Tarptent - 'Scarp 1'

A new piece of lightweight camping gear arrived at my door about 3 weeks ago now all the way from the U.S.A.

 It's a tent made by a company called 'Tarptent' & the model is called the 'Scarp 1'. I did a lot of research into upgrading from my Vango Tempest 200 tent which was a bulky heavy awkward to put up 2 person dwelling & I wanted something much lighter, smaller (1 person) more compact with plenty of room for storing gear & cooking in when the weather is poor, the options I had were the...

...Hilleberg 'Akto' at an approximate price of around £490 & a top of the class 1 person tent with access to only one side & a huge storage area, this was to start with my first choice but felt that the price was a bit above what I wanted to spend.

Another option was the...

Nordisk 'Telemark 1' with a price tag of approximately £360, I never gave this tent a lot of consideration as it is very small inside with barely enough room to sit upright in but I did like the way that you could take out a couple of the corner supports & join them together to prop up the door to make a canopy for wet weather & again only the one entrance into the tent...

...Next choice was the Terra Nova 'Laser Competition 1' with a price around £259 which was a bit more the price range that I wanted to spend, but reviews on it's stability were a bit iffy in windy conditions !..

...Then came the Vaude 'Power Lizard' retailing again within my price range at around the £310 & again reviews about it's stability in the strong winds & how guiding the pole through the hoop eyelets of the tent can be awkward even in the slightest wind & even more difficult with cold hands !..

So the final choice was the Tarptent 'Scarp 1' which was my equal choice to the Hilleberg 'Akto' tent but then quickly became my 1st choice, the reviews for both these tents are pretty much the same you couldn't split them, but for me I chose the Tarptent for the reasons that it had 2 side entrances with loads of storage room on either side, so that I could use one side for storing gear & cooking & the other for entry in & out of the tent. The main sleeping compartment is very spacious with room to sit upright in & plenty of head / feet space either end & unlike the Akto plenty of elbow room too. There were optional extras available for this tent too & I decided to buy the 2 crossing poles which would give it extra support if the weather turned bad which it can do in the blink of an eye here in Scotland all 4 seasons in one day.

So here's a wee look at some pictures of my new wild camping abode...

Erected without the crossing poles & it's amazing how strong & stable it is, there are built in solid supports on each corner as well as the front & rear centres of the tent.
 Please forgive the amateur attempt at the pitching of the tent I was mad keen desperate to put it up but haven't been able to due to my shifts & the weather. A little more patience & practice is required :-/ all in good time though it will be up & down a fair number of times throughout the summer months to come !

As you can see there is more than enough room for panniers, boots etc & if that's not enough there is ample space inside the sleeping quarters if needed.

Plenty of air circulation...

...and a generous roomy interior, quite amazing how a tent so small can be so big inside.

And now with the optional extra 2 crossing poles.

I added the two guy ropes to either side but took them off again as I really don't think that this tent requires them as it's just so solid as it is !

And that's the end of the photos, so now for some statistics...

My old Vango 'Tempest 200' tent weighs 2.9 kg

My new Tarptent 'Scarp 1' weighs 1.36 kg 
+
My Hennessy Hammock weighs 1.4 kg

So the combined weight of the Tarptent & Hennessy weigh in at 2.76 kg so both sleep systems combined weigh less than the Vango tent, nice to have the choice of where to sleep for the night & I can & will carry both with me.
The overall cost of the Tarptent 'Scarp 1' worked out at £296.16 & that was for the tent, 2 crossing poles, shipping from the U.S. & Import duty so all in all a very reasonable price for a top quality & highly reviewed piece of kit that I'm looking forward to using. The downside was that it took 2 days to to arrive in the U.K. from the U.S. & 2 weeks held up in U.K. customs !!!

And now a wee video I took & once again apologies for the amateur pitching performance, practice makes perfect as they say.

Music by the Rolling Stones 'Gimme Shelter'

Job done & thanks for looking please visit again soon
cheers for now.