Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape > Andre Corterier > Field Report

Six Moon Designs "Gatewood Cape"

Personal Biographical Information:
Name: André Corterier
Gender: M
Age: 34
Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight: 80 kg (175 lb)
Email: andreDOTcorterierATfreenetDOTde
Home: Bonn, Germany

Backpacking Background:
I have started out with backpacking slowly – single-day 24 km (15 mi) jaunts by myself or even shorter hikes in the company of my little daughter. I am getting started on longer hikes, as a lightweight packer and hammock-camper. I’ve begun upgrading my old gear and am now shooting for a dry FSO weight (everything carried From the Skin Out except food, fuel and water) of about 10 kg (22 lb) for three-season camping. I am getting there.

Year of manufacture: 2006
Manufacturer: Six Moon Designs
URL: http://www.sixmoondesigns.com
MSRP: 110 USD

listed weight: 11 oz (312 g)
measured weight: 11.3 oz (320 g)

Introduction:
The Gatewood Cape is a silnylon rain cape which doubles as a tarp. You can find a more detailed introduction in my Initial Report.

RAIN WEAR:

Field Experience:
I have carried the Gatewood Cape on many day trips and three overnighters during the Field Testing phase. Additional testing had been planned but I was unable to go through with it for family reasons. I may be able to make up for some of it during the Long Term period. Testing was conducted in hilly terrain, generally low elevations (100 to 500 m / 300 to 1600 ft). Temperatures ran from 5 to 20 C (40 to 70 F) in both low and high humidity. Wind speeds were low during all of my testing. I have worn it in light and heavy rain for periods of up to one hour of steady rain.

Weather Protection:
Worn as weather protection, the Gatewood Cape protects the majority of my body from the rain. Having sealed the cape as per the manufacturer's instructions, it has not let any rain through. Due to the way it fits, this means that when wearing it, I was getting wet on my legs from the knees down and on my arms from my elbows down (if using trekking poles). Even after an hour spent walking in a pouring rain, no water entered the cape. In the mostly warm weather in which I've worn the Cape, getting my lower arms wet was not a problematic experience at all. So they got wet - so what. I tended to roll up my sleeves (when I was wearing long sleeves at all) so that my shirt would remain dry and let the rain run down my arms. I consider this adequate protection, even if it were to get colder later.

It's a somewhat different matter with the legs. Rain running down my legs gets into my shoes when I don't wear long pants. Even when I do, the pants get wet after a while when the DWR soaks through and rain ends up in my shoes. I find walking in wet shoes unenjoyable (plus I'm begging for blisters when I do that) and find that a breeze can become rather chilly when it strikes wet pant legs. I consider this a limitation on the cape's usefulness for all-around hiking. Still, during some of my walking in rain it was warm enough that getting my legs wet (inside or outside of pants) did not matter at all. I can see myself quite enjoying hiking in the rain in this in summer wearing sandals.

So far, I have worn the cape mostly with the Essence Pack by the same manufacturer, or with a MacPac Kauri. In both instances the cape covered the pack well so that no external moisture contacted the pack. The cape fits in such a way that I can withdraw an arm inside the cape to access a water bottle or similar item in an outside pocket on the pack. This then needs to either be extricated through the arm slit and withdrawn the same way, or I can (more easily) lift the bottom of the cape with the other arm to lift the bottle to my mouth. I have found it possible (though not comfortable) to route the hose of a water bladder through the neck opening. Doing this requires attaching the hose at the face opening or along the front zipper, as the silnylon of the cape is too slippery for a decent attachment. I have not found this method to be worthwhile; particularly as using a small water bottle was so easily done.

I have now figured out how to use the clasps and loops provided on the Gatewood Cape for fitting. There are two clasps on the inside of it, one on the left and one on the right (when worn). These serve to hold up the extender cords which have been tied to the loops at the bottom of the cape. I have found securing them here to be a necessity, as the extender loops are otherwise prone to catch on underbrush. Securing them here keeps them out of the way and shortens the extent to which the cape covers the legs only minimally (due to the length of the extender cords).

