[pct-l] Contrail Tarptent

[Katie Muilenburg]

Chili Dog and Seahorse had a SIx Moon Designs Lunar Duo, not the Double
Rainbow.  It did blow over, but most tents blew over that night!  My
Contrail got uprooted that night too...

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Timothy Nye <timpnye at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm not a cheerleader for the Contrail for one reason only and that's it's
> performance in high winds.  I used a Contrail in 2009, a year which differs
> from the last two years in terms of the amount of bad weather (high winds
> with snow and sleet) encountered through the desert portion of the trail
> more recently. (I know you've been out there since 2009 too, Burning
> Daylight)
>
> I had no difficulty in obtaining a taut pitch.  With tarp style tents I've
> found, as the instructions advise, that you need to re-tighten the lines
> after 15-20 minutes or so; I've always done it a third time as well, right
> before I turn in or after rain begins.  In winds, the Contrail is supposed
> to be pitched with it's smaller end facing into the wind, which I did, but
> a gusting wind storm resulted in my being buffeted by the tent sides
> throughout the night.  Vulnerability to winds is not a feature only to the
> Contrail, it's shared by a number of tents.  In 2010 a couple of instances
> of actual tent collapse were shared with or witnessed by me; in one
> instance during a storm with high winds and freezing temperatures the hiker
> wound up getting off the trail. This year I believe Chilidog and Sea Horse
> had a Double Rainbow which went down at Pioneer Mail, and I think Splash
> may have had one that when her tent went down at the island encampment at
> Cascade Locks.  Although others may speak more knowledgibly on this subject
> than, the thing about high winds for me is that they seem to be more often
> that accompanied by some form of condensation and a drop in temperature.
> The desert, especially at the beginning of the hiking season, seems to be
> where the most severe conditions are encountered.
>
> My observations in 2010 led me to conclude that the plains Indians knew
> what they were doing, a conical, tee-pee shape appears to be the most
> stable.  There are a number of these, but I used the Six Moons Designs
> Lunar Solo (with a reinforced floor).  At PCT days at Cascade Locks I was
> camped on the Eastern end of the island, near Splash, without any wind
> breaks.  The tent was still standing in one of the most exposed positions.
> As an experiment, I left it there for the whole time I was there, using the
> small Ti stakes. During this entire time the wind was ferocious and the
> tent was constantly under assault.  The lines never loosened and the tent
> walls were taut when I left; that was from Friday afternoon to mid-morning
> Sunday.  The kicker for me was that I wasn't sure which way the wind as
> going to be coming from, up river or down, so I pitched the tent at a 90
> degree angle from it's optimum pitching position that would maximize it's
> wind shedding ability.
>
> The major plus of the Contrail, from my viewpoint, is it's roominess.
> Also, condensation is alsways going to an issue with a single wall tent.
> The roominess offsets this somewhat; although increasing the amount of
> netting (not using or closing the vestibule unless it's raining) will also
> offset this, especially for a conical type set up.
>
> My two cents.
>
> Gourmet.
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