Bushwalk Australia

This is my first post so please excuse my doubling up of my questions if there have already been discussion on this.

We are both 55 fairly experienced walkers going to Torres Del Paine in late September/early October to do the W trek. We need to upgrade our current tent and have been tossing up between a Hilleberg Nallo 2 or a Macpac Minaret (much cheaper). Does anyone have any opinion of if the Minaret or something along these price lines will do it and stand up to the wind, or should be bite the bullet and buy the Hilleberg. The blogs and reviews I have read make me doubt the Macpac can take the wind in Patagonia. We a also tossing up changing to an Arne pack as they are so much lighter. Has anyone experienced walking with these as we are walking Larapinta mid year this year and figured the upgrade for the long term is worth it.

Have you read the rules?

Other than that, welcome to the forums.

Aarn packs are not that light when compared to other packs. But they do carry well. Amazingly well, in fact!

Have you been able to get in one and see both these first hand. The hilleberg will undoubtedly be the stronger and bigger of the two tents, it also can be used in hotter weather than the minaret more comfortably. The quality of hilleburg tents is superb and in knocking back the chance to buy a cheap one a friend recently said, 'I've got champagne tastes but a beer budget'. That says it all really.

Aarn packs might be lighter than what you currently have though they aren't the lightest. Strider is right when he says that they do carry well, though it really helps if the pack is set up to fit you. I'm tall and I really like that the height of a loaded pack is a lot lower as it doesn't hit as many branches, the balance pockets really do make a difference which I notice when I go back to the old pack. I've done a lot of walking with my aarn in the five months since I got it and the only time the balance pockets got in the way was when I was rock scrambling at times. I'm going to use mine on the larapinta walk later this year and it will be used shortly on the AAWT (like member Mutley has just done wearing his aarn). You have to remember that while it makes the pack nicer to carry, you still have to carry the weight so don't have unrealistic expectations on what it can do

Actually if you are only doing the W you'll find all the campsites except Grand Pehoe pretty sheltered from the wind - typically they are in forest under trees. The wind sounds amazing going through the tree tops but at ground level it was not bad, We took a Blue Sky Revolution tent which was fine despite its light weight. People had all sorts of tents from cheap to Hillebergs and no one seemed to have any issues. In my opinion the cheaper tent would be fine. FYI I also took an Aarn load limo pack and it failed on me.

The strongest wind we encountered there was at los Cuernos which has wooden tent platforms, so make sure you have plenty of guy ropes to get your tent secured to a wooden platform and arent just relying on tent pegs around the base of your tent.

Quick question - I'm planning to do the TdP circuit in November 2015.

I've read that wind is a significant issue for the trek, but do you think it'll be feasible to camp using only an A-frame tarp for the entire trip? (walking pole and lots of guide lines).

I've been using tarps my whole life and don't want to break the tradition. Cheers

Hey Matchead, I don't have any experience of the setup you're describing, but having experienced guylines torn from the tent by Patagonian winds earlier this year, I would think you are adding an extra degree of difficulty and discomfort that wouldn't be what I would do. It just depends on whether you get lucky with the weather or not and whether you can cope if you're not lucky with the weather. Do you feel lucky? Well do you?