Twenty-Five Years of Trekking Pole Shelters

Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar on the GR5 Through The Alps in 2018

Recent years have seen an upsurge in tents designed to be pitched with trekking poles. This isn’t a new idea however. I’ve been using trekking pole tents and tarps for twenty-five years. Before that I had used poles to pitch tarps as cooking shelters on walks in grizzly bear country where cooking in the tent porch was not a good idea. These camps were usually in sheltered forested areas rather than open windswept places so stability wasn’t a key consideration. The main use of a tent was mostly to keep off insects while sleeping.

Tarp used as a cooking shelter at a wet camp in the Yukon Territory, 1990

I soon thought about using trekking poles for my main shelter. Why carry the extra weight of tent poles as well? Searching round for something suitable I came across a shaped tarp called the Basha-Tent from a long-gone tiny British company called Kathmandu Trekking. This could be pitched as a pyramid with a shorter pole holding up one end as a doorway. I took this on a two-week walk in the Queyras Alps in 1999 and was impressed at how it stood up to storms and how roomy it was for the weight (1.2kg with groundsheet and pegs). Far roomier in fact than tents that weighed a fair bit more.

Kathmandu Trekking Basha-Tent in the San Francisco Peaks on the Arizona Trail in 2000

The next year, 2000, I took the Basha-Tent on the Arizona Trail. On many nights I slept under the stars but there were enough camps in strong winds, and even once sleet and rain, to make me glad I had it.

GoLite Cave 1 in the High Sierra in 2004

After the Arizona Trail I was hooked on trekking pole shelters for long-distance walks. At the time the ultralight movement was just getting going with GoLite producing Ray Jardine’s minimalist designs. In the early 2000s I used one of these, the Cave 1 tarp, on two-week walks in the Uinta Mountains in Utah and round Glacier Peak in the Cascade Mountains in Washington and on a 500-mile walk in the High Sierra in California. On these walks I didn’t need insect protection and was mostly camping in woods so a tarp was adequate. The Cave weighed 794 grams with groundsheet and pegs.

Mountain Equipment AR Ultralight tents on the GR20 in Corsica in 2005

In the 2000s outdoor brands started to make tents that pitched with trekking poles. Mountain Equipment had one, the AR Ultralight, which I used on the GR20, which I walked with Cameron McNeish in 2005. I wanted a tent with a door I could close on this trip as we would be camping on sites with other people most nights. I took the two-person version without the inner to save weight. I think it weighed around a kilo with groundsheet and pegs. Cameron took the smaller AR Ultralight 1 with the inner, the latter a wise choice for protection against the dustiness of many camp sites. After windy nights I woke with a layer of dirt covering everything.

GoLite Shangri-La 1 on the Pacific Northwest Trail in 2010

In 2010 I hiked the Pacific Northwest Trail that runs from Glacier National Park in the Rocky Mountains to the Olympic National Park and the Pacific Ocean. This was likely to be a wet walk (it was!) and there were likely to be mosquitoes in places (there were!) so I wanted a double-skin tent. GoLite had expanded by then and produced several good models from which I chose the Shangri-La 1, a sloping ridge tent with a mesh inner. It weighed 963 grams and stood up to torrential rain. I still miss GoLite.

The MLD Trailstar at a very wet and windy camp on the Scottish Watershed in 2013

A year later I discovered the trekking pole shelter that has been my favourite ever since, the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar. This hexagonal shaped tarp is similar in design and size to the Basha-Tent but even more stable and weighs 767 grams with groundsheet and pegs. After using it on the 2012 TGO Challenge across the Scottish Highlands I knew it would stand up to big storms so in 2013 I took it on my Scottish Watershed walk. As this was in midge season I used it with a mesh inner for a total weight of 1.16 kilos. It performed brilliantly in some severe weather. It has since been used on long walks from Yosemite Valley to Death Valley in 2016, from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean on the GR5 in the Alps in 2018, and through the Colorado Rockies for 500 miles in 2019 plus several more TGO Challenges and many shorter trips. It’s still going strong.

The MLD Trailstar below Mount Whitney on the Yosemite Valley to Death Valley walk in 2016

All the above shelters used two trekking poles, although with the Basha-Tent and the Trailstar one was just to hold a doorway open. The last two years I’ve been using a single pole tent, the Mountain Laurel Designs SoloMid XL, which I like very much. I took this on my recent Cape Wrath Trail walk and it performed well. It weighs 1020 grams. On other trips I’ve just used the outer with a groundsheet, brings the weight down to 865 grams.

MLD SoloMid XL on the Cape Wrath Trail, 2024

I’ve tested other trekking pole shelters in recent years. Four of them are pictured below. I particularly like the Hilleberg Anaris and I’m delighted to hear that a solo version is planned. 

Hilleberg Anaris on a week-long walk in Knoydart, 2023

Vango Heddon 100 in the Cairngorms, 2021

Durston X-Mid 1 in the Cairngorms, 2023

Sierra Designs High Route 1 in the Cairngorms, 2022

I haven’t stopped using tents. Aside from testing them for The Great Outdoors magazine I often use one for short trips where weight isn’t that important. I wouldn’t take one on a trip of more than three or four days though.

Lightwave Sigma in the Cairngoems, 2023

I wrote about all the tents and shelters I’ve used on long walks from 1976 to 2019 here.