Hey everyone! Today it happened, the package from SLD finally arrived! The main item I was waiting for is the
Simplicity Asym Tarp that I had custom made from 0.9 Xenon Silpoly. I also had some cat cut added just for the looks. Made from this material, the tarp is sold for 65$.
While placing the order I also noted that Jared is selling 11' hammocks for 59$ including suspension (the
'starter set'), which I think is an awesome deal. So I got one of those made from a 1.3 oz nylon material with some whoopie slings as well. I also asked for some lightweight webbing straps and got about 15' of
this material.
So obviously I went out to get the new stuff hanging as soon as I could, took some pictures and put it all on a scale. As I like doing long backpacking trips in a warm weather scenario with carry-on luggage only where I don't sleep in a hammock each night (far from it), a small pack size for hammock related gear is always what's most important for me. And let me tell you, SLD did provide!
The tarp weighs in at 6.6 oz / 187 g. The picture shows its pack size next to a usual small beer bottle (330ml ≈ 11 fl. oz). I put some hair bands around it to keep it compressed.
b1tarp.jpg
The hammock weighs 12.9 oz / 366 g including the whoopie slings and looks like this whe compressed (as much as the hair bands would allow
):
b2hammock.jpg
And this is the bulk of the lightweight webbing straps (15'), which weigh 3.1 oz / 87 g:
b3straps.jpg
Here is the tarp and hammock set up, first in good weather mode and then in slightly bad weather mode. The 1.3 material feels slightly stretchier than 1.6 to me, but seems super comfortable so far at the same time. An overnighter will tell if such a material really suits me or not.
b7.jpg
b8.jpg
As you can see the tarp looks amazing. The material is very soft to the touch and seems to almost fly away on its own when you handle it. For someone who is generally happy with an asym or diamond tarp, I don't think there is anything out there that takes up less space in your backpack, correct me if I'm wrong. ;-) As expected, the quality of the stitching is also top notch:
b5.jpg
In the end I put everything in the hammock's stuff sack, put it on a scale and compressed it as much as possible with my hand. So this package here includes the hammock, the tarp, the webbing straps, the whoopie slings and all the cordage from the tarp plus two aluminium stakes. It weighs 42.6 oz / 692 g:
b3all.jpg
So, the pack size for the complete package seems pretty amazing to me. Now I just need to switch out the hammock for a bug net hammock and I'm good to go!
I can hardly wait to test out the tarp coverage in some bad weather!
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