Condensation Issues:
On days with low humidity, I did not experience significant condensation underneath the cape. It has pretty good ventilation, so this did not come unexpected. With high humidity however, sweat did build up underneath the cape. Who would have thought that on a warm, humid day, I would sweat while hiking? It appears that while the cape has very good ventilation, the fact that the material it is made of is not water vapour permeable at all balances this so that the net effect is like that of a decent rain jacket - comfortable, but in high temperatures and humidity, I get wet underneath by sweating.

I have experimented with "bellowing" the cape by pumping my arms. This appeared to help, though the effect was quite short-lived. As I did not feel like walking around flapping my arms like a chicken, I stopped doing this after a while. I feel that a more significant breeze might have helped here, but through the entirety of my testing so far, significant breezes (let alone wind) obstinately persisted in their absence. Well, at least I got rain...

Inside Pocket:
The inside pocket, when I wear the cape as rain gear, still contains the "maypole garland" required to set it up as a tarp and the stakes. I have not found a need to put anything else in there although it is, of course, possible. As the Gatewood Cape goes over both myself and my backpack, I can leave everything where it is and can still get to it. Thus, the pocket has seen little use so far.

Field Experience:
I have set up the Gatewood Cape in its "shaped tarp" ("tent") configuration in the woods, on an open meadow on a hill and on the banks of a creek. Outside low temperatures were around 10 C (50 F) each time; humidity was low except on the night where I set up near the river bank where the humidity was very high. Neither wind nor precipitation was a factor on any of these nights. Elevations ranged from 100 m (330 ft) at the creek to 300 m (1000 ft) in the woods.

Setup:
Setting up the Gatewood Cape as a tarp remains pretty straightforward and as described in my Initial Report. It takes a bit of fiddling with the hooks but is otherwise easy. I have done it at night, holding a little flashlight between my teeth. The light was important both for the colour-coding on the "maypole" strips and for fiddling with the hook attachments to the loops on the cape. Setting the stakes so I get a uniformly distributed tension around the structure has taken some fiddling with the stake placement each time - I expect this to take less and less time with practice. Once the stakes are set, erecting the shelter is easily done by extending the hiking pole in its center. The only thing that can still go wrong at this point is that one of the extender loops on the cape comes off its stake. Unfortunately, this happens quite easily. To avoid this, I have resorted to pushing the stakes in so far that the down turned hook of the stake also contacts the ground. While this has reliably prevented the extender loops from slipping off the stakes, this has also increased the bother of repositioning them.

Finding a place to set it up has been easy. As a shaped tarp, it adjusts to less than entirely level terrain without too much difficulty. This means that when I set it up in the woods, all I needed to do was to find a level area just large enough for my pad. Rocks, roots and whatever else broke up the ground around that area were of no concern as I did not have a tent floor to worry about. I thus readily found a place to set it up even in the woods. This is something I like very much. Since my conversion to hammock camping, I have come to rely on the woods around me as a softener in regard to inclement weather - underneath the tree canopy, storms are merely windy, and nearly horizontal downpours turn into nearly vertical rain. My weather prediction skills are still very nearly non-existent, and thus setting up shelter in the woods has cushioned me more than once from what would otherwise have been nasty blows.

Contrary to my intent and expectation, I still have not tried setting it up with only six stakes and the guyline properly staked out. While I meant to try the method of attaching the guyline to the bottom loop on the cape with the sliding hook on the guyline, this hasn't happened. The first time around, I had no idea of how to go about doing this, the second and third time I lost the sliding hook while setting up in the dark. While I found it again the next morning after I lost it the first time, I have not been able to recover it the second time around although I spent a significant amount of time searching for it. I have ordered a replacement and hope to be able to report on its use in the Long Term Report.

