Well, I actually made this over a month ago, but just was recently reminded of it when looking through pictures.

I was in a pinch for a shelter on my 8-day Wind River trip a friend and I were taking. He had his own solo tarp and bivy, so I needed something of my own.

I really liked the looks of the Trailstar, especially in a place known for its winds. It seemed like it would shed wind nicely from all directions. I didn't have the time to wait the 6-8 weeks from MLD, so I whipped up a quick design in Sketchup and sewed it up.

I designed it to be primarly for solo use, so it is slightly smaller than a real Trailstar. It still fit two people just fine, just a little tighter than a real Trailstar I'd imagine. It's a bit lighter though, weighing in at 13.5oz (in the stuff sack) even when seam sealed. Its a little shorter vertically then a Trailstar too. I don't use trekking poles, so it is supported by a .625 mid pole, and .490 door pole, which adds 5oz to the total. So for a total of 18.5oz, I had a shelter for the trip. I used a bivy, as I always do, under it, which was nice on a night it rained.

It performed flawlessly, and once I got the hang of pitching it, I could get it pretty taught in 3-4 minutes. It took a little while to get used to pitching it, and as you can see in the first picture I hadn't got it perfectly set up yet. One day when camped at the tarn camp at 11,000ft near Gannett Peak, winds were over 25mph, and it barely even moved once I had it pinned down.







Overall I really liked it, and it is now my go-to 3 season shelter. Props to Ron for a great idea on the 5-sided shelter. He offers it at a great price too.

Nice work John.

Good job and thanks for the description!

That looks like a well made tarp. Do you know how much linear fabric it too to make it? It looks like it from the pictures, but did you make all the panels small enough to be cut from a single piece of 60" silynlon?

The trailstar looks amazingly like mine. You have a talent with sewing.

The pictures of the Winds are beautiful too. I need to get out there. Hope the axe worked out well for you.

Trailstar is just a bit heavy

Your version has a better weight

Looks good

Beautiful work. One of my favorite designs as well.

very nice! One of the advantages of MYOG is tailoring to your own needs/wants. You wanted smaller and lower. I have material for a trailstar-ish shelter for winter use and am leaning towards slightly smaller footprint but taller (for steeper sides). MYOG = HIYW! (have it your way)

How high was your center pole? This looks really nice but I would want to be able to sit up easily in my shelter, which requires at least 38" of clearance where my head is (meaning higher at the center pole).

And I too am interested in whether you were able to cut the entire triangles from 60" fabric.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Ben, the axe worked great! Attempted to climb Gannett, but the bergshrund below gooseneck was completely wide open, and the only way I saw teams getting across was climbing down into the crevasse, and jumping across when it got narrow enough to do so. Considering the fact I didn't have a rope/harness, that was the stopping point for me.

It took ~7 yards of 61" wide silnylon. Ideally one would use 64-65", but I only had 61" on hand. If I was going to make it again, I would definitely use >64" sil, as I think the extra headroom would be worth the increase in weight. My center pole is at about 39", so in the very middle next to the pole you can sit up. If I would have been able to use wider sil, the headroom would have been a little more spacious.

Very clean looking tarp. Also, it's weight is quite impressive.

Looks beautiful! How much deflection did you use in the cat cut for the ridgeline and perimeter? The slightly smaller size sounds great for bike touring or backpacking with a dog. Nice job.
Steve

Very nice looking shelter, John. I'm interested in making one for myself. Could you give more information on pattern, measurements and construction method? Thanks for your time and for posting this. Awesome job.