Tarp Tent Contrail

[Roleigh Martin-2]

Nice review.

http://jolly-green-giant.blogspot.com/2009/10/tarp-tent-contrail.html

Sent to you by Roleigh Martin via Google Reader: Tarp Tent Contrail via
LIGHTWEIGHT AND ULTRALIGHT BACKPACKING by Jolly Green Giant on 10/28/09
Throughout each backpacking year, I often switch between a tarp and
fully enclosed shelter. I make this change depending on where I’m
backpacking, the weather conditions, the temperature, and even who I’m
hiking with as sometimes modesty and privacy is nice.

For quite awhile I had been eyeballing Henry Shires Tarp Tent Contrail
(http://www.tarptent.com/contrail.html). It was extremely light at 24.5
ounces and quite honestly I thought it was a pretty fair price at $199
considering other tents on the market. Set up requires four stakes, one
trekking pole, and with that it is possible to achieve 45” on headroom
entrance, 84” of length, and 42/30 inches of width (it tapers towards
the feet).

The Contrail represents Shire’s best selling tent which he attributes
to the fact that it is extremely lightweight and a fully enclosed
shelter for one person. I had held off buying it for about a year
because I simply didn’t think it would be big enough for me at 6’6”. To
be quite honest, I was waiting for Six Moon Designs to come out with
their redesigned version of the two-person 16 ounce cuben fiber
Refuge-X or even SMD’s new solo tent for taller hikers known as the
“Vamp”. But, design and production were delayed and the previously
scheduled release date of fall 2009 was tentatively pushed to
spring/summer 2010. I had also been trying to figure out if Gossamer
Gear’s The One would fit a person my size and the results weren’t
promising enough to buy it. The only other shelter I was looking at was
Gossamer Gear’s Squall Classic which was essentially a Tarp
Tent/Gossamer Gear joint venture which resulted in a Tarp Tent made of
spinnaker fabric that brought the weight down considerably.
Unfortunately, it also brought the price up fairly substantially and I
didn’t want to buy something that was so expensive which wasn’t
guaranteed to work. In the end, it was worth it to me to give the
Contrail a shot.

Worth mentioning is Shire’s continued excellent customer service and
impressive quality. I’ve always appreciated his product because of his
dedication and being quite humble about it. Simply, he is exactly what
the lightweight backpacking cottage industry needs. Within just a
couple days of ordering, the Contrail arrived and I remain pleased that
Shire’s keeps a stock of his products to prevent customers from waiting
for their gear to be made.

I immediately set the Contrail up in my basement to quickly assess
whether it would fit someone my size. I used a couple of dumbbells to
act as tie-outs. Simply, if it didn’t immediately fit me size, I was
going to return it and Shire’s was plenty fine with that. After setting
it up I was pleasantly surprised by the well engineered lines of the
structure and the general appearance of quality. Without being overly
descriptive, it is exactly what the name implies – a “tarp tent”. It is
literally a tarp with a small amount of mosquito netting on the sides,
front, and back for ventilation which is attached to a silnylon floor.
It has a couple of pockets on the inside, a small vestibule on the
outside, and a little flap by the footbox which can be opened or closed
to achieve more ventilation or to seal it up in foul weather. Flatly,
it is pretty ingenious.

To my surprise, I fit lengthwise and there was actually plenty of elbow
room near the entrance. I could sit up at the front, albeit hunched
over a bit, with minimal contact to the pitch of the ceiling. Being
that this is a truly minimalist shelter, for what it represents, I
honestly think would be a perfect shelter for an average-sized camper
and a tolerable shelter for bigger folks. If there was a little more
height at the front and foot end, I actually might think it was
perfect. Pitching it on a level surface meant that all conditions were
highly controlled. On a hill, I would likely find the length a bit
tight if I slid during my sleep, but this could be mitigated by both
finding good tent sites and adding some sealant to the floor to make it
a little less slippery. Having done both, I haven’t had a problem yet
with the length.

With that, I decided to add the Contrail to my backpacking shelter
arsenal. I seam sealed it in the manner suggested by Shires, although
it does look like Helen Keller and Stevie Wonder may have tag-teamed
the effort. Over time I realized that the single trekking pole
necessary to maintain the height at the front entrance could be pulled
off to the side. My second trekking pole could be pulled off to the
other side which would then create an unobstructed entrance with equal
or greater stability and it would also ensure I didn’t accidentally
role over my other trekking pole and break it or otherwise allow it to
be available to critters who might choose to nibble on the salt in the
handstraps.

Aside from the height, which may be fine for smaller people, I only
have two complaints. I found that my quilt touched the ceiling at the
footbox when I used a fully inflated sleeping pad like the NeoAir. By
touching the ceiling, it meant that my quilt would get wet. Because the
sleeping area is fairly small, my top entrance bivy wasn’t something I
could realistically use as there was no way I could wiggle down into
it, so my solution was to put my rain skirt over my feet and that
worked fine. When I used my CCF pad and pack under my feet, which is
what I use 99.9% of the time anyway, this was not an issue.

During one hellacious rain and wind storm while on the Appalachian
Trail recently, the front vestibule did blow open. The front vestibule
is designed to be off the ground several inches to aid in ventilation.
With this gap, it is susceptible to strong winds. I sealed it again,
which is nothing more than a strip of Velcro, and had no further
problems. I should mention I remained completely dry in the rain and
tough winds. The silnylon fabric is susceptible to mist and such, but
it does not drip down.

On Shire’s website he lists the tent as having variable width and
somewhat variable height at the footbox. Essentially, the variable
width isn’t realistic as he is counting area which includes mosquito
netting on the sides. Obviously anyone who wants to keep their tent in
good shape isn’t going to lay on the mosquito netting for any length of
time. Similarly, the floor is a genuine bathtub floor which means it
does great in wet conditions and can’t really be folded down to expand
the width being that it is sewn at the corners. Basically, it’s wishful
thinking to say the width is adjustable because it really isn’t. The
footbox height, on the other hand, is adjustable. The footbox sits on
struts which can be raised or lowered depending on the users
preference. After tinkering with it several times, I found a spot
somewhere in the middle and just left it alone from there on out
believing that additional adjustments just weren’t worth it after a
long day hiking.

In the end, the Contrail is a wonder and lightweight 3-season full
coverage tent. My only legitimate desire is that it were a little
bigger overall, but then again at my size this tends to be my wish for
just about everything. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a
quality piece of gear at a reasonable price.
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