Mountain Camping

[a65hoosier]

Re: Mountain Camping

Maybe I'm missing something, but it's always struck me that the flying diamond setup wastes coverage because of the narrow corners at the peak. That's the reason why I've always avoided cat cuts in favor of rectangular tarps. Bungees on the tieouts keep things nice and tight and have yet to fail me in everything short of heavy snow. I wish there was someone in my group that had a cat cut so I could see one "in action".

To some extent...the narrow corners are more a result of the cat-cut running down each side and curving into (and reducing the total square footage of fabric of the tarp). Measured side to side from the middle of an edge, the Noah 12 comes in at less than 11 feet across as a result of the catenary cut curving in, but across the "ridgeline" corner to corner it's just under 17 foot (I haven't measured the Noah 16 dimensions yet-but using A sq + B sq = C sq, the 16's diag is just shy of 23 feet).

I get good coverage and proper pitch for fast drainage without a lot of messing around.

Just my style. I know your set up uses square/rectangle tarps. Either style (cat-cut, square/rectangle, or hex), a properly pitched tarp can provide benefits at the campsite. First up, last down.