Wed 24 Sep, 2008 2:50 pm
What's new in light weight gear
Coming Soon!
The Gunyah series of 1 and 2 person ultra light tents (1.1kg and 1.25kg)
Add a new Gunyah tent to the already popular Shadow pack and Cocoon sleeping bag
and BINGO, a bushwalking pack, sleeping bag and tent with a combined start weight start 2.75kg.
Fri 26 Sep, 2008 1:30 pm
Fri 26 Sep, 2008 7:14 pm
Sun 28 Sep, 2008 5:50 am
Sun 28 Sep, 2008 7:02 am
Sun 28 Sep, 2008 10:53 am
Earthling wrote:I was chatting to someone the other day and they have 2 x OP Bags and a WM Badger.
For Tassie conditions they always used the WM Badger.
I often wonder though if the Coccon 500 would be sufficient with a silk liner in Tassie. After all it would shave a whole 200grqams off my weight. Will be intersting to see peoples comments.
Regarding tents Sonofabeach, Ive just bought a Contrail tarptent from Henry Shire in the US. $199US + Delivery, weighing 696 grams. Ive added 4 more stakes and 4 guidelines which will drag the weight up another 150grams or so...not sure yet as line weight is a bit iffy. Great tent/tarp though which has rave reviews from all users of these beauties. Many people use these for the whole of the Appalachian Trail and if they can handle that trail, they can handle Tassie.
http://www.tarptent.com/contrail.html
Mon 29 Sep, 2008 2:33 pm
alliecat wrote:Earthling wrote: Great tent/tarp though which has rave reviews from all users of these beauties. Many people use these for the whole of the Appalachian Trail and if they can handle that trail, they can handle Tassie.
http://www.tarptent.com/contrail.html
The Tarptents are great (Cloudburst 2 user here - for 6 months of the year only) but they are not suitable for all year round in Tassie. They are single skin, so can't really be expected to cope with days of sustained rain or snow. Also, they cannot handle the extreme winds we get here compared to trails like the AT. And the combination of wind and rain would make for a pretty wet experience in a contrail. The contrail would not cope with dumps of snow either (too much near-horizontal surface area). Look, I like the tarptents as much as anybody, but stating that they can handle Tassie because they can handle the AT is just flat out wrong.
Cheers,
Alliecat
Mon 29 Sep, 2008 3:49 pm
Earthling wrote:Interesting. I did lots of research about these tarp/tents and apart from the odd 1% of people not liking them usually for subjective personal reasons, the rest were rave reviews. Including use in freezing conditions and snow and rain and wind...obviously not all at once![]()
.
Heres a link to one lot of users:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... ad_id=4472
Mon 29 Sep, 2008 5:14 pm
alliecat wrote:Perhaps you should read those reviews at BPL a bit more thoroughly (and critically). For example:
"I have not tried this shelter in high winds or heavy rain or snow "
or
"The one 'weakness' of the Contrail is its need for more stability in high winds"
etc. etc.
The contrail is a "3-season" tent (it says so on the tarptent site) - and that's three U.S. seasons with predictable conditions and generally much less rain and wind than Tas. The point is made several times in the BPL thread you quote that the contrail is "not a mountaineering tent", and that it is not suitable for "above the tree line" (read: "windy") conditions, and so on.
The contrail is undoubtedly a great tent - in the conditions for which it was designed. That does not include most of Tassie, most of the time. As I said, I have a tarptent Cloudburst which is great for summer camping at low altitudes in sheltered conditions. I'm sure the contrail would be fine in those conditions too. But I recently bought a Hilleberg Nallo to use the rest of the year and in tougher conditions because I know that the tarptent would be too risky in strong winds in the middle of winter.
I wish there was a tent as light as the contrail that could handle Tassie conditions, but if there is, I haven't found it yet - and I've been looking for quite some time!
It's up to you of course, but I suggest you do a lot more research about conditions here in Tasmania before you consider using a contrail or similar tent here, unless you plan to stick to very sheltered areas.
Mon 29 Sep, 2008 5:52 pm
Earthling wrote:I undesrstood that 3 season european/us standard was equivelant to anything Australia can dish out (4 seasons)...apart from cyclones and other random seasonal extremes of nature. A us/eur 4 season is a lot colder and windier and extreme then Tas. Also check out if you havent the weather extremes people have on the Appalachian Trail end to enders, lots of rain, snow and wind.
Mon 29 Sep, 2008 8:42 pm
Earthling wrote:strong winds, heavy rain, hailstorms and even snow (a bit of a novelty in Australia on Christmas Day!).
when I come back in with a damaged tent and having to sleep in my wet weather gear and all my clothes on (which will keep me alive by the way..backup plan#44-9A), I will concede defeat and accept a good I told you so.
Tue 30 Sep, 2008 7:19 am
Son of a Beach wrote:when I come back in with a damaged tent and having to sleep in my wet weather gear and all my clothes on (which will keep me alive by the way..backup plan#44-9A), I will concede defeat and accept a good I told you so.
I sure hope it doesn't come to that. And I sure hope that if it does, you're still alive for somebody to say, "I told you so".(NB: This is partly tongue in cheek, but I also because I do worry sometimes).
Tue 30 Sep, 2008 8:44 am
Tue 30 Sep, 2008 9:01 am
Thu 16 Oct, 2008 1:14 pm
Thu 16 Oct, 2008 1:31 pm
Tue 21 Oct, 2008 12:13 pm
BTW, I have friends who have walked sections of the AT, and they consider it a piece of cake compared to Tassie's South West.
Tue 21 Oct, 2008 2:53 pm
kahtadin wrote:BTW, I have friends who have walked sections of the AT, and they consider it a piece of cake compared to Tassie's South West.
I was on the AT here in New Hampshire yesterday in an area where temperatures started the day at -6C rose to 3C and wnds of 15-30 km carried all day. An altogether average day for early fall and probably one of the nicest between now and April (fortunately I'll be in Tassie for most of that time). During that period last year there were only 22 days when the recorded temperature rose above 0C (highest 7.2C ), and there were 29 days of recorded wind speeds in excess of 160km (highest 233km).
Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:10 pm
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