Golite Hex / Shangri La Speed Setup

I own a Golite Hex 2. I have got a sort of love-hate relationship with this tent.
I love the shape, and I love to take it in the mountains where a flat spot is sometimes hard to find. And when more tents are there when hiking with a group the Hex quickly becomes the sit-in and cook tent in the evening.
And I hate that because it is not well made or thought over, is too heavy, is rather small, and I need earplugs even with just a little wind.
I did quite some work on extra guy lines to improve wind stability, ad a snowskirt and pegloops that can hold bigger items like ski’s. Reworked the flat laying groundsheet, etc.


Since the tent is totally dependent on strong pegging a good pitch and peg placement is vital. I’ve got a mail from a friend that has got the New Shangri La and had some difficulties pitching it good in one go. Especially on a bit uneven ground. The method I use might be interesting for more people so I post it here.

I use a Hex shaped piece of plastic foil and a piece of rope which has the exact radius. When i align the rope with one of the corners i know for sure the peg will be in the right place.

Within 30 seconds all the pegs are in place and the tent can be attached and put up.


I ve created a sort of discription which i mailed to him and i will post it here so you can use it aswell. Every thing is on there.

Night Hike

Sometimes you just want to go out. Enjoying the outdoors. But we tend to see backpacking and hiking as a daytime thing. But that doesn’t have to be. I can be quite rewarding. We spend a lot of time indoors, and therefore love it to go out. We tend to sleep a lot at night but…..

I only had a very short period of time. Spending al the day busy with other things I decided to leave in the late evening for a night hike.

I love this, at night walking through the woods is a complete different experience than during the day. The visual possibilities are greatly impaired to a minimum of using the headlight now and then. From full color, surroundings are stylized to grayscale and the other senses work overtime.

You don’t have to have a light to see if you are still on the path, you can feel it. You feel the direction of the wind much more clear. You smell everything better. You can hear the night animals shuffle through the bush. When the moon is up, its light pierces through the open areas to form strange figures in black and white. Then it’s easy to see something or someone…….:-)
So I packed and left at 23.00h. Cloudy, warm and humid. I checked the weather forecast and although some thunderstorms were on their way they would pass me. But after 2 hours hiking I noticed light flashes in the air and a thunderstorm seems to be getting closer but not very fast. Still I stepped up my pace because I had quite some miles to go. On my mobile phone I tried to check the weather radar if anything would have but I was out of reach of any network.

Outdoors thunder flashes can be seen far more further then in cities because the level of light in cities is higher. But in a forest area it’s difficult to guess a distance. I could still not hear anything after the flashes so I still had some time.
I enjoyed the sudden light flashes through the trees. As if someone took photographs from the other side with a huge flash. Beautiful. The storm wasn’t getting any closer but seemed to drift sideways.

When I at 2.30h reached a small campsite, it started to drizzle a bit. I had to hurry to find a spot. And as I went looking the rain became more heavily. I quickly put on my poncho, and searched for a good spot with my headlight. With the possibility of a thunderstorm still coming a picked a spot in a somewhat open area. Away from high trees and falling branches. I had to hurry, and had difficulty placing the groundsheet because it blew away. I threw my tent on it grabbed my pegs and started pegging. A poncho is a great thing but not when you move close to the ground. And especially this mil-spec poncho which is incredible strong but also has a hood to fit a complete battalion in and so blocking my light.
The tent was up in no time and the Speed Hood of the laser competition has proved to be very fast.
But still everything was wet as I have had to lay the tent on a rained on groundsheet. I stuffed my pack in , put my poncho off and quickly hide in the tent.
The wind picked up and rain was still getting very heavy. A complete downpour. The tent with the new guy lines kept very steady, no problems there. The fly was taut but the rain did make an awful lot of noise.
I use a cut down Thermarest Z-Rest and normally I would put my pack under my feet for isolation. But my pack was soaking wet and this was no option. I laid down my pants as they were only partly wet. I stuffed my spare socks, underwear and my fleece in the OR waterproof sleepingbag bag as a pillow. Within 10 minutes it seemed that the fly was leaking. Very small water drops were coming down. I could imagine that there was more rain and at high speed coming down than the fly could have, but the rapid building up condensation droplets that were most likely shooting of when a big rain drops hit it from the other side. I couldn’t do anything about that.

Tired I fell asleep to be awakened in the morning by again a thunderstorm. Somebody at the weather station must have scratched his head. As well as I. This wasn’t forecasted. Again it was raining hard and pretty windy as well.

