Five nights in the Cascades in September, forecast is the usual mix of drizzle and one proper rain day. My current double wall tent is 1.6kg and it's the biggest single item in my pack. A tarp and bivy setup gets me to around 700g for about the same money if I sell the tent. Base weight is 9kg and I'd like it under 8. Anyone regret the switch in genuinely wet conditions?
Before you spend anything, weigh what's actually in your pack. I got 2kg off my base weight without buying a single thing: a smaller pot, half the clothes I was carrying, a shorter foam pad, and dropping a 400g first aid kit down to the six items I have ever used. The tent is the obvious target because it's one big number, but it's rarely the cheapest kilo.
The clothing one is real. I used to carry two spare shirts for a five day trip. Now it's one sleep shirt that never leaves the pack in daylight and I have never once wished otherwise.
Borrow before you sell. Someone in your local hiking group has a tarp sitting in a bin. One wet weekend tells you more than any amount of spec comparison.
Doing this. Someone at the club offered a tarp and a bivy for next weekend, which is forecast to be thoroughly unpleasant. Perfect test.
Tarps reward practice and punish improvisation. If you go that way, pitch it in your garden in the rain at least three times first, and learn two pitches — a high open one for dry nights and a low storm pitch. Learning that in the dark on a wet ridge is miserable.
Bivy plus tarp in real rain, my honest experience: your quilt gets damp at the foot by night three and you never fully dry it out. In the Cascades in September I'd take the tent every time. Somewhere dry and warm it's a completely different calculation.
@litercount_lou · 8mo ago · 3 replies
I did five seasons under a tarp and went back to a tent, specifically for that region. The tarp itself is fine in rain — pitched low it's drier than people expect. The problem is everything around it: no bug protection in early season, condensation inside the bivy soaking your quilt's footbox, and the fact that on the third wet day you want somewhere to sit up and eat rather than lying on your side in a nylon coffin.
If your goal is the kilo, look at a single wall trekking pole tent instead. Around 600-700g, real doors, real bug mesh, and you're not carrying separate poles. That's where I'd spend the money.
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@carryon_only · 8mo ago
Hadn't priced single wall properly because I assumed it was all boutique money. There's more in the 500g range than I thought.
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@tiny_steps_tam · 8mo ago
Single wall means more condensation on the inner surface than a double wall, so learn to pitch with a bit of a gap at one end and keep your quilt off the walls. Not a dealbreaker, just don't expect it to behave like your current tent.
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