So I've got my first expedition tent, the Trango 3.1. I'll be taking it out to Rainier in less than a week!

But I'm a little lost on the guy lines and looking for help:
1. There are 14 guy line attachment points on the tent, but it only comes with 10 lines. Am I missing something? Do people pack the 10 lines unattached and then attach them as needed when the tent is pitched?

2. Internal guy lines. Ok, I'm totally confused here. I think I'm supposed to run the lines from corner to corner via the top center, but the diagrams and the text tell me two different things. Also, it tells me to take 4(!) of the 10 lines, and join them to make two long lines to use internally. That would leave me with 6 external guy lines...is that right? Or do I just need to go down to the store and get some more cord?

Any help or advice would be great. Thanks.

yer gonna die!

They never give you enough guy lines for every guy out point. I think my SD Stretch Dome Exp has 20+ guy out point, and came with about 8 lines. That being said, I've never had to use them all. I've been in some bad weather on Rainier, and never needed that many.

The caveat here: I have family who've been on Rainier and seen tents ripped apart and blown in crevasses. At that point I would have tightened down my internal guy lines, and started using boot laces, pickets, and ice axe leashes to guy out every point that I could.

So, look at your weather, pick out all the guy points that you think you might actually want to use, and make sure you've got enough lines and snow stakes to make use of them.

Kris

Sweet tent, and have fun on Rainier!

Seems like everyone has their own "guy line style", but for me whats worked is 6 guy lines - 2 somewhere in the front, 1 on each side, and 2 in the back. Guy lines are attached to the attachment points lowest to the ground, and then when pitching they go straight out and around my anchor, then up and around a higher attachment point on the tent, and tied off to itself with some type of hitch for easy adjustment/tightening.

elichten wrote:So I've got my first expedition tent, the Trango 3.1. I'll be taking it out to Rainier in less than a week!.

Awesome! As they say, April roared in like a lion and left like a lamb. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve. Also, we recieved a large amount of snow fall in April so expect lots of snow.

elichten wrote: Do people pack the 10 lines unattached and then attach them as needed when the tent is pitched?!

I don't know what other folks do, but I attach them once. I tie a small loop in the end of the guy line then girth hitch the line onto guy point. This way it is easy to reposition should that be necessary. I have used the Trango 2 which is similar to the Trango 3. I never needed more than 6 guy lines (one on each corner and one on each of the 'broad' sides of the tent).

elichten wrote:Internal guy lines. Ok, I'm totally confused here. I think I'm supposed to run the lines from corner to corner via the top center, but the diagrams and the text tell me two different things. Also, it tells me to take 4(!) of the 10 lines, and join them to make two long lines to use internally. That would leave me with 6 external guy lines...is that right? Or do I just need to go down to the store and get some more cord?

I think you have enough guy lines already. In a bad storm you can use prusiks slings and ropes to secure the tent. As far as internal guying, in my experience, you do not need to use internal guy lines under most conditions, especially if you have selected a sheltered tent site. The one time I needed to use internal guy lines, we formed 'x's across the wide part of the tent as the wind was hitting us broadside. We were unable to orient the tent better because we were pitched on a narrow ridge.

I will add that guying the tent out is the last thing I worry about. First my mind are site selection (protection, access to snow/water source, proximity to climbing route and descent route, orientation to prevailing winds) and preparation (leveling site, building walls) finding appropriate anchors for the substrate. If you are carrying over, you can use ice tools and pickets thus obviating the need for carrying extra tent anchors. If you are leaving the tent as a basecamp, you will need to something to achnor the tent other than your climbing tools. On snow, skis, deadmanned trekking poles and snow shoes, buried stuff sacks filled with snow, and buried rocks all make excellent tent anchors. Commerically availabe soft stakes and mini flukes work very well, but are extra weight and expense. To avoid having your tent turn into the world's most expensive box kite*, use two people to set it up and stake it out first.

I have personally witnessed this beautiful sight on three occasions, and I can say it is more enjoyable when it is somebody else's home that is merrily bouncing down the moraine.

Reminds of setting a MH prototype single wall tent in a hole we dug above tree line, on the west face of Mount Washington (near the cog tracks) during a whiteout (6ft visibility) in February.

We cut blocks while digging the hole to put up a wall to protect from the wind. The tent was about the size of a MKII but a tiny bit longer.

We pegged the leading edge and my friend dove in with the packs and poles to keep it in place while I attached the outer guylines.

during the night, nearly all the pole tabs on the inside ripped, thankfully not the fly sheet nor the external loops.

That was the end of another attempt of a winter traverse, the tent had a half inch of ice we couldn't get rid of. stopped by the weather station on the way back down and notice the avg 110mph with gusts of 140+mph, we were lucky the temperature had stayed above -10°C (or unlucky because that's what caused the freezing rain/sleet?)

[quote="Luc"]Reminds of setting a MH prototype single wall tent ...during the night, nearly all the pole tabs on the inside ripped, thankfully not the fly sheet nor the external loops.
quote]

Ha ha! I also had a MH prototype (their first attempt at building a single wall tent). During a storm, the internal velcro tabs tore off so we had to guy it internally to keep the entire tent from self destructing. This was on a big peak in the Alaska Range.