A tarp in Lapland, hair needles, mosquitoes and gusts of wind
Yet another no-go which I had to try out.
A tarp above treeline with strong winds and rain and mosquitoes.
I basically stick to Ryan Jordans guide for tarping in extreme conditions and Collin Ibbotsons talk about tarps.
I used a homemade tarp with 4 guy-outs on each side and one on each ridge-end.
As stakes I used:
- 2 Y stakes for the ridge-line
- 4 V stakes for the corners
- 5g Titanium needles for the rest of the guy-outs.
It worked fine, I could have left the V stakes at home for the corners as the titanium stakes worked well with the Scandinavian stone ground. I always put stones on the stakes to avoid that they are removed by a gust of wind.
In the end I stayed dry and had no condensation issues.
Not a single stake got loose even with strong wind gusts.
As the wind direction changed to the complete opposite, bringing rain and wind into the front opening, I was happy that my bivy protected me from the raindrops that made it over the security boundary( I sleep 30-50cm away from the opening).
For the mosquitoes I used a homemade bivy bag made of pertex quantum and nanoseeum.
It was perfect for quilt sleeping(wind) and keeping the bugs away.
I could even change my clothes in it.
It was interesting to see that the bugs didn’t like the quantum, I could offer them my whole naked leg and they never came to the idea to puncture it through the quantum.
Things I would change on my tarp:
- Add a beak at the front, because wind and rain direction do change
- use 5 guy-out point on the sides
- use 3 guy-out points on the front opening(or beak)
Things I would change on my bivy:
- use a silnylon floor and back-head area again, as for wind changes and non-waterproof ground sheets.
Walking the wet, trailrunning-shoes in Lapland
On my last trip I used trail-running shoes in Lapland, which is an absolute no-go for most standard hikers.
As this trip was to try out ultralight hiking strategies under more severe conditions, I just had to try it out.
I used a pair of mesh trail runners which were in no way water resistant and had a good sole with some kind of spikes.
They were perfectly well sprung, so I walked in them as on clouds.
My prediction was: Wet shoes all the time.
I was right, and fine!
I had rain, wind, temperatures between 4 and 10 °C, rivers to walk through and a lot of mud and swamp(knee deep).
I always had warm feet, had absolutely no problem with blisters or cracked skin from the complete wetness.
I didn’t have to change my shoes the whole day. In the evening I changed the socks, used some fat creme and put on dry socks.
This brought me fine through the whole trip. It was especially nice in the morning to put on the wet shoes.
In boots I always had cold feet for the first half our, in the mesh shoes my feet were warm in about a minute.
From my point of view all the common prejudices are nonsense.
But there are definite downsides of this hiking technique (which were not mentioned by anyone):
- Mud accumulates in the shoe. After 3 days I recognized that in my socks and between the socks and the insole a lot of mud accumulated(~2mm in the sock,~4mm on the insole). This led to an uneven ground under my feet and to a possible spot to build up blisters. Therefore I had to clean the socks every evening and the insole and shoe itself(under the insole) every second day.
- They don’t dry. The often mentioned sentence that boots don’t dry on the trail but mesh shoes do might be true for warm Californian PCT sections but not for northern-European hiking conditions. As every other piece of gear, it will stay wet. Doesn’t matter how long you walk in the dry.
- They grow stiff. The continues partly dry, wet and mud conditions made the shoes stiff, you had to batter them to make them soft again. This might be a special issue of my pair of shoes…
- Socks wear out a lot faster. During this trip I completely destroyed the SmartWool socks I used.
Sauerland 201005
My monthly trip in the Sauerland
This time I had a pack weight around 5.7 kg for the whole trip.
My friend Christian joined me on this tour through the Arnsberger Wald.
He tried his simple can alcohol stove, with more or less success, while I enjoyed my special trail bread(409kcal/100g) and freezer bag cooking(because water is always a problem).
Sewing a tarp
Getting into light gear you will realize that a lot of gear is overpriced, or you might want specific features the commercial products don’t offer.
But in my case I’m simply one of these DIY people, and I sewed a silnylon tarp.
