Backpacking Shelter

It’s hard to say what piece of gear is the “most important” when putting together backpacking gear, since most long-distance backpackers are cutting it down to the bare minimum anyway, and every piece of gear is actually essential. That said, the psychological first step in my gearing up quest was to take care of my shelter.

Small and light are the watchwords here, and shelter seems to be an area of backpacking gear that tends towards the heavy and overbuilt, almost as much as rain gear. My search for light and fast shelter quickly pushed me out of the standard outdoor store and into the world of cottage gear makers. These folks, when faced with the problems of super-heavy, overbuilt gear, decided to do something about it, and began making their own gear, and then selling the better designs to others that were, like them, annoyed at how heavy most camping gear is.

I started compiling a list of my options for shelter, and it basically boiled down to three broad types of options:

1. backpacking hammocks
2. ultralight tents
3. tarp and bug netting

The hammock seemed at the outset like the obvious way to go (combining sleeping system with shelter to save weight), but as I looked a bit further, and started doing some calculations, the hammock came out to be a bit heavier than a tarp/net combo or some of the ultralight tents I was discovering.

I turned my attention then to the differences between the tarp/net combo and the ultralight tent. While I was pretty drawn to the tarp idea, specifically the not having to carry the weight of the netting when it wasn’t needed, it was ultimately a tent that won out for me.

Glen van Peski at Gossamer Gear make a tent called the Squall Classic, based on his modifications to the TarpTent design invented by Henry Shires a decade ago. It is larger than I really need, being a two-person tent, but as far as I know, there are only a handful of shelters on the market that weigh less than it (mine is 724 grams (25 oz) with the seams sealed, including rear tent pole, line and stakes).

If I were to try to go even lighter, the only real contender in my mind would be either the Gatewood Cape and Serenity Net Tent combo from Six Moon Designs (weighing about 18 oz) or a different Gossamer Gear tent, called The One which is basically a one-person version of my tent and comes in at 1 lb.

I’ve had the tent out on a couple of trips now, and I feel completely spoiled having so much room to myself. While it might not be the height of your average car-camping tent, there is certainly room for two people in it, so by myself I am able to sprawl out, bring all my gear inside when it rains and spread out a map on the unused side.

I really like this tent, and I’m looking forward to spending several months in it on the way to Maine.