Hello All,
I haven't been on the forum in a while. I am finally going on a hike after a 2 year hiatus.

Anyhow, I have this nice 50ft length of Kelty triptease I want to use with my tarp (I'n new to tarps). What practical lengths do people cut their rope in? I don't want to take 50ft but I don't want to waste rope on useless lengths. I only backpack in the east coast. Trees are never very far apart. I know I have to cut it eventually to make use of it.

Thanks for any advise.

I rarely (almost never) pitch my tarp with a ridgeline, so I have four sections cut to ~3 ft long, and two are slightly longer. I usually carry some extra too, but rarely use it.

Daniel, You should cut the ridgelines about 10 ft to be safe and the corner and side guylines 2-3 ft...I have a 8x10 GG SpinnTwinn tarp and those lengths work great for me... Kelty Tripease is a excellent tarp rope/guyline...

I too have an 8x10 tarp. a 10FT ridgeline rope would not seem long enough. But 2-3FT guiline ties seem reasonable.

I also have some mason line which seems pretty strong. Has anyone used this for guiline?

Also the flying Diamond is my pitch of prefrence. I've been messing with pitching the back of the diamond directly to the ground. This seems to work well. For this I need one rope to tie the front of the diamond to the tree and one to pull up the back centerline.

I guess I was trying to cut my rope so I could use it for a variety of pitches. Perhaps I should just onsider the longest length, ridge line, as my longest length.

Edited by magillagorilla on 09/18/2009 20:47:14 MDT.

if it doesn't (like my OES mac cat) then i used 8 ft sections for the ridgeline tie outs and 5 ft sections for the rest of the tie outs

Depends on the tarp, for my cat-cut 8x10 I use 8' or 10' lines for the ridgeline pull-outs and 2'-3' lines for the corners. When I use my flat tarp I take 6 or 7 lengths of the 2'-3' lines and just connect two or more together if I need anything longer.

For guyline I've use the old MLD twisted Kevlar line (came with the tarp), the new MLD line, and GG EZC line. The GG is my favorite because its easiest to see, which leads to less tripping, and holds any knot you like. The newer MLD line is pretty good too, but I find myself always checking to make sure none of the knots have come undone as its a little slippery.

Adam

Thanks for the advise. I am guessing that when you say 8-10ft line(s) you are using 2 10ft sections to do an A frame between two trees for example.

Upposed to the A frame tarp style where you use one super long line to hang your tarp from (line running the entire length of the tarp and tree to tree), are you using a 10ft piece of line on either side with no line running the length of the tarp?