Cuben Fiber Tent on the Middle Fork Flathead River, Montana

Granite Creek, Middle Fork Flathead River, Great Bear Wilderness, Montana

LEICA M9, ZEISS BIOGON C 35/2.8

In a previous post I discussed why a floorless pyramid is the best sort of shelter for wilderness travel but what it can't give you is a good view when it's raining.

I've been reviewing, and comparing, interesting ultralight options for the past few months - the Lightheart Solo (and Duo) and the custom cousin of the Solo pictured here. For this version, I specified a Cuben Fiber rain fly, dual zip doors, and one side of the fly set up as a porch for cooking and views. The dual doors let me stow gear on one side and cook and enter/exit on the other, and allow the whole thing to be completely unzipped with the fly rolled up when neither weather nor insects threaten.

I took this new 19 ounce shelter into the Great Bear Wilderness last week but didn't have time to seal the seams, and we got 2 1/2 inches of rain on the trip in 48 hours.

So I had puddles in my tent, but the views were great. I was using a synthetic quilt, so the puddles didn't do anything terribly threatening once I wrang out my sleeping bag, and I still slept warm. This is where the advantage of synthetic gear, and duplicity in insulation (quilt + insulating jacket and pants made from high loft synthetic insulation) really comes in handy.

Earlier I lamented about having too many tents but once I seal the seams on this one I think it will rapidly become something I use more, at least on short trips when I don't mind the extra weight of a tent, especially as bug season beckons.

Comments

[Jonathan Ryan]

Great timing Ryan. Jim Bailey and I were just chatting about how great tents are for certain circumstances. A few months back we did a trek in the Massanutten of VA and on the last night while sleeping under my 4oz cuben tarp I realized that I just plain old missed my Tarptent Double Rainbow. Yea it weighs a whole lot more but it would have been worth it!

[Chris Wallace]

I heard about this when I visited the LightHeart "factory" and was waiting to see how it looked. Pretty cool.

[Rakesh Malik]

Did you use a quilt AND a sleeping bag? And if I read your post correctly, your insulating clothing has synthetic rather than down for its insulation, right?

I'm asking because I'm still working out my ultralight sleep system... so far I've purchased a synthetic quilt, but I haven't started on the wearable insulation yet.

Thanks :)

And FYI -- "duplicity" = "deceptiveness" which doesn't seem like what you intended here :)

[Jeff]

So is the fly cuben and the rest of the solo sil and noseeum?

[Michelle Nadon]

Thanks for the great tips on gear! Just starting out myself, and wringing out rainfall while still having a good night's rest is right up my alley! Looks like you're enjoying some pretty phenomenal country, love the photographs you take. Appreciate the time you put into making this Blog such a fabulous place to visit.