Square pyramid tent pitching 101- getting it right angles every time

A little easy trick to get a square pyramid tent without a floor pegged down on the square. First time, every time.

Background to square pyramid tent pitching

When backpacking trekking it is always great to be able to set up a tent quickly, particularly when tired, cold and wet and the weather is poor. A pyramid tent without a fixed floor is very quick to crudely set up for quick personal protection.

Having no fixed floor is very popular with many mid users. They are light and versatile for a variety of situations such as camping on snow with excavated snow pits for comfort, using a tent stove, dealing with wet or snow-covered gear and spilling food and drinks. However, the lack of a floor makes the square pyramid pitching difficult and the set of the tent will be suboptimal until proper squaring is achieved by frustrating trial and error.

This post describes a simple method of getting the square pitch right from the start and it even starts with the way that the tent is packed after its previous use.

The square pyramid tent pitching method

Traditionally with silnylon pyramid tents that are soft and slippery, I stuffed the tent into a stuff bag for quick and efficient packing. More recently, to address the condensation and wet stretching issues that afflict pyramids made from silnylon I have started to successfully make similar tents from breathing polyester.

This polyester fabric is much stiffer than silnylon and does not pack well by stuffing. Luckily, I found that it could be packed up easily and equally compactly by simple systematic folding of the multiple tent panels on top of each other, followed by further lateral folding and then finally rolling the layers up toward the tent apex. I use the apex cord to bind the bundle and compress it. “This way it easily fits into the original silnylon tent stuff-bag”.

Using the a pyramid faces as a set square

The inspiration. While tinkering with a mathematical spreadsheet model to help design pyramid tents it dawned on me the pyramid tent in my pack was made of four gigantic isosceles triangles. These could be used as set squares to easily and accurately set the square of the tent base.

Initial peg out. The tent can simply be pegged out tightly (as normal) on two back base corners (opposite the zipped up doorway). Then the apex can be pulled out taught over the stretched tent base. The other two corners can then be adjusted so that the doorway zipper lines up with the taught tent apex to set the base perfectly square.

Special peg point markers. This tent is made for sharing between multiple campers. Consequently, using two people to set up the tent makes it very quick and efficient even under trying conditions. Finding the correct anchor point on the base of the back of this tent is not always easy when a tent is emptied from its bag in a hurry in strong winds.

This is particularly tricky with the polyester tent described above as at the corners, the pyramid pannel transitions seamlessly into a bell wall and then into a snow/bug skirt. They all have similar anchor tabs for various purposes. I can just hear my confused camping companion say, in the poor light, over the sound of the storm and rustling of the flogging tent; “Yes Tim, but what tie out, there are lots in this corner?

Colour coded markers at the critical corners can be a great help. I find small slices of brightly coloured plastic airline and a portion of a little glow in the dark fishing bead are a big help in poor light or even no light. This means that I can say; “Grab the blue, yellow or glowing one, and stick it. That is the peg, thanks.”

Pack up the tent to make set-up easy. This setup method is made easy by the prior packing up of the tent in a systematic way. I make the base of the back wall that will be pegged down first be the first one to reveal itself when unpacking. Luckily, my new normal pack up method is the reverse of the above set-up method.

Addendum

Setting up and testing my ideas on a lawn at home is a great starting point. However, the real test comes with their implementation in the bush environment when possibly a little tired, hot, sore and worn down by long days of leg challenging walking (scrambling). I have just returned from a four-day hike from Guy’s hut down to the Wonnangatta Homestead site and return and am happy to report that the tent was pitched perfectly square every night without any fuss using this method.

Here is a little ode to celebrate my rather slow discovery of this pitching process that was under my nose for 50+ years:

Fifty years to find a perfect pitch?
Not for music, but for the square tents I stitch,
Just two pegs and two seams pulled tight,
Doable by one or best by two, in the darkness of night,
No frustrating, cold-fingered-go-left-no-go-right-your-right-or-my-right..... iterative switch.

Tim

OTHER POST FOR PYRAMID TENT FANS

[Add post about large downdraft backpacking tent stove for this large tent]

DIY breathing polyester tent for backpacking- Beat the dreaded condensation problem

Pyramid tent design- A spreadsheet model

Polyester ageing- About as interesting as paint drying

DIY silicone seam sealer- Getting a long pot-life

Hexagonal tent design- A spreadsheet model

Tie out tabs for pyramid tents- Keeping DIY tabs cheap, small, simple, strong and light

A pyramid tent vestibule- Turn a pyramid into a winter palace, using a spreadsheet model