I started backpacking to walk the South Downs Way in two-day sections, camping overnight.
I walked the entire trail carrying a MSR one-person tent, the Hubba NX.
I have no problems with this tent, it’s easy to pitch and has enough room for a solo walker and their kit.
This year I started to consider the alternatives, initially to reduce the weight of my pack but also, and more importantly, to enhance my camping experience.
Once the tent door was closed, I felt isolated from the environment I was in and was no longer enjoying nature.
Not ready to go “full tarp” my first experiment was the SlingFin SplitWing. This is much lighter than the NX and combines a closed footbox with an open entrance and uses trekking poles for pitching. It’s a “half tarp”.
The trouble is that once you are lying down you are looking at the footbox rather than the entrance, so you are almost as locked in as when using a traditional tent. Still, it did introduce me to using trekking poles rather than relying on a freestanding tent.
The next step was to go “full tarp”.
The lesson here was that ventilation does not cure condensation as, despite being pitched using the classic “A-frame” open at both ends, I woke up with the inside of the tarp very wet.
Condensation is not just about shelter ventilation to remove the litre of water your breath out during the night. The weather and site conditions are more important. If the ground you are pitched on is wet by dawn, you are going to have condensation in your shelter, no matter how open its sides are.
I still felt I could get closer to nature, so it was time to use a bivvy bag and I chose a Sierra Designs Backcountry Bivy.
I combined this with a “micro tarp” that provides shelter for my head and shoulders and means you can keep your head outside the bivvy bag. This has two advantages; it reduces condensation in the bag and avoids the claustrophobia of being fully zipped up.
I woke up in the morning in the middle of a flock of grazing pheasants, so I had reached my main goal of camping as close to nature as possible.
I have camped using this set-up several times since and I find it the most enjoyable. It also provides amusement to those on the campsite with tents bigger than my home.
I must admit that this is probably best experienced in good weather, so I have revisited the SplitWing for wetter and colder nights. Adding the vestibule and inner mesh body provides full weather protection and the vestibule gives a lot of storage space, and it feels much roomier than the NX1. This configuration held up well during the recent storms increasing my confidence in using trekking poles.
So, after a year of experimenting, it is a bivvy bag and micro-tarp for when the weather is good and the full SplitWing set-up for when I need the protection of a double walled tent.
(Bivvy or bivy is open to debate)
Equipment used
MicroTarp https://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/tarps-and-bivy-bags/WE102.html
Bivvy bag https://ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/backcountry-bivy-past-season/
SplitWing https://www.slingfin.com/products/splitwing-bundle
Hubba NX https://www.msrgear.com/ie/tents/backpacking-tents/hubba-nx-solo-backpacking-tent/06203.html
Ramblings From The Cloud 