Material:
As material I used silnylon, because it is cheap and does the job. I would prefer cuben….but the price 
Cut:
Hiking alone I don’t need a big tarp, but I want a luxury size. I already own a 3x4m tarp which is simply too big. 2,5×3 is also too big. I decided to cut the foot part half the size of the head part. The following image shows the final draft I used:
The draft includes the seem allowance. This was transferred on a sheet of paper and then cut out of the silnylon.
Cutting:
One note on this: Cut the diagonal sides very straight or your tarp will sack and be difficult to pitch.
Sewing silnylon:
This is the difficult part. To make it easy for you: USE NEEDLES. I stichted my seams with needles every 5-10cm, otherwise my sewing machine will not transport the material correctly and I will have a lot of mess. The lap seem is quite easy, I used the tutorial from http://www.flusslinie.de
On the tieouts I used 3 layers of silnylon to secure the straps, this is bomb proof.
Result:
Thinks I will do differently the next time:
- create a pocket at each tieout to store the line when packing the tarp away. I will use one of the extra layer of material for this.
- make the tieouts very short and use lines instead.
Waterproof tent materials/Wasserdichte Zelt Materialien
Silnylon:
Silicone coated nylon. Coating is either on one or on both sides. Can be mixed with PU coating.
Weight: 45-?g/m²
Properties:
- As ripstop material it doesn’t tear out on cuts
- stretches alot when wet, be careful about this. You need the possibility to strengthen the pitch of your shelter
- very durable, but thin and you can cut it very easy
- when cut, it doesn’t fringe
- it’s very slick, mud doesn’t stick.
- silent in wind
PU Nylon:
Polyurethane coated nylon. Coating is either on one or on both sides. Can be mixed with Silicone coating.
Weight: 60-?g/m²
Properties:
- As ripstop material it doesn’t tear out on cuts
- doesn’t stretch
- is not slick
- very durable, but thin and you can cut it very easy
- when cut, it doesn’t fringe
- not as durable as silnylon
Cuben Fiber:
The current hype 
Comes in many weights and is the most expensive material available.
Weight: 27-?g/m²
Properties:
- very light, fully waterproof
- need more information about it
German:
Silnylon:
Silikon beschichtetes Nylon. Kann auf einer oder auf beiden Seiten beschichtet sein, eventuell zusammen mit PU.
Gewicht: 45-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- Franst als Ripstop nicht aus
- dehnt sich bei Nässe, hier ist Vorsicht geboten! Du musst deine Unterkunft nachspannen.
- sehr haltbar, aber dünn und leicht zu schneiden
- es franst nicht aus an Schnittstellen
- sehr rutschig, Dreck bleibt nicht haften
- ziemlich ruhig bei Wind
PU Nylon:
Polyurethan beschichtetes nylon. Kann auf einer oder auf beiden Seiten beschichtet sein, eventuell zusammen mit Silikon.
Gewicht: 50-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- Franst als Ripstop nicht aus
- dehnt sich nicht
- nicht rutschig
- sehr haltbar, aber dünn und leicht zu schneiden
- franst nicht aus an Schnittstellen
- nicht so haltbar wie Silnylon
Cuben Fiber:
Das neueste und leichteste Material. Leider sehr teuer.
Gewicht: 27-?g/m²
Eigenschaften:
- sehr leicht, komplett Wasserdicht
- ich brauche mehr Informationen hierrüber
Harz
This was the first time I put a pack on my back, it was nice but the Harz is a pretty small area.
Eggeweg
The Eggeweg was an “addon” to the Hermannsweg I hiked before. I settled of with Christian for a weekend and enjoyed a lot of fog.
Hermannsweg
This was my heaviest trip, which was actually four days long. And I carried around 23kg, including a 500g hobo a heavy steel pot two heavy duty planes as shelter. Nowadays I would carry around 10kg including 2l of water and the food for all days.
Eifelsteig
In mid-summer of 2009 I walked half of the Eifelsteig, I had to abort because of a tick bite infection(borreliosis) and spent 7 days in hospital afterwards…
Jandia
This was a little day trip in an otherwise boring beach&sun&eat vacation.
From sea level to the 8xx meters Jandia mountain.
