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How do you get on with pitching with minimal places to stick a peg to? I'm cueing up a set of options for a lightweight tent, my problem is in south west WA there is a lot of rock/pea gravel clay stuff which is difficult to get a peg into, so I'm looking into freestanding options (which are heavier).
I feel I'm going to end up having to HTFU and just use my bike/rocks/sacrifice a bent peg or something. Or just get more selective about sites. I was looking into the Hilleberg tents too, pricey, but thoughts on those?
Philip_J_Fry-
I was also worried about this, but haven't found it to be a problem in practice, so far. Here's a pic of our Stratospire 2 pegged into a gravel car park:
The stakes that came with the Tarptent hammer in well, usually using a rock. The ends pop off occasionally when pulling them out a bit though, but snot a hard problem to get around. They look like this:
I went from an MSR Hubba Hubba which is free standing to these tents, and it played on my mind a bit, but I've found it fine. Maybe consider the Double Rainbow though, which can be made to be free standing, but I think it requires trekking poles. It's a good tent regardless, but the SS2 is lighter and bigger.
WestcoastPete
The ones Tarptent sell. The ultralight one for the Contrail has been fine in all weather so far, but it is bent if the tent is pitched properly. I wish I'd bought the tougher poles for my Stratospire 2. The ultralight ones I got for it flex way too much. I managed to find some heavy fibreglass ones in Queenstown NZ not long after I figured this out.