NAME:	Jerry Goller
EMAIL:	jerrygoller@backpackgeartest.org
AGE:	59
LOCATION:	Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
GENDER:	M
HEIGHT:	5' 11" (1.80 m)
WEIGHT:	229 lb (104.00 kg)

I started camping with my father at age 6 or so. I’ve backpacked, off and on, all of my life. Even in the Marine Corps, I was in the Infantry. I consider myself a light weight backpacker with an average dry pack weight of 10 to 15 pounds (4.5 to 7 kg), depending on the season and terrain. I backpack year round. Most of my trips are 2 to 5 days long and in Utah. I also, from time to time, take much longer trips lasting one to two months or more. These trips are usually on the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Manufacturer: Gossamer Gear
Year of Manufacture: 2006
Manufacturer's Website: http://www.gossamergear.com/
MSRP: US$275.00
Listed Weight: 23 oz (652 g) This is the shelter with rear pole.
Measured Weight: 27 oz (765 g) This is the shelter with rear pole, 6 Easton Mini Stakes, rear pole, 2 side pull out lines, and ball cord locks on all pull out lines.
Size (from Gossamer Gear website):
Sleeps 2
28.7 sq. ft. - Floor space (2.67 sq m)
7 sq. ft. - Beak storage (.65 sq m)
42" - Height in front (107 cm)
21" - Height in rear (53 cm)
80" - Width in front (netting to netting) (203 cm)
51" - Width in rear (netting to netting) (51 cm)
62" - Width of floor in front (157 cm)
42" - Width of floor in rear (107 cm)
81" - Length of floor (206 cm)

Desolation Lake
Squall Classic at Desolation Lake

This shelter is huge. Although I've not confirmed these measurements, I have no reason to doubt them and they are consistent with my experience in the field. Instead of confirming the measurements I took a picture of the inside of the pitched shelter, named Interior Size, with two standard sized Therm-a-Rests laid out side by side. This should give the reader a much better feel for the interior room than mere measurements would.

The Squall Classic is a lightened version of the Squall by Tarptent. The shelter is made of spinnaker sail cloth and has a sewn in silnylon bathtub floor. I had no trouble pitching the shelter taut enough to insure that the spinnaker sail cloth stayed nice and quite, even in a breeze. Shape and support is provided by a supplied pre-bent aluminum hoop pole in the rear and the user's trekking pole in the front. The rear pole ferrules inserted easily into their retaining grommets and proved to be equally easy to remove. The rear pole doesn't ride in a pole sleeve as other shelters I've seen do. Instead the retaining grommets are in each end of a piece of webbing strap that runs from one side of the rear of the shelter to the other. The pole ferrules are inserted into the two grommets, thereby forming the pole into the proper arch, and then the arched pole is pushed up under the back eve and against the foot end mesh wall, locking it into place. This is a simple and elegant solution to getting the pole in and out and properly positioned. The shelter has mesh panels in front, rear, and on both sides providing excellent ventilation. The side pullouts, when used, overhang the tub floor and allow the use of the full length mesh side panels for ventilation even when it is raining. Although the side pull-outs are the only cords not provide with the shelter, I consider them necessary for proper ventilation and rain protection. It also has a front beak to prevent rain coming in the front of the tent but still allow significant airflow through the tent. The front beak can be rolled to the right (when standing at the front and facing the tent) and secured with hook and loop straps to maximize airflow and allow easier entry and exit. I found the workmanship and quality of sewing on the Squall Classic to be outstanding and up to Gossamer Gear's usual standards.

FIELD USE

I have used the Squall Classic as my primary shelter for about 6 months now. I've used it from the desert canyon regions of southern Utah to the Uinta Mountains in northern Utah.

The desert canyon region has very sandy soil, temperatures from the 80s or 90s F (27 to 32 C) in the daytime to the 20s F (-7 to -2 C) at night with sometimes high humidity (80 to 90% or higher) in the late fall or winter. It has scrub bushes and small pine trees spaced apart from each other. The terrain tends to be fairly flat between huge sandstone escarpments except where it forms the slots canyons for which the region is famous. There is little water. Hiking there requires lots of scrambling over rocks and across long, sloping, exposed slick rock. Cairn will become your new girlfriend. The country is breathtaking in its rugged beauty. Boulders the size of houses are common. Good map reading skills are very important there. The campsites tend to be small and not usually flat. All in all, the perfect place to backpack.

