Pictures of your tents.

[mercalia]

The problem is if you are away for a fortnight and the weather changes at 3am and your 600 miles from home where are you going to sleep and how are you going to protect your belongings when the skies open and a gale blows up? Happened to us on a cliff top in northern Spain last year, put serious bends into poles of our Terra Nova Laser large 3, but we still had a nights sleep and were ready to carry on in the morning.

needs repeating this is a tarp ( tent ) not a tent proper, just configured by default as one. maybe others here will describe the type of conditions they use tarps in?, would be interesting - can a typical tarp take a gale or windstorm or deluge? I think most are quite light weight with limited water proofing?

it should be compared to some thing like this -

http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/tarps-and-bivy-bags/WE101.html

if you look at the small subpictures I dont any of the configurations would take the end-of-world weather being intimated?

This configuration is as close to mine as that tarp can get-

BPL Tarp

Those poles placed seem a very weak link and i can see them just collapsing under foul weather as they dont get much support?

I wonder if people are forgetting how strong the traditional ridge tent with inverted V ropes configuration is if you have strong poles and the ridge is tensioned properly? maybe I am wrong?

[Tangled Metal]

well the conditions you describe I think very few tents would survive? if you cant peg the tent down then thats the end isnt it? This tent is realy a tarp and unfair to invoke hell weather? How many tarps would survive what you are describing? how many would use a tarp in the conditions you describe?

Ooop! I fit that bill. Flat tarp in a cave style pitch on top of a Lakeland hill with a storm that passed quickly over. About 4 to 6 hours of horizontal rain and wind that had a Hilleberg atko suffer from the wind flattening the flysheet against sleeper and pole on an end on pitch. The tarp was in a low pitch, one pole just inside one end in an A frame entrance. The second pole was outside as a lifter to give more foot room. I slept through until i woke at 5 like most overnight camps.

I've experienced a few stormy pitches in a tarp. If done well a flat tarp can cope with a lot.

[mercalia]

well the conditions you describe I think very few tents would survive? if you cant peg the tent down then thats the end isnt it? This tent is realy a tarp and unfair to invoke hell weather? How many tarps would survive what you are describing? how many would use a tarp in the conditions you describe?

Ooop! I fit that bill. Flat tarp in a cave style pitch on top of a Lakeland hill with a storm that passed quickly over. About 4 to 6 hours of horizontal rain and wind that had a Hilleberg atko suffer from the wind flattening the flysheet against sleeper and pole on an end on pitch. The tarp was in a low pitch, one pole just inside one end in an A frame entrance. The second pole was outside as a lifter to give more foot room. I slept through until i woke at 5 like most overnight camps.

I've experienced a few stormy pitches in a tarp. If done well a flat tarp can cope with a lot.

yes that I can appreciate but I think I am too old and decrepit to do much crawling around on the ground, does me in. I dont think the tarp in the above pic would survive?

[Bigdummysteve]

Untitled by steve norris

My new super light nordisk telemark 2 in wychwood forest

[Tangled Metal]

well the conditions you describe I think very few tents would survive? if you cant peg the tent down then thats the end isnt it? This tent is realy a tarp and unfair to invoke hell weather? How many tarps would survive what you are describing? how many would use a tarp in the conditions you describe?

Ooop! I fit that bill. Flat tarp in a cave style pitch on top of a Lakeland hill with a storm that passed quickly over. About 4 to 6 hours of horizontal rain and wind that had a Hilleberg atko suffer from the wind flattening the flysheet against sleeper and pole on an end on pitch. The tarp was in a low pitch, one pole just inside one end in an A frame entrance. The second pole was outside as a lifter to give more foot room. I slept through until i woke at 5 like most overnight camps.

I've experienced a few stormy pitches in a tarp. If done well a flat tarp can cope with a lot.

yes that I can appreciate but I think I am too old and decrepit to do much crawling around on the ground, does me in. I dont think the tarp in the above pic would survive?

If you remove the tree attachment and replace with a trekking pole it's close to my cave pitch. It survives a lot because it's very wind shedding. There's one weak direction at the opening. You can just turn a tarp around if the wind changes direction towards the opening

As mentioned, my tarp has stood up to wind that has had Hilleberg Atko tents almost flattened. One Atko had the occupant's face showing through the flysheet it was that flattened. A good pitch and pegging it out well really does make it capable of surviving a lot.