I found that the inner tent was wet. Wetter than it should. Water was dripping of the top onto my sleeping bag. Since I went with a double roof tent I and it was warm enough I didn’t take my sleeping bag cover. The sides were wet. Mud platters were up to 35 cm high on the outside of the inner tent and water was dripping inside. And that while the fly was pitched a half inch to the ground. (see the picture, taken in the morning)
I took my towel, loosen up the inner tent halfway and dried of the inside of the fly to get rid of the condensation. This seemed to make some difference in drops coming down. After one hour the rain stopped and a damp fog layered the surroundings.

I made some coffee, took a sandwich and already things started to look better.
I was surprised about the amount of condensation and even more about the amount of water and mud splashed under the fly onto the inner tent.

What would this mean if I would have taken a tarp or the Golite Hex instead of the tent? With a tarp I would have brought my sleepingbag cover but mud would have been all over for sure. A single roof design like the Golte Hex also would have lots of condensation running down the sides. But the walls are steeper and more likely that the droplets run down. But the fly of the Golite Hex does have a higher distance to the ground. And this would mean that more mud splatters would come in.

I broke up and let the gear hang for a while on a wire, to get rid of most of the water and mud before packing and resume the rest of my trip.
Certainly I have picked a not ideal spot for this kind of rain, but looking around and seeing the amount of quite big broken off branches made me realize that things could have been worse.

Resting on the couch the words on the

television come by ”Now you can use it, in the comfort of your own home” Especially the last part is something we like much, but are easy willing to trade in for some uncomforted but ever surprising outdoors.

Night hiking, some info for the first time.
Start in an area or a route you know well in the daytime.
Check the area on a map for possible dangerous areas. No night hiking near cliffs, fast flowing rivers etc. Check the weather.
Wear some stronger clothes, you’re more likely to hit, or scrape a branch. The same for shoes, you’re easily step into mud, a small water pool, or a ditch in a path.
Take at least to light sources. I use a headlight, Petzl Tikka XP, and a small keychain light photon Microlight.
On this trip I had also two bicycle lights with me. Having a black pack, black trousers, and a black shirt I am invisible for traffic when walking along the road side. But also with bright colored clothes make yourself visible on roads.
When hiking with more people wear reflective strips or small lights, stop and do a headcount especially with bigger groups or with kids.
Attach everything ! If something falls out your top pouch of your pack or your pocket, you will most likely notice it when you want to use it. Aka too late.
Be prepared to get lost. When on big trails, paths or roads you’re not likely to get lost, but on smaller tracks you easily can miss a byway. Having a gps you never lost but that doesn’t mean that the way back or finding the right track is easy. Be prepared to spend some time waiting for daylight.
Hiking at night can be useful but also fun to update basic navigation skills.
Animals, Check local fauna and precautions. Here there are no dangerous animals. One exception could be a wild boar. If stumbled upon at night, or during the early morning and dusk. A mother with kids can be aggressive. If attacked. Stand still, due to poor eye sight she can see you better when running, and quick hide behind a tree or step aside when close.

Have Fun!

The Kite Knot

With the work i did today (which i will write about soon) on the Laser Competition i used this knot to attach the side guy lines.
In fact it's a combination of a Figure Eight and a Lark's head or (cow hitch).

I know this knot from making Kites, and in the world of Kiting it's very well known for attaching the steering lines to the kite lines very fast and easy. And this is quite special because when the kite lift me up or drags me around over the sandy beach the forces on the knot is very great but still it will come of very easy.

In the world of backpacking and hinking this knot is not very well known, at least that what i think when i see lightweight hikers on you-tube fiddeling around with their tarps and guy line setups. While te uses of this knot are plenty.

For Example; A tarp shouldn't have loops, but small ropes with Figure Eight on the end. A guy line with a loop at the end can attach or deatached to any of those small ropes within 5 seconds.
I have made some photo's so you can see how easy it is. Within seconds a guyline is attached or detached.


In this case i use it on the Laser Competition because the line must be detached for the hood to put it on or for it come of.

Terra Nova Laser Competition mod, The hood

Today i spent some time thinking about a good solution for the hood of the Laser Competition.
This piece has caused a lot of frustration, and I’m not alone.

The basics are:
You need the hood if you want to use the side guy lines for stability.
You need the hood if you expecting wet weather.
To tie the hood to the fly you have to put the very short pieces of black rope trough two very small loops attached to the fly on both sides of the pole sleeve.
To put tension on the hood you have to put one side of the rope coming out of the sleeve trough a loop near the pole ring and tie it to the other rope coming out of the hood.

In bad weather, in bad light conditions, when tired of a long day hike, this is almost impossible. Strange because the tent is marketed as an adventure race shelter. Well even in good weather i find it frustrating and time consuming to get it right.

