Stone Glacier SkyAir / Slingfin Splitwing tarp (ongoing review)

[yakimanoob]

Hey folks,

I recently encountered the company Slingfin (https://www.slingfin.com/), and picked up the Crossbow 2 to replace my previous 2-person tent, which now resides in a dark whole on the Cowlitz glacier after taking a ride on the Rainier winds.  Stake out your tents, kids. 

Anyway, I also picked up the Splitwing UL tarp shelter.  If you check them out, you might recognize them, as Slingfin is the designing and producing partner for Stone Glacier's tent line.  It looks like there a slight differences between the Crossbow and the Skyscraper, but as far as I can tell the only difference between the two brands' tarps are the colors. 

I will post back on here later this year with a review of the tarp, and probably a (short) review of the Crossbow tent on a separate thread. 

Anyone on here using the SkyAir tarp?  (or the orange Slingfin version of the same?).  I'm pretty pumped about mine; but won't have a chance to use it for another couple weeks.

[yakimanoob]

Got a chance to go for a short exercise/scouting hike with the dogs last night.  I was hoping to have more daylight to play with the tarp, but I got distracted by a pretty area full of deer beds, soo.......

Only set up the main tarp (I have the vestibule as well) and did it without much attention to placement and tension - I just wanted to see what it looked like. 

Quickly set, it's more than adequate.  If you did it carefully and fully guyed it out, it would be downright palatial.  Can't wait to properly test it in the field. 



Makes a grea pup tent.  Get it?

[CoryTDF]

Looks like a winner!

[yakimanoob]

First official overnight with the tarp is in the books. 

My initial thoughts:

- this thing sets up TIGHT and is unquestionably stormworthy. 
- the attention to detail is excellent - every stress point is reinforced, there are guy-outs in all the right places, critical guy lines came attached and extras were included, etc etc. 
- Tyvek is stupid.  Why do people use it?  Sure, it's waterproof and durable and cheap and light.  But it's horrifically loud and, for me, completely ruins the serenity of the wilderness. Not sure if I'll get the branded footprint or try polycro, but I'm definitely leaning towards the proper footprint. 
- it did an excellent job keeping the rain and wind off me last night.
- I need more practice setting it up.  It's not hard to set up sufficiently, but little changes make notable differences when it comes to it being square and taut.  A couple of times during the night there was a helicopter-sounding flapping of the tarp in the wind.  I'm sure it had to do with my sub-par setup. 

- Where the heck are all these bears that y'all talk about, anyway?

[CoryTDF]

That tarp looks cool but it looks wet and miserable where you are. Curios about your choice of camp site? Seems a bit open? 

[ctwiggs1]

I died a little on the inside when I saw the rifle on the ground in the last pic 

As for Tyvek, it's a commonly used item due to cost.  It's lightweight so it's one of the few items you can easily cut costs on without incurring much weight penalty or quality issues.

[yakimanoob]

I wasn't expecting it to be so hard to find a good water source in that area.  Lots of streams and ponds marked on the map turned out to be dry (a la the mud pit in the background of the photos), and by the time I located water, I was out of time to find a perfect camp spot.  I ended up in the only flat place I could find that wasn't in danger of deadfall from the burn; I knew there was a storm forecasted that night so I didn't want to take any chances. 

And yeah, I'm not proud of how I treated my rifle this trip.  This was my first time tarp camping ever actually, there were lots of little variables I hadn't thought through. 

[ctwiggs1]

Honestly it's not that big of a deal.  It's steel and it can always be cleaned. 

Packs make great rests and a cheap bipod also works, even if it's a crappy one that you won't use for shooting.

[CoryTDF]

I wasn't expecting it to be so hard to find a good water source in that area.  Lots of streams and ponds marked on the map turned out to be dry (a la the mud pit in the background of the photos), and by the time I located water, I was out of time to find a perfect camp spot.  I ended up in the only flat place I could find that wasn't in danger of deadfall from the burn; I knew there was a storm forecasted that night so I didn't want to take any chances. 

And yeah, I'm not proud of how I treated my rifle this trip.  This was my first time tarp camping ever actually, there were lots of little variables I hadn't thought through.

Seems legit. Good thinking on staying away from the snags in a storm. That could be disastrous.

[yakimanoob]

Trip 2 with the tarp shelter is in the books, this time with the dedicated footprint. 

Gotta say, this thing is simply magical to carry in your pack.  Tarp, 8 stakes, vestibule, footprint, 6 adjustable guy lines,  and all the related stuff sacks bring the total "packed weight" to 17oz flat.  For the weather-worthiness and livability it offers, imho that's truly incredible. 

Main lessons I learned on this trip are that the stakes hold a lot of stress, so you can't get away with shoddy ground for staking out.  Either good ground or adequate rocks etc are vital.  I learned this the hard way trying to pitch the shelter on 2" of soil sitting on top of a rock slab, which led to stakes pulling out anytime I touched the tarp.  I suppose this is part and parcel for a non-freestanding shelter. 

After failing at that site, I decided to just night-hike it for a couple more hours to a known campsite I was 100% sure about.  With a great spot to pitch, I was able to fiddle with it and get the alignment right, stakes properly secured, and everything tensioned appropriately.  Now that I've got a little practice, I think that whole process would take 5-8 minutes and could be done quite well in a downpour (it's actually easiest to pitch canopy first and footprint last, which makes for a comfortingly dry pitch process). 

I haven't been in a windstorm with this thing yet, but I'm expecting it to perform quite well assuming I have proper ground for the stakes. 

Anyway, A+ for Slingfin all around so far.