Introduction
The Tarptent Stratospire Li is a roomy and stable two-person DCF shelter with well-considered features. It sets up quickly, stays taut in rough conditions due to DCF construction and Tarptent’s proprietary built-in tensioners, and has enough chops for year round use. I tested the Stratospire Li during an eight-day trek through Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in the summer/fall shoulder season. Weather conditions were all over the map, meaning I had the opportunity to observe this shelter’s performance during clear (but cold) nights, light rain, mist, light snow, and driving wind.
Features and Specifications
Features
- Dyneema® fabrics: strong and light
- Seams are bonded and sewn
- Dual trekking pole set-up
- Double wall
- Dual vestibules are spacious and provide for dual entry
- Interior can be set up independently from the rest of the shelter
- Tarptent’s optional SideCar attachment turns either vestibule into a separate sleeping compartment for a pet or a kid (or both!)
- PitchLoc™ foldable corners and integrated line tighteners
- Reflective spectra cord guylines
- Catenary ridgelines
Specifications
- Sleeps: 2
- Seasons: 3+
- 8,000mm+ hydrostatic head pressure rating
- Manufacturer provided weight:
- 26 oz (738 g) tent body (fly, interior, guylines, carbon fiber struts, and stuff sacks)
- 1.7 oz (48 g) stakes
- Measured weight:
- 29.5 oz (836 g) tent body (fly, interior, guylines, carbon fiber struts, and stuff sacks)
- 1.7 oz (48g) stakes
- Fly: 0.51 oz (14.5 g) / yd² Dyneema
- Floor: 1 oz (28.3) / yd²
- Interior Height: 45 in (115 cm)
- Floor Width: 45 in (114 cm)
- Floor Length: 86 in (218 cm)
- Stakes: 6 x 6 in (15 cm) Easton Nanos (included)
- Packed size: 16 in x 5 in (41 cm x 12 cm)
Compared To
The Stratospire Li is most similar to the Zpacks Duplex: both are two-person DCF shelters designed to set up with trekking poles. An in-depth head-to-head performance review of the two is in order, but in the meantime, we can compare some of the basic features and specifications.
| Shelter | Zpacks Duplex | Tarptent Stratospire Li |
|---|---|---|
| Total weight | 19 oz (538.7 g) | 26 oz (737.1 g) |
| Tent body material | 0.51 oz (14.5 g) / yd² Dyneema | 0.51 oz (14.5 g) / yd² Dyneema |
| Floor material | Floor: 1 oz (28.3) / yd² | Floor: 1 oz (28.3) / yd² |
| Trekking pole position | Centered | Offset |
| Design | A-frame (six panels) | Octogonal (8 panels) |
| Vestibule | 2 | 2 |
| Doors | 2 | 2 |
| Independent interior | No | Yes |
| Interior Height | 48 in (121.9 g) | 45 in (114.3 cm) |
| Interior Width | 45 in (114.3 cm) | 45 in (114.3 cm) |
| Floor Length | 90 in (228.6 g) | 86 in (218.4 cm) |
| Stakes | 8 required (0 included) | 6 required, 2 optional, ( 6 included) |
| Cost | $599.00 | $679.00 |
The Duplex is a few inches longer and taller (interior) than the Stratospire Li. It features an A-frame six-panel design and weighs 19 oz (538.7 g). The Stratospire Li features an octogonal eight-panel design and is about $80.00 more expensive than the Duplex. It weighs 26 oz (737.1 g). The fly can set up independently from the interior. Both shelters are constructed of identical weight Dyneema Composite Fabrics and measure 45 in (114.3 cm) across the bottom of the floor.
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths
- Dyneema fabric resists condensation and will not absorb moisture, sag, or stretch
- Double wall design means any condensation that does occur won’t touch your stuff
- Octogonal design holds up extremely well in high winds
- Spacious vestibules
- Double door design is easy to get in and out of
- Thoughtful features: magnetic snaps, zipper covers to reduce condensation drip, PitchLoc corners, and integrated line tighteners
- Lots of optional features: solid wall design for four-season use, side-car attachment, trekking pole “handle up” set-up
Limitations
- Extremely high price tag ($679.00)
- Low stretch of DCF means you must exercise some precision in the pitch
- Shallow pitch angle could be a problem with serious snow loads
- Small interior gear pockets
- Feels bulky in a pack
Commentary
This is a roomy, tough, well-designed shelter. Tarptent rightly lauds the Stratospire Li’s performance in windy conditions.. The eight-panel design minimized noise and flap on a long, cold, windy night high in the Beartooths. The ridgeline remained tight (with the aid of the two optional stakes and tie-outs), and the integrated line tighteners were taut after ten hours of high-speed gusts. In short, Montana threw quite a lot of wind at this shelter, and it didn’t budge. I was camping with a group of ten hikers, and I was one of the few who passed an uneventful and cozy night.
