I wouldn't normally write any sort of gear review after just one nights use but as many people have been asking about the As Tucas quilt I thought I would write a brief 'early opinion' following the first look post a few weeks ago. I camped up on Scafell summit last Thursday night under a tarp and with the quilt in a very roomy MLD superlight bivvy. The temperature was about 6 degrees C and it rained. The trip is described here.
So was I warm enough? Yes, absolutely. I wore some very thin base layer leggings, a 100 weight fleece top and a beanie hat. If anything I was a bit too warm and could have left the fleece off. I didn't need to wrap the quilt around me like a cocoon. My feet were toasty. Was it draughty? I was in a bivvy bag so I didn't feel any draughts. Without a bivvy may have been a different story. I would have tucked the edges under me in that case. Was it roomy? Yes indeed. This was the single biggest difference between the quilt and a mummy bag. I could stretch out a knee or an elbow and turn over with ease. I am a side sleeper and tend to turn over lots. This is not an easy manoeuvre in a mummy bag as the bag turns with me so the hood ends up on top and I end up lying on the zip. In the quilt though I was laid directly on the mat and so could turn over without taking the quilt with me. This made for a notably more comfortable night for me. I did experiment with the 2 press stud fasteners. With both fastened it felt just like a mummy bag but with a bit more room. With just the lower one fastened the quilt was snug around hips but allowed plenty of torso room. My preference was to have both unfastened though. The large MLD bivvy didn't impede movement at all. Any other thoughts?
Well I can confirm that the Shoeller fabric is at least water resistant as rain splash crept in around the neck of the quilt. Also, at some point I fell asleep with my head under the bivvy which resulted in much condensation which also wet the outer quilt fabric. The down stayed dry though and continued to loft well.
So far so good then. I want to use it under the trailstar or a tent next, without a bivvy. I can then see how it copes with draughts.
I've really taken a liking to the tarp and bivvy set-up recently. The weight saving is obviously attractive but I'm finding I really like the exposure. The simplicity of just gazing up at a star studded night sky, watching passing satellites and occasional meteors until drifting off to sleep is a truly magical experience. Of course this is all well and good if the sky is clear and the weather is calm and dry. Any suggestion of a dodgy forecast and I will take the tent or the trailstar. Anyway, in anticipation of some nice balmy summer nights I have been trying a few different tarp configurations in the back garden. Here they are :-
I have used the 2 'lean-to' configurations a few times now and they work well but with both set-ups there is a large area of unsupported silnylon which has a tendency to sag as it collects condensation. Using the 2 lifter points solves this problem and so the last time I camped out I looked for suitable sticks along the walk, but as is perhaps typical when hiking in the high fells, I didn't come across anything suitable. A fellow 'twitterer' had previously suggested taking 2 bamboo canes as they are light & fairly strong. So I recently spent an hour in the garden fiddling with my 3 favourite tarp configurations but with the addition of two 3 foot bamboo canes as lifters. These 3 short videos are the result and although I've yet to test these 'pimped up' tarp set-ups in the fells I reckon they should do the job nicely.
The tarp can be pitched in a whole variety of different ways to suit the conditions and using hiking poles, trees, sticks, boulders etc as anchor points for the guy lines. The 'A-Frame' set-up seems popular with many folk but that blocks my view of the sky and doesn't provide much wind protection from the side. As I do most of my camping in the high fells, it is wind resistance that is of most importance to me and the 3 configurations above provide adequate shelter, with the 'flying V' being the most sturdy.
The tarp is the 'solo tarp' from backpackinglight.co.uk It is 9 foot x 5 foot silnylon, weighs 278 grams and has lots of attachment loops around the perimeter (16 in total) plus the 2 lifter points. Here are a few videos of the bivvy (and tarp in 2 of them) set up in the Lake District mountains.
I have new Gear !! First look at the As Tucas Down Quilt The inherent design flaw with down sleeping bags is that all the insulation underneath you is compressed by your body weight to a degree
where it loses all thermal efficiency. This squashed down is essentially dead weight. The idea behind a quilt is to
eliminate this dead weight and instead use the insulating properties of the mat to protect you from the cold ground.
As Tucas Down Quilt bottom ....
... and top
This idea
was popularised by legendary America backpacker Ray Jardine and has
since become become very popular, particularly within the lightweight
backpacking community in the States.
This short video from 'standing bear' explains the concept a little better than I can.