Size (or lack thereof):
As a shaped tarp, the Gatewood Cape isn't large. Of course, I did not expect it to be. Still, with the loops at the bottom of the cape staked directly to the ground I (at 185 cm / 6 ft 1 in body height) am unable to lie in it without at least one part of my sleeping bag contacting the inside of the cape. Using the extender loops to lift the ceiling, I am - just - able to lie in my sleeping bag without contacting it. It is my belief after finding spots of significant moisture on the hood and foot sections of my sleeping bag after a particularly humid night, that I still contacted the cape in both areas when I moved at night.

Weather Protection:
Unfortunately, so far I have had neither significant rain nor significant wind during the nights which I spent outside with the Gatewood Cape as shelter. While we've had our usual (large) amount of rain during spring, most of it came down during the day (allowing me to hike in it).

Condensation Issues:
I have had condensation issues only once. They were rather severe, however. I set the Gatewood Cape up in its shaped tarp configuration on the banks of a creek on a humid day (and night). Low temperature based on a reading early the next morning must have been around 10 C (50 F) or just below that. There was no breeze at all and I kept the "door" closed all night due to insects which were flying around. The ground was covered in high grass, which did not allow appreciable ventilation (in fact, it was tight enough to limit the number of gnats which found their way to me). Admittedly, this turned the night into a condensation stress test. The next morning, I sported only very few insect bites. The cape was soaking wet both inside (condensation) and outside (dew - also condensation, I guess). My sleeping bag had soaked up a bit of moisture at the foot end and the hood, where I assume I have touched the cape during the night.

Inside Pocket:
The inside pocket of the Gatewood Cape, when set up as a tent-like tarp, is an excellent feature. I am used to a mesh pocket on the ridge line of my hammock in which I store things that I keep in my pockets over the day like a small multi-tool and/or folding knife, flashlight, cell phone et al. The pocket on the Gatewood Cape serves this function just as well and is quite welcome. One may wish to remember that the alternative is to either pack these things away securely or to leave them lying around on whatever kind of ground one happens to be camping on. This can make finding such things again challenging. But the pocket removes this problem entirely. I am happy to see it. Of course, the pocket - as mentioned in my Initial Report - also serves as a convenient container for the cape and its accessories when not in use. This makes it easily stored and retrieved which I also like.

Possible Improvements:
So far there isn't much, really. Giving the hook which is meant to slide along the guyline a neon colour might help to prevent it from getting lost easily. Of course, it may also be possible to attach it with a Prusik knot - I will try that once I have the replacement. Also, a size "L" version of the Gatewood Cape for taller hikers which would protect more of their bodies when worn as a cape and would more easily shelter them entirely when lying down might be neat. I am also thinking of extending the extender loops again with a second set of extender loops (there was enough cord provided for this). This may serve to offer a second, higher set for the ceiling - I might then be able to choose between three heights. I will report what I find in this regard in my Long Term Report.

Summary so far:
I find that the Gatewood Cape is an item I am likely to leave behind (taking my standard rain gear instead) if and when I am likely to encounter a good amount of rain, particularly if it's likely to be coupled with wind. However, as insurance on a trip which is likely to see little or no rain, it seems perfect to me. It will keep the majority of my body reliably dry even if it rains long and hard. This means that as far as "insurance" is concerned, I can leave both my rain jacket and rain pants at home, for a significant reduction of my pack weight. It also offers the ability to go for seriously lightweight (dare I say "ultralight"?) trips in summer when I may or may not need shelter and/or rain gear. I remember reading "A Walk in the Woods" where Bill Bryson describes lugging a tent along a portion of the Appalachian Trail even though the weather mostly did not require a tent. For knocking the total weight of shelter and rain gear down to 320 g (11.3 oz) (plus stakes) on these shorter summer trips, this item seems perfect. And I carry a few stakes for my wood stove, anyway.

Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape > Andre Corterier > Field Report