If you see my tent fly by...

The virgin trip of my $600 Black Diamond Guiding Light was the White Rim trail in Canyonlands National Park. The first night I pitched it, staked it well with 4 stakes (heavy duty steel stakes that I used a sledge hammer to drive in), put rocks on top of the stakes, and then watched the wind rip the stakes out of the ground, move the rocks (basketball sized), and lift my tent about 50 feet in the air. It never even once touched the ground as it flew about 500 yards to the cliff face. We lost sight of it after that as it was getting dark. As far as I know it's on it's way to Colorado. It at least made it to the Colorado river.

If you see it fly by let me know. lol.

Dude.......that sucks! Or blows <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I can send ya a tent as a loaner if you need one. Let me know. It was a good thing you were not in it at the time.

The one consolation is that you weren't in it. Was any gear in it? Someone is in for a mighty nice find, although I'm sure they'll be wondering "What the?" You can only hope they appreciate it. What do you guess the winds were at? Did you abandon the trip or were others with tents there?

We got the kids in the car and drove all the way out in the middle of the night. Anyone that's been on the White Rim trail knows how fun that trail must have been in the dark. It often skirts cliffs and is really rough.

There wasn't any gear in it. We feel lucky that we had just taken the baby out of it. She was in there as I was pitching it. I honestly don't think that it would have slowed the tent down much.

We called the ranger station the next day. They said that there were gusts of wind at 70+ and that with changing weather (as it was last night) it's not uncommon to have sustained winds of 40+.

The tent knocked my wife down as it ripped out and became airborne. I just looked at it with disbelief. There was just no way to catch up to it, even if it did hit the ground at some point. It was weird that the first thought in my head was something like, "well, REI won't return that tent..."

To the poster above, thanks for the offer. I don't know what I'll do but I'll probably just buy another of the same tent. It fits my family of 6 in it, weighs less than 6 pounds, and packs unbelievably small. I don't know of anything similar.

On a side note: I think that the rangers that decide where the backcountry campgrounds will be have never seen the outside of an RV while camping. Or, they are evil geniuses and think that they can reduce impact by putting the areas in the most crowded, cold, windy, and wet places on the trail. That way no one will even want to backpack/bike.

Discuss...

Here is the best price i could find on a new one. Good luck !

http://www.e-omc.com/catalog/products/2504/Black-Diamond-Guiding-Light-Tent.html

This past summer 2 of my friends were on a trip in the Olympics going cross country with 2 other gents. One of the gents set up his REI Quarterdome as they made camp on a shelf in alpine. And.....yep. He didn't stake it down. The wind tore it right over the edge. They could see the tent waaaay far down below.

The youngest in the group, who loves to climb put on a summit pack and scaled down the ravine quite a bit down till he reached the tent (I am thinking 1,000 to 1,500 ft vertically down). The other friend shot it on video. When I watched it I thought to myself...that the gent who lost his tent was lucky someone thought it would be fun to go get it. Josh brought the tent back up, after breaking it down. In the end the tent came through with no damage.

Try explaining that to REI on why you want a refund. Too funny.:)

I woke with a start at 3 am on Saturday. I thougth it was a moose snorting behind my tarp, maybe it was your tent crashing through the trees.

Rest assured, the Tent Gods work in both directions. I found my trusty 'Texsport' dome tent, complete with rain fly attached, laying out in the middle of the desert floor, blowing along like a tumble weed. No sign of campsights, no people, nothing. Only a free tent. Still have it today.

You might see if the place you camped has a webpage and post your loss. Some nice soul might respond. Other wise, just wait around. Another tent might come blowing your way. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

OMIGAWD, was that your tent???? I thought it was a UFO flying over my house in the Puget Sound. I imagine its out the Straits and into the Pacific Ocean by now. Whew. I thought I was seeing things.

Hooboy, what an experience. You're a better man than I, who would not be seeing the humor in this, even weeks later.

A wal-mart tent I wouldn't miss so much, but a BD tent?!?

Hey bigwig,
I'm going to Canyonlands at the end of the month. I'll keep my eye out for it! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Sweet! However, a poster above has already seen it fly by his house in Puget sound so I don't know that you'll have any luck.

We were camped in Airport campground (yes, I know, the worst campground on the trail, it just split up a 2 night trip well to camp there) and it went directly east from there. lol. good luck.

I'm thinking about making a website with a map on it where people can go and mark locations where they've seen my tent fly by...

"I used a sledge hammer"

You're lightweight backpacker who pays $600 for a super light weight family tent and then brings along a sledge hammer! How many pounds did it weigh?

LOL. I bring some luxuries while car camping. The White Rim Trail is a 100 mile mountain bike or 4 Wheel Drive trail in Canyonlands. The hammer probably weighed about the same as the tent but my Toyota 4 Runner didn't mind the weight.

I've had some experience with Southern Utah and trying to camp on redrock. It's often not easy to get a stake in the ground.

That's it, I'm purchasing a wp/b bivy for all my alpine adventures from here on out. I've debated the advantages and disadvantages in my mind for some time now, and this settles it. At least if my tarp blows away, It won't take me with it!

That's really scary about your baby. I think you are very lucky that this didn't turn into a real tragedy.

Wow, I really feel for ya. I had soemthing similar happen to my SD Meteor when I was car camping out in Escalante (UT) a few years back. The good thing was I wasn't close to a cliff, and my buddy caught it before it got to far away. It did sustain a little damage due to rolling accross the ground, but I guess I can still be happy that I at least have it in my possession.

If it's windy, I always put something heavy inside the tent, like my pack, while we are putting it up.

I thought this was a lightweight backpacking forum? LOLOLOLOL

Seriously, depending on the speed of the wind, full-grown people have been blown off cliffs inside their tents.

MNS