Tarptent Stratospire 2. Trekked with it in Iceland. It’s a great tent.

Are you going to apply the universal rule of 2-man camping? ie, use a 3-man tent?

Good thing about tarptent is that they don’t compromise on size to achieve the weight like most companys. Although I would go for the scarp2 it is double skinned and doesn’t rely on trrcking poles.

Will it just be Greece that you’ll have it perched on a mountain? Do you know what the weather up there is like and terrain?

Unless you’ve got some nice grass, it would be a good idea to go for a geodesic shape. Tunnel shaped tents require guying out for stability, which might be difficult depending on the terrain, and if you want to be happy in unpleasant weather then you’ll definitely want stability. I rarely take a tunnel tent up a mountain unless I know there’s a decent spot to pitch.

Also, being on a mountain, even in summer, can bring weather which would challenge a lightweight 3 season tent. Wind can eat a tent, worth checking with locals what the weather up on the mountain will be like and if it can be fickle, go with a proper geodesic mountain tent. Won’t be sub 2kg though!

Tarptent stratospire 2 on top of a mountain in iceland. Perfectly stable. Can pitch inner only if it’s hot weather. Can use trekking poles or Tarptent do 2 separate carbon poles instead. Comfortably sleeps 2, can sleep 3 at a push. Double sided entry and porches big enough for a pack each side and space to cook. The Scarp is good too but we were carrying trekking poles anyway. An extra pole and a length of dyneema made it easy to peg out a door for a bigger porch. Check out the vids on You Tube to see the full features.

Untitled by DKNWHY, on Flickr

My favourite brand is Marmot.

We just sold a Marmot 3p tent which weighed 2.7kg IIRC, loads of space. Sold it for the 4p version when we had another kid. 4 of us stayed in it quite happily summer before last.

I personally would not bother with ultralight tarp based shelters to safe a kg. You’re not adventure racing are you?

And there are no biting or crawling insects around…

I’m a big fan of the GoLite Hex (or shangri la as I think it’s now called).
It has one downside for mountain use though and that’s that it really needs all of it’s 6 pegs to be secure. Unlike the partially self-supporting geodesic designs.

I haven’t owned one, but I’ve slept in a couple and their owners love them to bits. Very versatile too (inner/floor/outer all usable seperately) and there are half-inners available from 3rd parties liks http://oookworks.com/

Why wouldn’t you try to save a kilo? That’s the equivalent of a stove with gas and cookware. If you’re planning on trekking around and heading up mountains, extra weight can make life miserable.

So can compromising on comfort. I notice a good night’s sleep and a convenient comfortable camp more than I notice an extra kilo.

That’s not saying that tarp tent thing is going to be uncomfortable for you of course – if you like it then go for it. However I don’t fancy it – looks like a lot of flappy fabric and I hate not having shoulder room. Also looks like you’d need really good peg placements for it to stay up at all. In some places this can be really hard to get (but not in others of course).

Just my uninformed opinion, from looking at the pic.

@peterfile we were going for a stone igloo but ran out of rocks 😀

The Tarp Tent design is remarkably flexible when it comes to peg placement – much better than any other system I’ve tried.