In a quest for lighter weight camping I’ve been interested in hammocks. I first saw a guy in a park using something similar to the hennessy hammock. Basically,
- get some nylon (ripstop is recommended – though none of mine are) at least 50cm longer than you are
- hem the 2 short edges with big (3cm) folds.
- push a carabina through each fold
- tie it up.
Here is a pic showing the big hems, and how you push a carabina through them to gather up the ends.
I use my slackline to tie the hammock under.
I end up with a line running overhead, with the hammock slung a bit lower down. The line overhead gives me a nice ridge to put a tarp over if its cold or wet.
My tarp is about 3m by 1.75m – with 6 elasticated loops round the edges. I use 10m of thin nylon twine and 6 tent pegs to tie it up/down/whatever the situation allows.
marketing blurb: the possibilities are limited only by your imagination!
Close up pic showing the elasticated loops that are on the corners and halfway down the long sides. Elastic is good because you can tie stuff tight and then if its really windy things can move about a bit. A bit of applied softness there!
Also shown is the sealed seam. The nylon comes in fixed widths, so to make wider sheets I needed to sew pieces together. You can use a sewing technique to make sure that the water runs off the seam, rather than into it. Sealing it makes it a bit safer if its really rainy.
My slackline, hammock, tarp, pegs in a stuffit bag weighs 1.25kg. Pretty good for a chair, sleeping, entertainment and rain cover!
Sometimes in cold weather you’ll want some insulation on your back, as the air blowing by will rob it all. I’m experimenting with the silver foil survival bags, but don’t yet know how well they last.
One issue with this method of camping is that I require trees. However, as I love trees, this is no problem for me.
Another plus is that where there are trees, there is dead wood to burn. So I can dispense with the weight of a gas fire and cook over a real fire! Remember to be careful with fire kids! Did you know you can set peat bogs on fire underground !!! Camp responsibly!
Resources
- www.pointnorth.co.uk
– awesome customer service, good materials at good prices. - the hennessy hammock
- cold weather hammock camping
- another hammock solution
- making camping gear
- cool hammock resource
