[pct-l] Tent color

["Ted Rupp" <ted@nidlink.com>]

Tread Gently asked:

Question:  Will dark colored tents be damaged more by the sun's UV rays?  Or
will they both equally, since they'd both be exposed equally?  Anyone out
there know?

A few years back, the Canadian Alpine Club published the results of a study
with various colors of webbing to determine the amount of damage caused by
UV over the course of a year.

If I remember, the color did not seem to affect the amount of UV
deterioration, however, over the course of a year, he webbing lost about 40%
of its strength as I remember.   I would thing the same would be true of a
tent fabric if exposed for a full year.  However, a tent will spend most of
its days packed and should not receive the exposure to UV.

Based on this, I would think that the UV problem should be minimal ovber the
course of a year hiking the PCT.

FWIW

Ted


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