Bought a $60 tarp shelter and it outperformed my $400 tent in a storm

Last month I was camping up near Estes Park and a nasty front rolled in around 2 AM. I was in my four season tent, guyed out proper, and the wind was still shaking the poles like crazy. My buddy was under a basic blue poly ttar with some paracord and trekking poles maybe 30 feet away. His setup barely flapped while I was getting blasted with noise and worrying about a pole snapping. It made me wonder if we overcomplicate things with all these high end tents. Maybe the old school tarp setup is actually more stable because it sheds wind better than a dome shape. Has anyone else found that a simple tarp handles brutal weather better than a tent? Or did I just get unlucky with my particular tent design?

2 comments

2 Comments

anderson.spencer13d ago

Used a similar poly tarp setup in a nasty windstorm near the Great Sand Dunes and it barely moved while my buddy's expensive tent was flapping like crazy. Sometimes simpler really is better when the wind gets going.

abby_martin2812d ago

Right, because nothing says "I love camping" like watching your buddy's four hundred dollar tent turn into a giant windsock while your plastic sheeting from the hardware store just sits there laughing at it. I bet he was real proud of his ultralight carbon fiber poles until they started doing the limbo in the dirt. But hey, at least he can brag about how much money he saved on therapy after that trip, right?