[Joe.B]

Here's my Wildcountry Zephos 2 on a frosty morning just a few weeks ago on Skye.

20170303_073236 by Joseph Bulloch, on Flickr

[leftpoole]

Here's my Wildcountry Zephos 2 on a frosty morning just a few weeks ago on Skye.

20170303_073236 by Joseph Bulloch, on Flickr

Good to note that fuel bottle! Trangia cooking stove in use.
John (who advocates a Trangia!)

[Joe.B]

Yes, another Trangia fan here.

Despite the cold the trangia performed mostly superbly on that little trip. I say mostly as I did have difficulty on a very cold and windy day on South Uist when I just couldn't get my pan to boil, you do need to be prepared to use a lot more fuel in those conditions. Otherwise it was terrific. On the frosty mornings I did have to use the wick method of lighting but I don't really see that as any problem.

[Gattonero]

Yes, another Trangia fan here.

Despite the cold the trangia performed mostly superbly on that little trip. I say mostly as I did have difficulty on a very cold and windy day on South Uist when I just couldn't get my pan to boil, you do need to be prepared to use a lot more fuel in those conditions. Otherwise it was terrific. On the frosty mornings I did have to use the wick method of lighting but I don't really see that as any problem.

I would never leave the stove outside when is cold, especially when freezing.
Carry a small ziplock bag, or better two, and keep it in bed with you*
And in not using the full Trangia kit, always use a windscreen. I've found that one can be made with a large disposable owen tray.

*= if concerned about spill/smell, the screw-on Trangia cap, and in two ziplock bags, it is very much spill-proof

[Gattonero]

Last weekend had a chance to have a quick spin outdoors, with the excuse of trying the front pack that I've made, plus trying a woodburning stove, and since I was there trying the new inner tent that I got from TrekkerTent.
Since I don't like small tents, I asked the inner to be 110cm high and 120cm wide, this fits in their standard flysheet if I pitch it high (the "V" pole is done to be 120cm high) and there is no problem because I asked the floor to be with 70d fabric (pretty strong for a lightweight tent) and the inner to be solid DWR fabric.
Inner and Flysheet go for slightly less than 800gr including all the guylines, and pack small (the size of a 2lt plastic bottle of cola) so I'm quite happy to have 4-season protection and decent space with a low pack size and weight.

[Gattonero]

I don't have it, but if I was to travel with a partner I'd think about. Looks great as far as space and convenience (double entrance, freestanding, easy setup with a few pegs only) and it's pretty light though is made with good materials (30d fabric, vs 20d or even 10d of some "superlight" models).

Tarptent Bowfin2

[Sweep]

Intrigued that you appear to take a metal tape on your wildcountry adventures gatto.

[Gattonero]

Intrigued that you appear to take a metal tape on your wildcountry adventures gatto.

It happened that I could stay most of the day out, not all day but long enough to wander around and -why not?- have a meal oudtoors.
So I went, with the excuse of trying the woodburning stove just arrived, and the front bag I made the week before.

And since I was there, it was a good chance to try the inner tent made by Trekkertent, made to fit the flysheet I bought from them. Being a custom sized inner tent, I wanted to make sure the dimensions would fit, as I've made an A-Frame set of poles to have more headroom (110cm inside the inner tent) and to have no poles in front of the door.

All that stuff did fit in a saddle bag and the front bag, both 1/2 empty, so it wasn't a big deal to carry around.

[trilathon]

[andrew_s]

If anyone can't see the above image, on account of the URL being for a folder rather than a file, quote the post, then copy and paste the URL into your address bar.
It's a hexagonal pyramid of some sort.

Hint:
If you post something between [image] tags, it's got to be an image URL, not a URL to a page with an image on it.
Do you never look at what you've posted?

And, having been provoked into a pedantic mood, what's "trilathon" meant to mean?
If you mean two stone uprights with a lintel across the top, as per your avatar, the word is "trilithon" - i.e. "3 stones" in Greek.
Alternatively, do you mean "triathlon", as in Jonathan Brownlee?