The floor of the Stratospire Li is rectangular, but the fly is octagonal, and the trekking poles are offset. This can require a bit of thinking during setup, particularly if you are in a tight situation or your spot isn’t optimal. DCF fabric has very little stretch, meaning your stake angles and placement need to be a bit more precise than with a silnylon shelter. Make sure to watch Tarptent’s setup video. After viewing that and pitching the shelter a few times in a yard, I had no problem getting the shelter pitched in under two minutes.
The shelter sets up with trekking poles in a handle-down configuration (although Tarptent sells an adaptor to allow the handles to face up). I’ve used a silnylon Tarptent for years and never worried about poking a hole in my shelter with the carbide tip of the trekking pole, but something about the nearly seven-hundred dollar price tag of the Stratospire Li gave me pause every time I set it up. The good news is, should you happen to (carelessly) puncture the Stratospire Li, the DCF construction makes it much easier to patch than silnylon.
The shelter is roomy, with a 45 in (114.3 cm) wide and 86 in (218.4 cm) long bathtub floor. The apex height is 45 in (114.3 cm) tall. This space accommodates two standard sized sleeping mats with ease (or one standard mat and one wide mat with slightly less ease). There’s plenty of room to sit up and change clothes, even for tall hikers. Two doors and two vestibules make sharing the shelter as comfy as it gets, as well as optimizing airflow and views for those dramatic campsite days.
The vestibules are gigantic, more than large enough to accommodate cooking, wet gear, packs, dogs, or children. Tarptent sells an attachment to turn this vast space into a separate compartment should you be traveling with a child.
One side effect of these large vestibules is that the edge of the fly is quite far from the bathtub flooring after zipping the doors. The distance eliminates the “up-splash” problem (in heavy rain, water can splash up from the puddle created by the fly) occasionally experienced by smaller Tarptents.
Tarptent loaded the Stratospire Li with thoughtful features: floor and apex adjustment straps, storm sealed zippers, zipper flaps for drip protection, and magnetic closure loops to roll the outer fly up and out of the way.
The zipper flap also snaps up out of the way with a magnet. Remember to do this before unzipping, or you will have a stuck zipper.
I love this magnet system, and I wish it was also on the interior mesh door. Instead, that door rolls up with a clip and loop system, something I occasionally found challenging to manipulate with cold or gloved hands.
The Stratospire Li is a bulky tent when rolled and stored. The carbon fiber struts in the PitchLoc corners are removable if you feel like stuffing, but Tarptent recommends rolling to improve the lifespan of the DCF. I found the stuff sack to be large enough that rolling was not much of a pain, particularly if you follow the manufacturer instructions. That being said, the tent did feel chunky in my pack and required that I re-think my regular pack organizational system.
The interior pockets at the corners of the mesh doors felt small. Bulky, light items such as a Buff or stuff sacks tended to fall out throughout the night. Storing smaller, heavier items like a headlamp or a pocket knife are the ideal use for these pockets.
Tarptent sells an optional solid wall interior for extremely cold or windy conditions. Adding a solid wall interior would beef up an already storm-resistant tent, and give it some four-season potential. However, I’d be concerned that the Stratospire Li’s shallow pitch angle could give it some problems with heavy snow loads, though the DCF will not stretch under load and will shed snow better than silnylon.
Further testing is required, particularly to see how the tent fares in winter conditions, and in comparison to the Zpacks Duplex. Until then, this is a well-designed, well-constructed, thoughtfully realized shelter with enough toughness to withstand a wide range of seasons and conditions. Large, cozy, and stable while remaining ultralight, it won’t let you down—assuming you can stomach the price tag.
Where to Buy
Related Content
- The BPL community is discussing the Stratospire Li as compared to the Zpacks Duplex. Check out the convo here.
- Going solo or want something a little smaller? Ryan Jordan’s in-depth write up of the Tarptent Notch Li is worth a read.
Product Review Disclosure
Updated September 15, 2018
- How we acquired these products: Product(s) discussed in this review were either acquired by the author from a retailer or otherwise provided by the manufacturer at a discount/donation with no obligation to provide media coverage or a product review to the manufacturer(s).
- We do not accept money or in-kind compensation for guaranteed media coverage: Backpacking Light does not accept compensation or donated product in exchange for guaranteed media placement or product review coverage.
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Discussion
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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.
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.
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