Fair Weather Camper
Thru Hiker
Related to slippage: when a pitch is not flat, which is usually, what tricks do people use to avoid slide?
I carried the @tom palma foil/foam mat intending to use it for warmth boost but ended up rolling it up and wedging it under the lower side of my mat to get the lie flatter. I also stuck my spare socks, warm hat and anything else at intervals along the edge. All these items are lightweight, therefore pathetically non- existent as wedges.
Any other tips? Or better, tips to get a flatter pitch. Perhaps my intuitive geometry is bad. I try to pitch diagonally across the angle of a slope with head highest, but in reality I always slide sideways.
It's not always possible, or pleasant to lie down first to test, if it's a bit wet or mucky.
Walking it with baby footsteps gives you a good idea of levels - especially if you've developed your spidey/ yogi sense of weight balance in your feet.
Depends on how you sleep too, most side sleepers have a favoured side - if I have to be on a slope Id rather have legs and arms on the down-hill side.
Doesn't totally prevent the 'falling off a cliff' dreams altogether, but it can help a bit.
In extremis I have used my pack under the long mat edge, to give a more cradle like effect, or at head end.
Twos up, we often sleep head to toe..
Legs uphill helps prevent restless legs for him apparently.
Usually scoping for a 'perfect pitch' anything up to an hour before stopping in unknown terrain.
It's reassuring to have a default banked to return to, if what lies ahead is unsuitable.
Although, its rarely necessary to have to retrace that far.
I reckon we should get points for finding this pitch though.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnnrRtFlwOB/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=pulhobbk6imv
In the mist, in an endless sea of boulders at the end of a looong day.
Any smaller and it would have been a case of rolling up in the fly sheet as an impromptu bivvi.