I've used a Contrail for the past 5 years (and 5k miles!). Love the shelter, like most other HSTT, it's light, bug-proof, easy to pitch and has ample space inside, but I've always had a few issues with it
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| Pooling area |
1. In hard rain, the water slides down the slope of the tent and tends to pool directly above the sleeper's feet. You can avoid this problem if you use a small pole in the rear and/or really cinch the shelter down tight, but siliconized nylon stretches when it is wet and a summer thunderstorm does, oddly enough, tend to dampen the area directly beneath it. Which means that unless you want to leave the shelter of your Contrail to retighten the pitch at some point during the storm, you deal with the waterballoon syndrome. While it is easy enough to just do a leg raise to empty out your tent reservoir, I've gotten my sleeping bag wet many, many times over the course of my ownership due to this practice.
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| This trekking pole would work way better if it was the other way around. |
2. When pitching the Contrail with a trekking pole, the "peak" does not accommodate for the support pole placed tip-to-the ground (see image). This creates two issues. Issue one is that if for some reason the tip of your trekking pole comes out of the small, reinforced grommet in the peak, it's likely to stab a hole straight through the fragile material. There are several holes in the top of my tarptent because of this, eventually I just found various items to serve as "caps" for the sharp carbide of my Leki-tips.
Issue two is that the knob of a trekking pole handle is much more likely to slip out on the ground than a tip would be. I've had to repitch my Contrail quite a few times in less than ideal conditions because the main supporting pole slid out from under the tent.
3. The Contrail comes with two carbon-fiber rear struts. While the support is useful and the weight gain negligible, these struts do limit the packability/squish-factor of the Contrail.
4. Finally, the rear vent is small and not very effective in helping the condensation issues that plague all single-wall shelters.
To me, these problems were small grievances indeed to pay in order to use a shelter as light, durable and spacious as the Contrail. That is, until I found out that Henry Shires had released a new tent entirely.
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| Where did my pool go? |
The Tarptent Protrail offers quite a few advantages over its predecessor, most notably in its steep ridge design that actually sheds precipitation.
Had a chance to test this out yesterday during a fairly solid rainstorm in Shenandoah National Park. Worked like a charm.
The Protrail also addresses my other issues with the Contrail.
-There is now a silnylon "cup" in the peak of the tent, allowing for a trekking pole to serve as a support tip-down (where it belongs, dammit).
-No more struts. The Protrail relies on the user's trekking poles (or optional additional poles) to support the shelter. The packability has increased dramatically as a result.
-The rear vent is not only large, it also comes equipped with a storm flap and the main walls of the tent also form a small overhang, sheltering the window from vertical rain (that storm flap is for when shit gets horizontal).
In addition to this, the tent also seems to be made of a different silnylon than my vintage-2009 Contrail. The material seems nicer.
In short, big improvement. The Protrail is a more rain-worthy update to the Contrail. As for all around stormworthiness, I cannot speak on it at this juncture. I'd imagine that the high walls of the Protrail would be a disadvantage in windy conditions, but am willing to bet that the support system of two poles make up for the difference.
The only issue I have with the Protrail at this point in time that that there's no way to stake out the center of the vestibule. On my old Contrail, there is a loop on the bottom seam of the vestibule, dead center...I usually stake it out to create a "beak" of sorts and to get more coverage and ventilation out of the deal.
Nothing that some dental floss and a needle can't fix though.
UPDATE POST-CDT: I used this shelter for about half the Continental Divide Trail . Loved it, it sheds precipitation much better than the Contrail, it's extremely well made and even a little roomier and lighter than its predecessor.
Downsides: The steep sides of the tent do indeed make it difficult to pitch in high wind, but Henry Shires has put two guy out points per side of the shelter instead of the one side that the Contrail provided so once you do get the thing set up it shouldn't collapse as long as you've set it up well.
Ventilation is much better with this shelter as well. Would have used it for the entire thru-hike but ended up switching to a freestanding tent for the snowy sections and a tarp for majority of the trail.
