The distinction between tarps and tents is becoming steadily less clear. Many people use the word “tent” these days to refer only to “double-wall” designs, which are currently popular among mainstream tent manufacturers. And tarps are routinely paired with some arrangement of mosquito netting and groundcloth, making them more tentlike.
Still, broadly speaking, I guess there are a few main differences:
- Coping with condensation. Double-wall designs (in principle) let vapor out through the inner wall, collect on the rain fly, and flow to the ground. Tarps (in principle) avoid condensation by allowing relatively free air flow. If you’re just trying to save pack weight, the tarp approach obviously wins hands down.
On the other hand, if you ring your tarp with no-see-um netting for bug protection, then ventilation drops dramatically and condensation can become a nuisance, particularly in two-person designs that have twice as much vapor production, but not twice the ventilation. I’ve spent a lot of time wiping condenation off a Henry Shires Tarptent with my pack towel.
And, obviously, a tarp’s good ventilation may expose you to colder air. Tents are definintely warmer. On the other hand, there are a lot more weight-efficient ways to stay warm on a cold night than switching from a tent to a tarp-- such as carrying a sleeping bag liner.
I’d say tarps win decisively on the condensation front, if you’re not using any no-see-um netting and are traveling alone.
- Coping with water flowing on the ground. Tents usually have a “bathtub” design and may stay dry even while standing in an actual puddle of water. Tarps are completely vulnerable to water flowing across the ground, even in tiny quantities. The solution is to pitch on water-absorbent ground or on a slight rise. Most importantly, tarps work badly on heavily impacted sites, since these tend to be hard-packed and slightly bowl-shaped.
In this regard, you’ve got to consider the areas where you’ll be using the tarp. If you’re planning on hiking in open, western forest with a carpet of pine needles, then a tarp wins handily. If you’re planning on hiking on the AT before the ground vegetation really takes off, a tarp is still probably a win. However, a tarp becomes increasingly problematic on the east coast in summer when there’s three feet of dense shubbery everywhere. You can walk for miles and miles without finding a really bombproof tarpsite.
As an example of the issue, my wife and I backpacked through the Bob Marshall Wilderness followed by Glacier National Park with a tarp this summer. In the wilderness, we could select elevated meadow sites and had no water-flow concerns. However, camping in Glacier (just across the street) is generally restricted to established sites. Many of these were hard-packed and bowl-shaped, and our primary defense against flowing water was hoping that it would not rain-- not good! This little change transformed our tarp from a “win” proposition to a “lose” in this regard.
- Complexity of construction. Tents are generally designed so that a developmentally-disabled cow could assemble them in about ten minutes with no additional materials. Tarps are almost always a bit of an engineering challenge involving trekking poles, ropes, roots, rocks, logs, tree branches, sharpened sticks, knot-tying, and careful consideration of potential water flow problems. Generally, I like this modest mental puzzle at the end of a long day of walking, but you should be aware that solving the puzzle can sometimes take a while.
Tents are definitely easier to put up, particularly free-standing tents.
There are other differences: tarps are easier to put up in rain, free-standing tents work better in some small areas, tarps can be pitched above some low vegetation, etc.
On balance, for long-distance hiking in places not overwhelmed by vegetation and rain, I prefer a tarp because of the immense weight savings and versatility. (And in a place overwhelmed with vegetation and rain, I’d probably try a hammock.) In a buggy area, I’d use some sort of “nest” or “bug bivy”-- essentially a ground cloth with bug netting sewn over the top.
I think tents are, generally speaking, overengineering monstrosities.
/Eric
Eric
