I have had a similar experience with unclipping small hooks being a pain in my hexamid.  I replaced the hooks provided with some of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Plastic-Multi-Color-Gloves-Hook-Buckles-Snap-Hook-With-O-Ring-/351643738753?var=&hash=item51df99a281

Much easier to open and slightly lighter to boot.

Hope this helps, Matt

Lester did most of the typing for me. I do basically the same things as far as getting in and out. Never really thought about it before, but looking back, almost all of the bad weather I’ve had with the Notch has been while using the fly with a groundsheet, which gets folded separately anyway, and I’ve rarely had to mess with a wet inner.

Groundsheet or inner, you *can* tighten the side guylines from inside, but you’re going to be laying in(or at least have your elbow in) the mud if you don’t put something down in the vestibule while you’re doing it. The cut down Z Lite I use for a sitpad comes in handy then.

I’ve cooked in the vestibule a few times. Nothing special about it, just…cooked in the vestibule.

Not raining here, but 25F and windy. I just opened the vestibule for a pic so my Facebook friends could see how tough it is surviving in the wilderness and stuff. Plenty of room for the stove-not so much for your legs if sitting like that with the vestibule closed.

I’ve also heard about one person who had issues with rain splashing under the fly edges and getting the inner wet, so she sewed a few inches of mesh on the edges of the fly. Still ventilates well, little to no rain splash.

My take…
I have cooked several times under the Notch (fully enclosed) using a Caldera Cone in the bush but tried the JetBoil at home.
Works for me.
I just sit up in the tent , have the stove in one vestibule and the ingredients in the other.
Mind you I basically heat water…
If really cooking, it could be easier to undo the near to the stove apex clip of the inner, push the inner back a bit or even undo both clips and sit on the mat pushed well back into the other vestibule
It is wide enough for that

Mitten hooks.
It can be very easy but only if you want it to be…

• “How do you, personally, deal with retightening guylines? Can you get away with tightening just the two side ones without getting out of the tent? Is it enough to retighten a *dry* tent before you go to sleep, if you know it will rain overnight?”

If you set it taut just before you go to sleep (when the fabric should already be cooler/cold) it is very unlikely that you will need to do it again. I don’t remember ever doing it and I have camped with it in heavy rain and snow.

You can always just lift the pole height a bit if you need to do it …

i dont own a notch, but here are a few general comments about 1 (wo)man tents in the rain

• cooking in the vestibule is fine as long as theres no bears around, just leave the door a bit open to ventilate … a jetboil makes it easier as the pot wont fall off the stove … itll add to the condensation, but in constant non stop cold rain theres no escaping condensation anyways
• get a cheap 2 mil plastic groundsheet … this keep you from getting wet and muddy when crawling/scooting in the tent under the vestibule … make sure that you fold the groundsheet so that it doesnt extend pass the fly or ill act like a tub
• in high wind blown rain situations you can also use the ground sheet to form a barrier on the windward side between the fly and the inner
• you can hang the clothes or lay em on the groundsheet … honestly in a cold constant rain situation it doesnt really matter, nothing dries, expect to be damp
• if you use fleece on a synth poofay and its not too wet (just a bit damp) you can lay this over the footbox of your quilt/bag to prevent it from getting damp … even better yet use a synth quilt/bag
• you only really need to re-tighten the guylines if you expect it to be windy … just go out once and do it if the wind picks up or if theres alot of sag
• if its mostly mesh one can just wrap an entire tent up … fabric inners though might get a bit damp if you dont wrap it separately …  … it all depends if you want to store the fly separately for day use (stops in the rain) or to dry out … regardless in serious non stop rain your inner will get wet anyways from condensation, groundsheet dampness and spray, even if stored separately
• carry a small towel to wipe down the inner before and after packing/unpacking

;)

Those Mitten Hook videos are classics. :^)

I enjoyed going back and reading the whole mitten hook thread.

Tip:  You can detach the inner from one pole and slide it a few inches toward the other vestibule.This will allow you to keep one door completely open in light rain and not get your gear wet.

For some background on the mitten hook videos…
I did those because some here (not on this thread) kept going on about how difficult they are to handle.
So it was done for fun but also to demonstrate that there is more than one way to do most things.

Franco changed my life in that thread. I don’t hate mitten hooks any more. In fact I ordered more a few months ago.

I do prefer them in conjunction with thin line that D rings still though.

I was testing my modded Moment DW two days ago in steady 35 mph winds and gusts to 55 mph.

My guy lines were rigged with TT “mitten clips” to clip to the tent’s guy points. But the wide webbing guy points sewn to the main hoop sleeve were too wide for the mitten clip which kept sliding off. I realized I need to make a small loop Triptease or other strong 4 mm tent cord to loop thru the guy points, into which I’ll clip the mitten clips.

That small niggle aside I still want more positive clips that are reasonably light. My search continues as I look at what outdoor fabric purveyors have in their “accessories” pages. If I find a good substitute I’ll post it.

BTW, the stitching on one of my hand sewn fly hem stake loops pulled loose in the gusts. The loops are of light nylon webbing (grosgrain) and now I’ll cut 2″ diameter circles of Tenacious Tape for reinforcement of the fly when I re-sew the tent stake loops. (1/2 of the circle on each side of the fly hem.) And I’ll sew the loop ends side-by-side to spread out the strain instead of on top of each other as they are now. Live & learn.

Trick for tightening lines – setup poles to standard length, but angle bottom of pole out 3 inches or so. Tighten guy lines. After several hours, silnylon will sag. Just lift the pole ends, move inward until pole is vertical – voila, all lines tightened. Experiment a bit to fine tune, but works 95% of the time.

One advantage of the Flick Lock type poles is that they are very fast and easy to adjust , so with those you just increase the length if you need to.

What Franco sed.