Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Tarptent Rainbow > Jamie DeBenedetto > Field Report

Tarptent Rainbow

Field Report - June 8th, 2006

Reviewer's Information

Background/Experience

I began backpacking eighteen years ago after a youth spent tagging along with my dad to various wild places in Arizona and California. At present I hike in some capacity about fifteen times a month, mostly in Arizona with either the Canine Hiking Club of AZ or with my family. I prefer to sleep in a hammock and I gravitate toward multifunctional gear that will enhance my comfort level for minimal weight. I consider myself to be a lightweight packer. My total pack weight year round is rarely above 25 lbs (11 kg) for outings of two to three days.

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Product Information

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Product Description

The Tarptent Rainbow is a 1 to 2 person silnylon shelter that uses a cross strut and a single pole bent along the middle for support. It can be set up free-standing using trekking poles or staked out for greater stability. For a more detailed description of the Rainbow please refer to my Initial Report.

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Experiences Thus Far

This report is the second in a series of three on the Rainbow. Since receiving the Rainbow at the beginning of April, 2006, I have used it on three outings in various locations in Arizona. The following is a break down of these locations, the conditions experienced at each and my thoughts regarding the Rainbow as my primary shelter.

Trip 1 - Overnight car camping at Lost Dutchman State Park

Lost Dutchman SP sits at the base of the Superstition Mountains of south central AZ, elevation 2,000 ft (610 m). It is fully encompassed by the Sonoran Desert so our campsite was very exposed and mainly on desert pavement, which is basically very hard soil sprinkled with pebbles and small rocks all kind of cemented together (the picture at the top of this report is from this location). The overnight low outside the shelter was just below 45 F (7 C). Inside the shelter was consistently about 5 F (3 C) degrees warmer. Weather conditions were clear, dry and breezy. I was sharing the Rainbow on this outing with my four year old son.

User Friendliness

This camping trip was my first full set-up of the Rainbow and despite the hot, breezy conditions it was not a difficult task for one person. Since there is basically only one pole to "assemble", it went up fast. I was not sure if the wind was going to get stronger or die down as night fell so I chose to stake the Rainbow this time around. The aluminum stakes worked nicely on the hard desert pavement; going into the ground and coming out with ease. The shelter, once staked, was very simple to tighten down. The Tarptent website states, "Corner pullouts offer quick release and tensioning with one hand", and they are right. The sun was really beating down on me during set-up and I was in a hurry, which made the little tabs on the corner pullouts all the more helpful. My only setback during this whole procedure was misinterpreting the written directions and missing the pole sleeve entirely. For more about this please read my Initial Report.

Ventilation

The Rainbow heats up fast. I discovered this while organizing our sleeping mats and other gear. It was quite difficult to be inside for longer than just a few minutes even with the door unzipped and fully rolled away and the back vent completely open. The set-up location was in direct sun, however, with an outside temperature of 75 F (24 C). Even with the light wind, it was far too hot to spend much time in the Rainbow until after dark.

Interior Space

There was plenty of room for both my son and me to sleep comfortably. He is only four so he doesn't take up much room but I made up for that by putting nearly all of our extra gear in the tent just to see how it would work. Most of it went on his side at his feet but I had several items like our shoes and an extra blanket down at my feet as well. I was not scrunched up even remotely and I don't recall even touching any of the items at my feet during the night.

Trip 2 - Car camping at Burro Creek

Burro Creek Canyon is in northwestern AZ, elevation 2,000 ft (610 m). It is a riparian area surrounded by portions of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Nighttime lows stayed around 60 F (16 C) with near 90 F (32 C) temperatures in the daytime. Weather conditions were clear, dry and calm.

Interior Space

Conditions at Burro Creek were very similar to those experienced in the Superstitions. The only point I think is worth noting is the spaciousness of the Rainbow. My son did not join me on this trip so I was the only occupant this time around and I had so much room I actually kept moving off my sleeping pad. I was car camping so I didn't have a need to bring very many items into the shelter with me, but it could have easily held my backpack and all its contents had I wanted to store my usual backpacking gear.

I'm also very pleased with the Rainbow's head room and I like the big airy feeling the arched shape gives off. I have been in tents before that made me feel a bit walled in but this one has so far not given me that feeling. I found it very easy to dress while in the Rainbow; I was even able to sit up on my knees to finish pulling up my shorts without bumping into the top of the shelter.

