I am looking for a new lightweight tent; have been using a Black Diamond megamid, but am thinking of a smaller footprint solo tent. The Henry Shires Contrail tarptent looks intriguing. anyone have any experience with it? it looks tall enought to sit up in,
thanks
LA
The Contrail is okay, but I find that it tends to sag a lot over the foot area during rain and dew with the way it’s flat-roofed and made of sil-nylon. I think Henry’s best designs use dedicated tent poles and would recommend looking at either the Rainbow or Moment. The Rainbow is probably the best all-around lightweight 1-2 person backpacker’s tent ever made: loads of room for one person, easy set-up and take-down, good ventilation, excellent performance in rain and wind, free-standing in calm weather too.
contrail
I like my Contrail fine. It’s been out for some 2000+ miles. It is definitely tall enough to sit up and move aroudn in, and that’s a plus. I haven’t had sagging problems with it, but you have to set it up extremely tight, which it’s made to withstand. Of course like any single wall tent, if you don’t have excellent air flow from your set up, they drip in wet weather.
markv
I might be Henry’s biggest Contrail fan. Mine has over 6000 trail miles on it and I’m taking it out again this summer. Not a single failure in all those miles. The Contrail is simple and rugged by design–nothing to fail except maybe the zipper, and I’ve been lucky there. There are no hoop poles and it only needs one trekking pole support. There is a learning curve to getting the pitch right and of course site selection is more important with any single wall shelter.
Garlic
Hi LA,
I did a thru-hike on the A.T. in 2011. I used the Henry Shire’s Rainbow tent. It has plenty of room for you and your gear. You can even fit two people in it if a need arises. You can use hiking poles to make it a free standing tent. It weighs 2 lbs 3 ozs. and packs nicely. I felt it served me well. See more of my gear and journal at trailjournals/DreamWalker. Happy Trails!!!
Louis Ayers
Look at LightHeart’s stuff. I got the SoLong 6 and have been very happy with the light weight and the roomy space.
bianchiveloce
+1 on the LightHearts. I used mine for two seasons on the CDT and survived some serious weather without getting wet.
bearcreek
I’m all for supporting hikers who have turned to making product for the niche lightweight hiking department. However, I do not like nor will I support a person/company like LightHearts that outsourcing their tent production to China. There are plenty of capabale people here in the USA for that plus substandard labor laws and wages in a place like China is reason enough to boycott LigthHearts…they outta know and do better. 'Nough said!
Hiker
Hey “Hiker” - Just curious: What’s on your feet right now? Unless they’re Indian moccasins, I’ll bet they were made in Asia. Come to think of it, even if they are Indian moccasins they were probably made in Asia. Better to support a small American company that caters directly to long-distance hikers and our needs than to go around in denial about the way of the world, all the while shopping at Walmart for all the other products that don’t feed into your vanity and ego quite like your beloved hiking gear does.
AM