Ben Crowell
2010-03-14 03:59:37 UTC
I posted a while back about methods of setting up tarps,
whether it's necessary to chop up your rope into tiny parts,
etc. Lots of useful replies. Since then, I've used my tarp
once on a drizzly night, and chickened out from using it once
on a really rainy night when other shelter was available.
After playing around in the back yard with various setups,
I'm interested in hearing more about tarp techniques.
I'm using a one-man, rectangular sil-nylon tarp with 6
loops around the perimeter.
The method that worked for me on the drizzly night was simply
to use tent stakes to tie down one edge directly on the ground,
while stringing the opposite corners up to trees.
What I'm working on now is how to deal with a harder rain,
where I really don't want to leave so much open. Conventional
wisdom seems to be to leave a few inches below the tarp's
edges on all sides, so that condensation doesn't build up.
I played around in the back yard with stringing one length
of rope around the entire perimeter of the tarp, with loops
of rope extending down to the stakes. This didn't seem so
great, because it was hard to keep all the edges from
snugging down too close to the ground.
The straightforward solution seems to be to cut some of my rope
into 4-6 short sections, using each one to tie one loop to one
stake using bowlines. This way I could presumably get the tarp
off the ground a little and allow ventilation.
I dislike trekking poles, so I'm interested in setups that
don't require using poles to hold up parts of the tent.
There seem to be a lot of simple setups that use a ridgeline
strung between two trees. This may be fine in realistic
conditions, where you can always find two trees close
together; I'm just not able to test it in my back yard,
where I don't happen to have 2 trees with a patch of
empty ground in between.
whether it's necessary to chop up your rope into tiny parts,
etc. Lots of useful replies. Since then, I've used my tarp
once on a drizzly night, and chickened out from using it once
on a really rainy night when other shelter was available.
After playing around in the back yard with various setups,
I'm interested in hearing more about tarp techniques.
I'm using a one-man, rectangular sil-nylon tarp with 6
loops around the perimeter.
The method that worked for me on the drizzly night was simply
to use tent stakes to tie down one edge directly on the ground,
while stringing the opposite corners up to trees.
What I'm working on now is how to deal with a harder rain,
where I really don't want to leave so much open. Conventional
wisdom seems to be to leave a few inches below the tarp's
edges on all sides, so that condensation doesn't build up.
I played around in the back yard with stringing one length
of rope around the entire perimeter of the tarp, with loops
of rope extending down to the stakes. This didn't seem so
great, because it was hard to keep all the edges from
snugging down too close to the ground.
The straightforward solution seems to be to cut some of my rope
into 4-6 short sections, using each one to tie one loop to one
stake using bowlines. This way I could presumably get the tarp
off the ground a little and allow ventilation.
I dislike trekking poles, so I'm interested in setups that
don't require using poles to hold up parts of the tent.
There seem to be a lot of simple setups that use a ridgeline
strung between two trees. This may be fine in realistic
conditions, where you can always find two trees close
together; I'm just not able to test it in my back yard,
where I don't happen to have 2 trees with a patch of
empty ground in between.