Every time I used the tent i thought of ways to get it fixed, but when home the tent disappeared quickly in the gear closet. But today I find time to experiment with some setups.
I found that:
Leaving the hood attached in the original way can be dangerous, when putting the pole in the sleeve. The pole gets stuck against the loop and rope and presses against the fabric. When the mushroom shaped pole end has some scratches on it from standing on a hard surface this can happen easily.

Attaching the guy lines directly to the loops on the fly, will make the tent stand firm, but the hood can’t run down totally.

Some options I’ve read on internet suggested using small carabiners for quick fixation at the pole end loop. But this is no solution for the small ropes and loop connection.
Some options I’ve read suggest a combination of both, and seamseal everything. The way the pole sleeve is attached to the fly however this means seamseling 4 sides on the outer and 2 on the inside. Because the zipper is attached to the these seams, only sealing and testing it in the garden will tell if it will be adequate.


I would like the following things;
Quickly put the hood on or off.
Leave the hood on the tent without the risk of ripping the fabric.
All connections must be possible wearing gloves.
A direct connection between guy line and tent.
And longer guy lines.

First I experimented with the lower near the pole end attachment of the hood. And after some tries I came up with the use of shock cord. This attaches to loops made in the end ropes from the hood. On both sides this will give enough tension to put it firmly in place, and enough stretch to easily pull it over the pole end. It’s not attached to the therefore made loop.

Secondly I experimented with different configurations of the guy lines. As I wrote the most steady result came from directly attaching the guy lines to the small loops.
I was surprised to see that is was so much more steady compared to the original setup. This has to do with the slack from the hood attachment and the hood to the guy line. I could not see another solution than to remove the small attachment ropes near the guy line attachment. This removal was done by cutting it out with a scissors, leaving a nice hole through which a guy line can run. Because this hole is tucked away under an extra layer there’s no change for water to get in.

With this setup the tent is steady and direct connected and the hood takes care for the weather. I have to find a good way to leave the middle of the hood attached. And / or when removing the hood, a way to simply connect and reconnect the guy lines, instead of pulling them all the way through the holes.
Further, the guy lines were mainly used to pull through the hood the tent down, and not so to withstand a wind force from the side. With the use of longer guy lines the forces used on the hood connecting loops are far bigger. So new, stronger guy lines attachments have to be made.

I also going to check in the next days if the original cord that is in the hood is still necessary or that the shock cord can be attached directly to the hood material itself. It would be nice to trow something’s of which balance the added weight, a bit.

Terra Nova Laser Competition Ventilation Mod

First of all, I hate this tent

Like many of you I’ve bought it because of its weight. Having an akto there is certainly a weight gain, but also a big frustration gain.

Every time I pitch it I wonder what is wrong. Even on a straight grass field the fly isn’t straight.
There’s no ventilation at all, which is warm when it’s cold but also results in a lot of condensation in the morning.
Every tent has more or less condensationproblems but with the Akto it’s easy to take the inner out and keep it dry. This I do often when it’s raining and I have to break up camp. The dry inner in the backpack, the wet fly rolled up on the outside of my pack.
Because the inner and outer are attached by the small poles it’s difficult to detach these with the Laser Comp. Mostly ending up with a wet back and a wet innertent.
Then there is the polehood…..the tension on the doorzipper, the inner and fly guylines etc.

There are exellent Terra Nova Modifications. See also the blog of blogpackinglight.

http://blogpackinglight.wordpress.com/laser-comp-mods/ But the venting option can be improved.

Of all the problems I’ve started and fixed the ventilation. And even better than an Akto. I can now fully adjust the ventilation while in my sleeping bag it on both sides with just some guyline and a stake. It's basicly the same as on the normal laser.

You will be able to a lot more ventilation than many other seen solutions.

Here the setup when closed.

It could be wise to use an extra peg because the tension aplied can be big due to the use of the shock cord.

When the peg fails it does not endanger the integrity of the outer fly.

Here the setup when halfclosed

The cord to open runs from the attachementpoint through the shockcord and on the inside backup again through the loop where the shock cord from the pole is attached.

From there you can run it through a loop down at the pole or straight to a pag in the ground. The latter gives less friction and is what I use.

The closing rope

This is attached on to the shock cord and runs through a loop. This is made from a small piece of rope. And attached to the pegloop of the guyrope that runs to the bottompole attachement.

A detail of the rope that opens the fly.

A simple peg secures one of the rope.

The use of different colors and different thickness is advised. So even when light is bad you can find the right rope.

Making loops in the rope can help to fix the line to Open, Halfway and Cosed.

Better than a peg, a problem when using a goundsheet with front cover, would be to create a line on which the pulling ropes grap with a prussikknot.

What would be the best way to do this i still have to figure that out.

For now i'm happy my Laser Comp vents, or it should be a topvent....... :-)