[pct-l] RE: Lunar Solo tent - condensation

[Lonetrail at aol.com (Lonetrail@aol.com)]

M i c h a e l
 
Never say never.
 
Lonetrail
 
In a message dated 12/14/2004 11:22:16 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
msaenz@mve-architects.com writes:

well...
MY tent (sniff and snobbery) doesn't  condensate!

;)


At least it hasn't to the point that I've  noticed...

I remember back when (old fart's story coming up) I spent 4  hours in the
worst storm I've ever seen in the bowl below Dallas Peak,  camped along
the shore of Blue Lake (bottom lake) in Colorado...The day was  bright,
clear, sunny and warm. We base camped here and had spent the  day
climbing up and over into Yankee Boy Basin, then did the ascent up  Mt
Sneffels. We got back to camp and while we were lounging around  watching
our dinner cook, my buddy looked at his altimeter watch (one of  those
spiffy barometric altimeter/thermometer/chronograph Suunto jobs),  then
he frowned. Then he tapped on it. Then said something like:  "that's
strange, I've never seen the barometer trend down so fast..." At  that
moment, we could see tendrils of clouds creeping down over the  edge
ridge of the bowl...
An hour later, lighting, thunder, ROCK SLIDES  (we could here timber
snapping....and we were AT tree line!) and rain so  heavy that my tent
was in 2" of water...and it was pitched on a slope! This  went on for
four hours and at one point, my buddy could see lightning  striking the
ridge above us. He said he could see the lightning striking  the ridge
with the trees around us silhouetted by the flashes...then he  could see
the lightning striking BETWEEN us and those trees! Yikes! He yell  out to
me "Get out of your tent!, get out of your tent!". He was worried  that
the lightning would strike our campsite, so we huddled in a  depression
while we watched the lightning, shook by the thunder and got  scared
sh*tless by the sound of the rock slides all around us! (that is  the
absolute worst, most terrifying sound I've ever heard). When the  storm
subsided enough that we felt safe to get back into tents, it was  still
raining very hard and my tent developed a slow drip at the very apex  of
the roof. Drip.....drip.....drip.... I eventually had to drape a  bandana
between the mesh inner wall and the fly to get the drip to roll off  to
the side, and draped myself with my rain jacket (since then,  I've
applied seam seal and haven't had a leak since). The storm rolled  away
just as abruptly as it began and bright moonlight kept me as awake  as
the thunder did.
The next morning, we woke to find that the lake had  risen 2 feet, a new
stream had been carved into the bowl wall, the existing  streams had
widened from something you could hop across to 20 to 30 yards  wide! And
VW sized boulders at the edge of the lake that weren't there the  day
before (and about 75 yards away from where we camped...).

BUT-  no condensation!

Photos of Blue Lake and Dallas Peak (along with Mt  Sneffels & The
Keyhole) in my album ("Oilcan") in the
SoCal  Backpacker Yahoo Group  Site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/so_california_backpackers/

All  said and done, I'm still lusting after Ron's Lunar tent!!!!!


M i c  h a e l   S a e n z
McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners,  Inc.
A r c h i t e c t u r e    P l a n n i n g    I n  t e r i o r s
w  w  w  .  m  v  e   -  a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c   t  s  .  c  o  m


-----Original  Message-----
From: Steve Courtway [mailto:scourtway@bpa-arch.com] 
Sent:  Tuesday, December 14, 2004 10:07 AM
To: Mike Saenz
Cc: pct-l
Subject:  Re: Lunar Solo tent - condensation

> #2, however, conflicts with #1-  in that- if you have a very well 
> ventilated tent and the temps don't  get too low, you won't condensate.


Not necessarily true  oilcan.   As it has been written and folks have
experienced,  myself included mid June vic. Muir Pass this year, due to
weather  conditions, sometimes you cannot avoid condensation.  I hope
nobody  misinterpreted my post about the tarptent as a bad review, as it
was simply  an observance of the nervousness as I approached "the edge"
with a down bag  without the most water resistant shell, and tarptent in
conditions in which  condensation simply could not be avoided, no matter
how breezy and well  placed your site was. Folks have mentioned that the
2 person tent maybe  better as far as room is concerned, and I'd
definately agree with this,  standing 6'-6" and loving to thrash about
and toss and turn as I get used  to sleeping at 10,000 ft.  I may need a
bag with a more resistant  shell next time I'm out there lightweight
mountaineer I mean hiking. heh  heh.

s.c.







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