Trip 3 - Overnight backpack in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness

Aravaipa Canyon is northeast of Tucson, elevation 2,600 ft (800 m). It is a lush riparian area surrounded by typical Sonoran Desert landscape. We had a nighttime low of about 60 F (16 C) and daytime highs up around 95 F (35 C). Weather conditions were clear, dry and for the most part calm with an occasional light breeze in the afternoon and early evening. I shared the Rainbow with my sister this time around.

User Friendliness

What a fun trip this was. We camped on a big sandy "beach" a stones throw away from the creek. I decided to go with the free-standing set-up option this time around to check it out and because I did not think the Rainbow's stakes would hold in the sand. For sake of experimentation I decided to use one MSR OverLand Carbon Trekking Pole on one side and a homemade walking staff on the other. As expected, the trekking pole worked fine and was a cinch to affix, but the staff was a little more difficult. It has a greater circumference than a standard trekking pole and that made it slightly more challenging for the hook-and-loop strips to be wrapped around it. I was able to make it work though and it stayed put for nearly 20 hrs until we broke camp. To be fair, the manufacturer only mentions the use of trekking style poles when referring to the free-standing configuration. I conducted this test because I know it is quite common for weight conscious hikers to pick up hiking sticks along the way rather than using trekking poles, a method I have used in the past myself. I also wanted to see if this would be a feasible emergency option in case in the future I was forced to substitute a regular stick for one or both of my poles.

My only nitpick of the Rainbow so far is the size of the zippers on the entryway door. They are pretty small and both my sister and I found ourselves fumbling more than once with them after dark during entering or exiting. I don't necessarily think larger zippers are needed, but a little lightweight fabric zipper pull would probably do the trick. I'm planning to add a little loop of reflective string to at least one of them to see if that helps.

Interior Space

Once again the Rainbow impressed me with its voluminous interior. My sister is not quite as tall as I am but at 5' 9" (1.75 m) she is much taller than my son. I was expecting to be slightly more cramped on this outing with two adults in the shelter but much to my delight that was not the case. We easily slept side by side with a small amount of room left at our feet for two sets of shoes, my hat, a water bottle, and a few clothing items. I believe both our packs could have fit in this space as well if circumstances warranted it.

Ventilation

As I mentioned earlier in this report, the Rainbow heats up fast. Our campsite was well shaded this time around and the location I chose didn't receive any direct sunlight after I had put up the shelter. We were getting a breeze off and on in the afternoon and evening but I think the canyon walls were sheltering us quite a lot. Due to a large number of bugs we were unwilling to leave the door open, however, both front flaps were stowed away for maximum ventilation and the back vent was also fully open. We had to wait until about an hour and half after sunset before we could comfortably stay inside the Rainbow for any significant length of time. Unfortunately, I did not have my thermometer with me to take a reading of the inside and outside temperatures so I'm not entirely sure what they were before we decided it was cool enough to retire for the night. If it's any indication I was able to sleep completely outside my sleeping bag wearing only a sleeveless t-shirt and light nylon pants until about three o'clock in the morning.

Insect Protection

The Rainbow performed this task beautifully and we were exceedingly thankful. We were absolutely inundated with arthropods of all sorts on this trip and the ONLY refuge was the Rainbow. No-see-ums, mosquitoes, ants, biting flies, you name it I think we found the mother load. The bats in the area were extremely well fed though. Scorpions and rattlesnakes are also quite common in this area so I felt much safer knowing we were totally surrounded by at least a layer of mesh. Once the shelter cooled enough for us to get inside without danger of heat exhaustion, we were well protected from the little nasties and easily able to sleep in unmolested comfort.

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Proposed Test Plan for the Final Two Months of this Report Series

I am expecting at least three more nights in the Rainbow and will continue to use it as my main shelter on all outings until my Long Term Report is filed. I have yet to seam seal the Tarptent but as we are getting closer to our "rainy" season I will certainly need to. I will report on how this goes and how well it wards off leaks. Along these same lines I am hoping for a few opportunities to see how the Rainbow performs regarding condensation and its overall weather protection abilities during times of high humidity or active precipitation. In addition to that I would like to get more data on how the Rainbow ventilates in other weather conditions besides warm and dry. Finally I will keep watching all parts of the shelter for any durability issues worth noting.

Thank you Backpackgeartest.org and Henry Shires Tarptent for the opportunity to be part of this test series.

Jamie J. DeBenedetto
June 12th, 2006

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Reviews > Shelters > Tarps and Bivys > Tarptent Rainbow > Jamie DeBenedetto > Field Report