Ultra light fly

Check out the Overhang by Wilderness Equipment. Your requirements are certainly going to ensure a hefty price but if you want what works it's not going to be cheap. They have a silicone nylon version which is about as light as it gets. 2 x 3m, 3 x 3m, and 4.5 x 3m. We've enjoyed the versatility and its effectiveness. Remember though, lighter generally doesn't enhance durability.

Thanks Aardvark. I've flicked an email to Paddy Pallin asking about availability and price.

Hi Paul, I have imported very light siltarps from the US. Campmor or Integral Designs make them. I have an ID Siltarp that is 5' X 8', paid USD 69.95 plus postage from Backcountry.com and it weighs ca 350g or so plus weight of rope. I also have a 10'X12' version (this is a Campmor one (see http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___20070). This one was ca USD 100 but only weighs about 450g or so. Expensive, yes, but very well made. Backcountry.com ship to NZ but I think from memory, to buy Campmor, you need someone in the US to ship to. A bit more hassle to buy from OS, but the prices are much better and the range very much better. Cheers, Alan

Hi, compared to a tent, almost any half decent tarp will be ridiculously light, even more if you compare by weight per sheltered area. We have sewn a tarp from a Ray-Way kit when we started tarping more seriously, and have been very happy, dry and warm with it, even in very adverse conditions. Nonetheless, we're moving on: We're going to use a beak-less (flat) tarp in the future since it allows for more different pitching options; and use separate "bat-wing" type pieces of fabric that just click into the two corners and the ridge to seal off the ends a bit more in absolutely terrible weather. This next tarp I'm going to sew again, from imported sil-nylon. It's not rocket science. On the other hand, if you're new to sewing, a kit with good instructions is probably helpful, but nonetheless sewing a tarp is absolutely doable even witout any prior sewing experience, as long as you're reasonably good with your hands and take some time. Advantage is that you can make it exactly the size and shape you want, etc. Actually, believe it or not, we're going to try a simple poly-tarp soon as well. It may seem like a step back, and it does weigh a little more (we will use the 125 micron thickness of the black stuff you can buy by the metre from e.g. Mitre 10 Mega in the gardening section), but if you tie the lines to the corners with sheet bends while taking a decent amount of sheet into the knot and have the ridge line taut, it's pretty bullet proof and strong. Sheet bends even allow you to use a triangular-ish piece as "doors" at the ends if you feel the need. Why we try that? You don't have to worry about things like sparks, branches, pitching the tarp over tree trunks or rocks, putting rocks on its edge, and many other things, since it's much less delicate than sil-nylon. Especially the ability to use it in combination with a wood stove or even camp fire (near, not underneath) makes it very attractive. And if you actually manage to mess it up too much, which is unlikely, you can replace it for under 20 dollars a pop. That also allows you to experiment on a few overnighters to find how large you actually need it without buying expensive nylon ones of different sizes to do that. I tried to pull a sheet bend out of a 125 micron poly-tarp today. I had to hang about 30 kilograms onto that one corner before it would tear out. I think any storm that can load 30 kg worth of pull onto ONE string of the tarp will necessitate us to dig a hole and hide in it anyway, no matter what tarp material you choose. The main thing that makes the use of tent or tarp (alike) safe or unsafe is how you use it, not so much what material it is made of or other details. Maybe this helps you or someone else a bit in one way or another... Cheers, Matt

Thank you all. Keep the responses coming. This is all great food for thought. Checked out the WE Overhang today, at Scouts Outdoor Centre in Adelaide, it was the medium model, and it seemed a bit big and was fair expensive for what it is. I like the idea of DIY.

Some good comments here. Most trampers seem to like having a light weight fly because it weighs alot less than a tent. Fair comment but it isn't neally as good a shelter as a tent. Fine in the bush and where there is no wind and it isn't too cold. I once spent 3 days of a West Coast nor-wester under a fly and I decided then and there, never again. My one man tent weighs 1.6kg (MacPac Microlite) and it gives me complete shelter even in the most adverse conditions, on the tops in the snow etc. I can quite happily lie in there and cook a meal and it will shelter my pack and all my gear. It also has a very small wind footprint, which is very important. A lot of fly users also carry a bivy bag to put their sleeping bag in. The fly might be lighter but if you factor in the extra for the bivy bag then you are probably almost up to the 1.6kg that I carry.