The Uinta Mountains run from 6,000 to 11,000 ft (1800 to 3400 m) or more. The majority is below tree line. There are numerous lakes and streams throughout the mountains. The valleys tend to be long and relatively gentle. The range is the only major one in the U.S. to run east and west, instead of north and south, and is fairly heavily forested. In the relatively short summer the temperatures are usually from the upper 70s/lower 80s F (around 25 C) for daytime highs and the lower 40s F (around 5 C) at night. Summer storms are not uncommon. All in all, the perfect place to backpack.

I have experienced general weather conditions in the tent but have not used it during a good storm or during snow. I just couldn't seem to get out when there were good rainstorms available. I was recovering from surgery during this period and missed the true rainy season. I call this my fair weather shelter because it seems to clear up as soon as I pulled it out of the stuff sack. But I have experienced enough light rain, high humidity, or windy conditions to get a good feel for how the tent is going to perform in a rain storm of reasonably proportions.

This is by far the easiest shelter of its type to put up I've ever used. For that matter, it is one of the easiest shelters to put up I've owned, period. I've had a number of "freestanding" shelters that were not nearly as easy or fast to put up or as tight or wind stable once they were.

Erection is quite simple. After installing the back pole all that is required is to set the back stake and center back pull-out cord, stretch the shelter out taut and then tension the front beak pull-out line with a stake. If I am going to use the beaks for rain protection then it is best to have the beaks secured to the front pull-out to get proper tension and angle on that line. Now all that is left to do is stake out the side pull-outs and, if you are like me and like a taut shelter, the front corner loops. It's up. It almost takes longer to explain it than to do it and the result is a nice quiet wrinkle free shelter. The only thing that might be made a problem by ground slope and such is getting the front beak pull-out line at the correct angle to provide a tight beak. The front point of the beak has a stretch cord loop attached to it and the pull-out line has a nylon hook on a Prussik knot sliding on it. The elastic loop is put in the nylon hook and the Prussik knot is slid down the pull-out line to properly tension the front beak.

Front Beak

Rear Beak
Rear Beak

As you can see from the images named Front and Rear Beak, the beaks are quite large and provide more than ample rain protection and ventilation. The image named Rear Beak also shows the excellent tub floor in the Squall Classic. There are elastic cords with cord locks on them at each corner to adjust how open, in relation to the tub floor, the mesh is allowed to be.

Side Vent
Side Vent

The image to the left shows just how big the side vents are. The shelter roof forms an excellent overhang when guyed out. These vents can be used even when it is raining.

Interior Size
Interior Size

The image to the right shows the interior size of the Squall Classic. The two Therm-a-Rests are standard size, 20" X 72" (51 cm X 183 cm) and give some idea of the room available inside the Squall Classic. This is a two person shelter that actually is. I judge the size of a shelter by how many sleeping pads I can fit in it.

Tight Fit
Lost Canyon

The image to the left was taken in Lost Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The campsite was pretty small and was on very uneven ground. Although the picture doesn't show it well, the ground was formed in a "V" with the Squall fitting on one side of the "V". It was just a bit tough to fit the Squall into a area that would be flat. The Squall has a large footprint to match its large interior room.

SUMMARY

The Squall Classic has become my default summer shelter. I have found only one minor thing about it that I changed. I like to have the beak down but only on one side. The placement of the hook and loop strips to hold the entire beak back aren't well placed to do this so I added extra strips to hold just the "first" section of the beak open and folded over the "second" section. Moving the current location of the strips on the shelter body to line up with the strips on the beak would let me do this without modifying the shelter and still not effect the correct alignment of those strips for their primary function of holding the beak closed or completely open.

Although I didn't get a chance to use this shelter in a heavy rain I did get to use it in both light rain and cool temperatures and high humidity (around 80%). The front beaks were open during the later conditions.
I observed only minor condensation on the inside of the roof of the tent.

This shelter solved a problem for me that has plagued me for a couple of years now. I tend to sprawl in my shelter. I take my pack in with me and take everything out of it. I need a two person shelter but historically been unwilling to carry the weight. The Squall Classic is bigger than most of the rest of my shelters and, at 27 oz (652 g), lighter than any of them.

What's not to like?

Owner Review by Jerry Goller

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