Personally I've never really got on with mummy sleeping bags. Not so much for the reasons above but more because I'm a fidgety sleeper. I tend to roll over a lot, throw arms and legs out all over the place and generally not stay in one position for long. As such, I'm forever twisting and turning; trying to move the zip, that was in the perfect position 10 minutes ago, out from underneath me. Or I'm straining the fabric trying to stretch out a knee or an elbow. I'm very envious of those lucky folk who can sleep on their backs without moving from dusk til dawn.
Quilts are therefore an attractive proposition to me, and after doing a bit a reading around the subject, I bit the bullet and ordered a custom down quilt from Marco at As Tucas. It arrived a few days ago and I thought it would be worth posting a few pics, a few stats and a few thoughts.
As Tucas offer an increasing number of ultralight outdoor products but they also offer a custom made service. I therefore emailed Marco with my quilt requirements; namely that I like a bit of wriggle room, that I'm 5' 10" and I would like it keep me warm down to about freezing point. He suggested a custom made sestrels quilt with 350g down in size medium length and regular width. The sestrels quilt in its usual form is synthetic and the details can be found here. I understand that Marco will be selling the 'Foratata' down quilt from July 15th, which is almost identical to this one. On initial inspection the quality of workmanship is superb. There really isn't a stitch out of place. The quilt is simplicity itself with a roomy enclosed foot box and a open back which can be closed up by fastening 2 press studs.
This particular quilt uses 350g of pure white 900 cuin down sourced from Poland. It has an estimated comfort rating of 0 degrees C. The fabric is Schoeller 12 denier which is 28g/m2. It is windproof and breathable. It has an 'ecorepel' coating which provides resistance against water and dirt. Full details can be found here. Marco tells me that the internal baffles are made from cuben fibre and their height is 25mm.They are sized so that the down is slightly compressed within the chambers. This allows for better control of down movement without a loss of thermal efficiency.
The down lofts really well
On my scales the quilt weighs 519 grams. It packs down to 30cm x 15cm x 15cm .
This 10 litre dry bag weighs 43 grams.
As Tucas design their quilts to be a bit wider and longer than the typical equivalent from American makers. This is so the quilt can be pulled up over your neck and head when the temperature drops without necessarily having to use a hat or balaclava. Also, it is not adorned with complex fastenings to secure it to a mat. You simply use it like you would a normal quilt at home and tuck it under your sides as needed in order to keep out the droughts. It certainly seems very comfy on my lounge floor with plenty of room to cover my head.
Plenty of room
There is also the option of putting the mat inside the quilt. This is not something I can imagine doing but a few people have asked if it is possible and the answer is 'yes'. With the thermarest and me inside its a bit of squeeze with the poppers fastened and is essentially a wide mummy bag in this configuration. There is adequate room with the poppers unfastened though, and the quilt just tucked under mat. However, I don't like this idea and I will be using it on top of the mat and tucking the quilt underneath me as it is designed to do.
With full length Thermarest inside
Room for a thermarest prolite plus regular if you want to tuck the quilt in underneath the mat.
The one thing I'm not sure of is what to wear whilst in it? In a sleeping bag I usually use a liner bag to protect the down from my general sweat and grime but of course that would kind of defeat the object of using a quilt. I think perhaps a very lightweight base layer top and bottoms will do the job. Perhaps something like these from Rohan. Any other suggestions welcome :-) I intend to use the quilt for 3 season use in the Cumbrian mountains, the first trip being described here - 'first night in the as tucas down quilt'. I will post an update as to its performance in the field later in the year.
I should also make it clear that I have no affiliation with As Tucas or Marco personally and I paid for this quilt with my own hard earned dosh.