I Hesitate to ask this question pmcke but how many tents do you possess. The last photo i saw was of at least a two person and you where describing that as your latest aquisition. At the risk of hijacking this I travel with a vuade bivvy bag always and a fly on occaision of late i have questioned the wisdom of both as the bivvy bag is a bit close sweats heavily when you lock it up to avoid the midges (Great in an emergency which is why i have it). The midges problem comes with a fly as well. I have been tempted by the one planet Gunyah 1V. opinions? suggestions? at 1.3 all up its tempting to carry always?

How many tents??? Hmmm. Don't really know. I have two that I actively use. The pic you saw was a MacPac Olympus which is good for two but if I only house myself I use my MacPac Microlite. I have had that for a number of years. Just trying to think how many tents are in my garage. I can think of at least 3 others, there may be more. It has been a very long time since we have been able to fit a car in the garage and I am a little reluctant to delve into what may be in the back there.

Hi, pmcke, with all respect but I have to disagree strongly. I'd like to suggest that if you have been wet under a tarp, you either need to learn more about using it, or it was simply too small for however many people were underneath. A tarp that is properly pitched according to the conditions and is of sufficient size WILL keep you dry in about any weather. Ironically, the number one out of several reasons why we switched to tarping a few years ago - and never once looked back - is because it keeps us magnitudes drier than any tent can. Why? Because due to the lack of condensation problems - which ANY tent has, as even if you don't see the drops running down the inside, your clothes still get damper over night - your clothes and sleeping bag are exactly as dry and therefore warm in the morning as they are when you go to bed in the evening. Additionally, it allows us a luxurious amount of covered area, which means that we can keep wet rain gear, pack covers etc. separate from the things we want to keep dry easier and more reliably than we could in the enclosed space in a tent, again leading to us being drier. A side effect of preventing water from "spreading" throughout your gear by contact in the pack and elsewhere is that you also carry less unwanted water around with you. On top of that, if you don't accumulate moisture in your sleeping bag night after night, you get away with a lighter sleeping bag as well, because you don't have to choose it so it will still be warm enough after x nights worth of accumulated moisture. A tent is a few degrees warmer when you crawl inside in the evening, yes. After two or three hours, they break even because the dampness inside the tent WILL reduce the performance of your clothing and sleeping bag over the course of the night, and by the time morning comes, the tent is clearly colder. You don't need a bivy bag at all if you use your tarp correctly. In fact, it is counterproductive, since it prevents the moisture from getting out of your sleeping bag. Where there are loads of insects, i.e. potentially everywhere in New Zealand, it is advisable to hang a simple mosquito net - fully enclosed, with a floor, else they crawl in - underneath the tarp, which we do. Works like a charm and weighs next to nothing. We made ours pretty large so we can use the whole space that the tarp provides in the 90% or so of all nights where there is no dramatic storm, and in the remaining 10%, we pitch lower and / or move the net tent away from the centre of the tarp a bit, depending on wind direction. We use a simple draw cord closure as a door, works brilliantly, no zipper noise, can't fail, and you keep most mozzies out as you only make the "door" as wide as you are when you go in or out. We use tarps in spring, summer and autumn and even on the easier winter trips. Yes we usually camp below the bush line, but we would do that with a tent, too, it's just warmer there and more pleasant to be in most cases. During the day, we go as high as we want to, and if we would get caught by a sprained ankle or whatever, we would not have a problem to spend a night or two up there as well. We sometimes camp up high just for the views if we feel like it as well. Tarping is a bit different from tenting. You learn after some time which places are better suited and where to find them, how to best pitch the tarp for different conditions and sites, and some other things. But that's no different from tenting - you learned a handful of tricks and skills when you started tenting as well, and you will be way more proficient in tenting now than you were when you started. We have used tarps in truly terrifying weather - the type of thunderstorm where you don't know if you'll drown, a tree will come flying to kill you, the avalanches may get you even though you chose your site carefully and well out of the way, or if it will just be plain ordinary lightning strike, and sleep is out of the question - and the tarp always worked well and we were dry. In fact, quite often the ground underneath the tarp is visibly drier in the morning than around us, because it dries out over night. Unless you are talking about full-on winter trips or actual mountaineering, maybe give the tarp another chance... after having bought so many tents, you can hardly justify not buying at least one to give it a shot on a few overnighters, hehe! (Zero criticism implied, by the way.) Cheers, Matt