Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Stake Tent vs. Free-standing?

I keep reading that you need a free standing tent to camp along the Whitney trail. I am going up Aug 27th with 4 others, and I have a Eureka Spitfire Solo tent, which minimally needs to be staked at the top and bottom ends. It's worked great for me in Yosemite and near the Palisades Glacier earlier this summer. We plan to camp one night near Consultation Lake. Will a stake tent be ok to use in that area, or is the ground too rocky to even try with titanium stakes?
At 2.7 lbs, the tent is easy to carry, and I much prefer a solo tent over sharing with a "roomie".

I was wondering the same thing, although I plan to camp at Trail camp. I plan on bringing some nylon cord to guy the tent, but was hoping to get a steak or two in.

Any advise?

I haven't completely shunned stakes from my pack, but I will say on my past 2 adventures to the high country I have brought stakes and haven't used them (this has been camping above treeline). Instead, I've used guylines wrapped around rocks, etc. Obvsiouly, if I'm going to a place where finding rocks might be a problem, I would probably bring stakes. If your tent is freestanding, as mine is, guylines seem to work great. If your tent isn't freestanding, I'm not quite sure if guylines would work so well. I don't have any experience with nonfreestanding tents. Could be tricky... Then again, some people swear by them, so who knows? Best bet is to try it sans stakes before you head out.

Gusto

I've used non-free-standing tents at trail camp, and they worked fine. Sometimes used the stakes, sometimes used rocks, sometimes used stakes backed up by rocks. It probably is a good idea to have some slender cordage, perhaps 10 feet, so as to maximize options.

Plenty of soft areas at Trail Camp that will take tent stakes

posted this earlier today in the "camp sites" thread -

JoeHiker 53 - on the issue of stake driving at Consultation, although I have no first hand experience with the ground conditions there, I would tend to doubt ability to stake a tent - it's mostly scree and level rock in places and suspect as to whether any effort would get a stake down. Probably guying-off to large, heavy rocks nearby would be best bet. Good Luck on your summit effort this weekend.

goood lesson learner here. I was humbled by the mountain gods on Sat. night. I brought my Henry Shires Tarptent for my hike. We camped at Trail Camp and I could not find sufficient stake area. My tent was turned the wrong way... actually sideways against the wind, and the tent collapsed at 3:30 am. My tent turned into a glorifyed bivy until sun up. I then proceeded to snap my rear pole and rip a hole in the fabric that the pole went through. Count this as lesson learned. Never underestimate the mountains!

I used my Sierra Designs OLD Flashlight up there - it needs stakes GENERALLY. When I got up to Trail Camp the winds were fierce. I lined the INSIDE of my tent with sizeable rocks (3 or 4 on each side) and did use some guylines tied to rocks. Free-standing is nice but you can make do. And, again, if the winds are howling - rocks will be needed to hold everything in place anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do carry a spool of cord in my pack, so it sounds like I'll be needing it to guy out the tent. I'll let you all know how it turns out next week. Tuesday is Summit Day!

Kennyhel77,

Thats the exact reason I got rid of my tarptent, I could just never fully count on it in bad weather. Although the pole never snapped I never got a good night sleep.

I have a BD Lighthouse now, the thing is a manshion and weighs a lb more, set it up anywhere in anything. Now when the wind starts blowing I throw on my Mp3 player and never even think twice about the conditions out there.

Be careful with the rocks you choose to put on the inside of a tent. I've seen damaged tents (in a few cases) where the rocks wore a hole through the tent when it was windy.

if you can stake it down you'r better off. allthough it's more work but it will take the wind better. i have a mountain hardwear 1 man PCT that takes stakes. on aug. 29th i set it up in a pretty stiff wind, no break's & and it did great. my tent held fast. you do what you gota do, if you're going to carry a tent then carry a high quality tent, there will come a day you'll need it.

I staked my Kelty Crestone (3.5 lbs) tent over the 25-27th of August at Trail Camp with no problems. It held up against the wind perfectly, and the ground was definitely soft enough to drive the stakes in. I was worried since it is not a free-standing tent, but had more issues with cold than tents falling down!

my mistake was that as wonderful as my Tarptent is, above treeline it can be a tad interesting. That said there are some options available that are freestanding. My friends on the same trip used my Big Agnes SL3 and we placed all of our gear in it, and with rocks for our summit bid. It still did not look to sturdy, I thought my Big Agnes was going to blow away too!!

So to put this topic to bed, I am posting a follow-up on my experience. I ended up taking my Spitfire UL stake tent and was able to grab a decent spot at Trail Camp that allowed me to use all but one stake, the last one needing a few rocks for weight. We nixed the idea of camping at Consultation as it saved us time and trouble for the summit bid from Trail Camp.

Using titanium stakes and placing the tent in the right position (behind a rock wall really helped)for the wind made all the difference. My tent stayed up all two nights, despite a persistent wind that blew for what seemed like forever. And I never had to put rocks inside.

So to answer my own question: yes, a stake tent will work fine above treeline, provided you choose your spot carefully and try to anticipate the wind direction. A free standing tent will also need some type of anchoring system up there.
Joe