Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trail Camp Tent Question

I have heard that Trail Camp has nothing but granite. The tent is not free standing and needs stakes in order to stand up.

Will I have a problem staying at Trail Camp?

Tie some strong string to the loops that the stakes go through. This will allow you to anchor the tent down with rocks. Another trick is to just throw a lot of weight inside the tent. It'll take some real strong winds to move it if you've got twenty to thirty pounds inside.

The sandy spots that others have cleared out have some places where you can get a stake into the ground. We got about 1/2 of the stakes set, the other 1/2, we put the stakes crossways through the loops and piled up rocks on them. (No shortage of rocks!)

By the way...it'd take way more than 20 or 30 pounds to hold a tent down in any appreciable breeze, much less a stiff wind.

When you select a spot, look at the drainage. When we were up at Trail camp in 2001 (see trip report under the <a href="http://www.mtritter.org">highpointing</a> pulldown), we got an all-night rain and stayed dry because I checked out several spots before selecting one that drained away from the tent. Many of the spots are dished down in the center, and a bunch of people ended sleeping in mini lakes that night...

There are zillions of rocks of every size to loop/tie off to.

OK, it's time for somebody to do a scientific study on the effects of wind on a modern tent :-). And, provide us with a definition of breeze vs. wind.

I haven't staked a tent down in more than thirty years (The old canvas ones we used needed to be staked down, or they wouldn't stand up.), and during the summer, when I leave the "fly" home, I rarely do more than throw my pack inside. I've never lost a tent.

The suggestions to place a rock through a sting loop, or over a stake placed through the loop, should hold the tent in place in everything short of 50+ mph winds. DON'T PUT ROCKS INSIDE! This has the tendency to abrade the material, a you'll likely end up with holes in you tent.

Of course, none of this applies if you're using a $25 Kmart special. If you are, you'll have to spend the night with you feet up against the wall (like I did one late-winter climb) all night long.

We have used our REI tent, which is not freestanding, up on Mt. Whitney many times. I have about 2 feet of parachute cord tied on each end where the tent stakes would go. Those cords are then wrapped around bowling ball size rocks and stretch away from the tent, pulling it tight. It has always worked fine.
Why bother bringing tent stakes when you can't pound them into the hard ground anyway? They might go into the ground without bending down at Lone Pine lake or Outpost camp, but not easily in the hard ground at Trail Camp.