Help lighten my load: Packing list

“That is with my husband. He is carrying 3 pounds of the 4 pound tent and I am carrying 1 pound of it. I have the medicine stuff. If we take no tent then I will lose a pound. We try to split weight so he carries 3/5 and I carry 2/5.”

“m-nutz,

After spending time at the the site, I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to let go of the idea of getting the lightweight freestanding tent.

Problem is, I sometimes have to plop down on granite and don't want to wrassle with the bolders to guy out the tent. Besides, I like my tent to stay nice and taught while the wind unloads itself on me at night. By using boulders (if they're around), the tent just doesn't stay that way. This is one of the reasons I don't like tarps either.

One year I was camped up on a ridge at the mouth of a canyon, and for what seemed like 15 second intervals for most of the night, the entire West coast jet stream was concentrated on my tent alone. A pretty epic ordeal to say the least.”

“My Canyonlands trip was a good test for the Akto, I was concerned about pitching on slickrock. Admittedly, staking out is a very important factor with this tent, but it proved pretty easy. The guy-lines are permanently attached to the tent, it's hard to explain (you can see them in my Canyonlands pics) but they are quite convenient, and the design allows you to simply place a rock on the line to secure it, no tying required. Quick and easy. Even with a free-standing tent you are going to need to guy-out the fly in windy conditions.

If you spend all of your tent time on rock, this might not be the tent for you. It will work, but there may be better options. In any other situation (dirt, sand, snow) this tent excels. And if you have a complaint about it, just look on the tag for the name of your tent-maker and call them. Each individual tent is made by 1 person only, from start to finish. Pretty impressive. And Hilleberg is very receptive to customer input.”

“tekapo - I know what you mean about the jet-stream being concentrated on your tent. On my Canyonlands trip I pitched on a ridge at the mouth of a canyon (extremely high winds) just to see how the Akto would handle it. It handled it like a champ. Rock solid!”