This is not really a review as such. It is just my opinion of the Tarptent Scarp 1 based on my wild camping experience in the Lake District over the past 2 years in a variety of typical weather conditions for the region. I can't compare it to any other tents yet, as this is my first one. I bought the Scarp 1 about 2 years ago after researching backpacking tents on the Internet. My requirements were; lightweight (under 2kgs), able to withstand the high winds and adverse weather conditions found on UK mountain tops (ideally in all 4 seasons), plenty of room for 1, a good sized porch, quick and easy to pitch & preferably fly first, bathtub floor & I didn't want an all mesh inner which is popular with many US tents. I had narrowed the selection down to the following tents, all of which I'm sure would have made excellent choices but had the following niggly issues (according to reviews) when compared to the Scarp 1; Hilleburg Akto (expensive, low head height, heavyish for the size, condensation issues), the Terra Nova laser competition 1 (very light but pricey and a bit fiddly to pitch tight, smallish, 3 season), Wild Country Zephyros 1 (slightly small internally, heavyish, 3 season), Vaude power lizard (very spacious & light but apparent condensation issues & can be fiddly to pitch tight, 3 season). The Scarp 1 seemed to tick all the boxes including the additional benefits of having 2 porches and being a true 4 season shelter with the option of using additional cross over poles to make it self-supporting and capable of withstanding snow. The only concerns were that I would need to seam seal it myself and that I would need to have it imported from the US cottage manufacturer Tarptent, of which I new very little. After some deliberation I placed my order and about 2 months later my new Scarp 1 arrived, complete with an import duty fee of around £35. Despite this, it was still cheaper than all the other candidates bar one. Having studied the pitching video on the tarptent website I set it up in the garden and sealed the seams using McNett silicone sealer thinned with a little white spirit as described in this Gossamer Gear article. I was now ready to take it out to the fells and perhaps a little ambitiously, chose the summit of Scafell as my inaugural wild camp. That trip is described here, and a selection of other wild camps since then are listed here. Two years later I can confidently say that I have no regrets at all in buying this tent. It has exceeded my expectations and provided a great introduction to wild camping. That does not necessarily mean it will be right for others. It's certainly not the lightest tent at 1.4kgs including 6 stakes (cross poles add a further 340 grams) but for me the extra weight is more than compensated for by the usable space and wind stability. The following points are worth mentioning though, particularly if you are considering ordering one for yourself.
The 2 porches are a godsend. I stash my rucksack and boots in one porch and all my food and cooking gear in the other, which also serves as the door. If the wind changes direction, I can easily swap sides.
Pitch the tent 'end on' to the wind and situated so that the doors open onto the sheltered side.
The cross poles are really not needed unless heavy snowfall is expected. They don't seem to add any obvious additional wind resistance except that they can help keep the fly from blowing onto the inner, but so can the use of trekking poles - see next point. If not using the cross poles then tie the straps to each other to stop them flapping against the fly sheet. I know of some Scarp users who felt confident enough to remove the straps entirely so that they can no longer use the cross poles and yet have still used it in all 4 seasons with no problems.
If the wind is blowing strongly, you can use a trekking pole and some guy line to 'lift' the fly on the windward side (see picture below). This stops the fly from blowing onto the inner. I have also since added a small loop of shock cord to the tent attachment point so as to avoid a sudden gust tearing it off (which happened to me on High Stile). You can use this set up at either end or just the windward side depending how strong the gusts are.
When pitched with hoop guys and pole lifters this tent is rock solid in the wind. I have been in it in some wild weather without any drama.
The tent does not include guy lines for the hoop attachment points but thankfully the excellent backpackinglight.co.uk sell a cord & cleat bundle which is great value and will do the job nicely. I find using the hoop guys adds considerably to tent stability, especially if the wind changes direction and comes from the side.
With this tent there is the option of an 'all mesh' inner. For UK hill top conditions I wouldn't advise this. It would be too draughty. Go for the 1/2 solid 1/2 mesh option unless you only plan on camping on balmy summer nights in midge inhabited areas.
The tent pitches inner and outer as one, which is great in poor weather. You can use it as a single skin shelter and leave the inner at home if you wish.
I use a Tyvek groundsheet to protect the floor from abrasion. I bought this from Tarptent along with the Scarp. It weighs about 70 grams. You can also get Tyvek from backpackinglight.co.uk who sell a single size just big enough to cover the floor footprint and double size which will extend out to cover the porches. I have also heard of other using Wickes secondary glazing film but cannot comment on its strength & durability. The Tyvek has been fine.
Overall I have no hesitation in recommending this tent for UK wild camping. Do your research though. There may be more suitable alternatives for you. It also comes in a very spacious 2 man version (Scarp 2) which I have also read very favourable reviews. I have added a few links below which I found useful when researching the tent.
First pitch in the Garden - note the cross pole straps tied to each other
Without the inner it becomes a huge single skin shelter for 1, and perfectly usable for 2
Using the cross-poles on Scafell
Using the extra hoop guys on Sail
A winter dawn on Sail
Using a single trekking pole as a lifter during a windy camp on Hindscarth
A great spot on Grasmoor
Looking pretty under a full moon
A video showing the scarp being pitched in perfect conditions on Grasmoor summit in the English lake District.
... and a somewhat more 'tongue-in-cheek' video of it being pitched less than perfectly in windy conditions on Hindscarth, also in the English Lake District.Enjoy !!
