A Video on the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar

 

Second in my series of videos on tents and shelters that I like and use regularly. This time it's the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar, which I last used on a trip last month. 

Twenty-Five Years of Trekking Pole Shelters

Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar on the GR5 Through The Alps in 2018

Recent years have seen an upsurge in tents designed to be pitched with trekking poles. This isn’t a new idea however. I’ve been using trekking pole tents and tarps for twenty-five years. Before that I had used poles to pitch tarps as cooking shelters on walks in grizzly bear country where cooking in the tent porch was not a good idea. These camps were usually in sheltered forested areas rather than open windswept places so stability wasn’t a key consideration. The main use of a tent was mostly to keep off insects while sleeping.

Tarp used as a cooking shelter at a wet camp in the Yukon Territory, 1990

I soon thought about using trekking poles for my main shelter. Why carry the extra weight of tent poles as well? Searching round for something suitable I came across a shaped tarp called the Basha-Tent from a long-gone tiny British company called Kathmandu Trekking. This could be pitched as a pyramid with a shorter pole holding up one end as a doorway. I took this on a two-week walk in the Queyras Alps in 1999 and was impressed at how it stood up to storms and how roomy it was for the weight (1.2kg with groundsheet and pegs). Far roomier in fact than tents that weighed a fair bit more.

Kathmandu Trekking Basha-Tent in the San Francisco Peaks on the Arizona Trail in 2000

The next year, 2000, I took the Basha-Tent on the Arizona Trail. On many nights I slept under the stars but there were enough camps in strong winds, and even once sleet and rain, to make me glad I had it.

GoLite Cave 1 in the High Sierra in 2004

After the Arizona Trail I was hooked on trekking pole shelters for long-distance walks. At the time the ultralight movement was just getting going with GoLite producing Ray Jardine’s minimalist designs. In the early 2000s I used one of these, the Cave 1 tarp, on two-week walks in the Uinta Mountains in Utah and round Glacier Peak in the Cascade Mountains in Washington and on a 500-mile walk in the High Sierra in California. On these walks I didn’t need insect protection and was mostly camping in woods so a tarp was adequate. The Cave weighed 794 grams with groundsheet and pegs.

Mountain Equipment AR Ultralight tents on the GR20 in Corsica in 2005

In the 2000s outdoor brands started to make tents that pitched with trekking poles. Mountain Equipment had one, the AR Ultralight, which I used on the GR20, which I walked with Cameron McNeish in 2005. I wanted a tent with a door I could close on this trip as we would be camping on sites with other people most nights. I took the two-person version without the inner to save weight. I think it weighed around a kilo with groundsheet and pegs. Cameron took the smaller AR Ultralight 1 with the inner, the latter a wise choice for protection against the dustiness of many camp sites. After windy nights I woke with a layer of dirt covering everything.

GoLite Shangri-La 1 on the Pacific Northwest Trail in 2010

In 2010 I hiked the Pacific Northwest Trail that runs from Glacier National Park in the Rocky Mountains to the Olympic National Park and the Pacific Ocean. This was likely to be a wet walk (it was!) and there were likely to be mosquitoes in places (there were!) so I wanted a double-skin tent. GoLite had expanded by then and produced several good models from which I chose the Shangri-La 1, a sloping ridge tent with a mesh inner. It weighed 963 grams and stood up to torrential rain. I still miss GoLite.

The MLD Trailstar at a very wet and windy camp on the Scottish Watershed in 2013

A year later I discovered the trekking pole shelter that has been my favourite ever since, the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar. This hexagonal shaped tarp is similar in design and size to the Basha-Tent but even more stable and weighs 767 grams with groundsheet and pegs. After using it on the 2012 TGO Challenge across the Scottish Highlands I knew it would stand up to big storms so in 2013 I took it on my Scottish Watershed walk. As this was in midge season I used it with a mesh inner for a total weight of 1.16 kilos. It performed brilliantly in some severe weather. It has since been used on long walks from Yosemite Valley to Death Valley in 2016, from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean on the GR5 in the Alps in 2018, and through the Colorado Rockies for 500 miles in 2019 plus several more TGO Challenges and many shorter trips. It’s still going strong.

The MLD Trailstar below Mount Whitney on the Yosemite Valley to Death Valley walk in 2016

All the above shelters used two trekking poles, although with the Basha-Tent and the Trailstar one was just to hold a doorway open. The last two years I’ve been using a single pole tent, the Mountain Laurel Designs SoloMid XL, which I like very much. I took this on my recent Cape Wrath Trail walk and it performed well. It weighs 1020 grams. On other trips I’ve just used the outer with a groundsheet, brings the weight down to 865 grams.

MLD SoloMid XL on the Cape Wrath Trail, 2024

I’ve tested other trekking pole shelters in recent years. Four of them are pictured below. I particularly like the Hilleberg Anaris and I’m delighted to hear that a solo version is planned. 

Hilleberg Anaris on a week-long walk in Knoydart, 2023

Vango Heddon 100 in the Cairngorms, 2021

Durston X-Mid 1 in the Cairngorms, 2023

Sierra Designs High Route 1 in the Cairngorms, 2022

I haven’t stopped using tents. Aside from testing them for The Great Outdoors magazine I often use one for short trips where weight isn’t that important. I wouldn’t take one on a trip of more than three or four days though.

Lightwave Sigma in the Cairngoems, 2023

I wrote about all the tents and shelters I’ve used on long walks from 1976 to 2019 here.

Ten Years of the Trailstar

Quinag, September 2015

On my walk with Tony Hobbs last month (see here) I realised that my Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar is ten years old and this deserved an acknowledgement. So here it is. In those years I've reviewed many tents and tarps but none has supplanted the Trailstar as my favourite for long walks. Indeed, I've used it on every walk of more than a few nights (and quite a few shorter ones) since 2012. It's travelled well over 2000 miles and been used on hundreds of nights and in some big storms and has never let me down.

Below Fuar Tholl in the NW Highlands on the TGO Challenge, May, 2012

Why do I like the Trailstar so much? Because, it's very light, roomy, and amazingly stable in stormy weather. I also like - no, enjoy, - the versatility. As it's a tarp rather than a tent it can be pitched in different ways. In particular it can be raised or lowered according to the weather - high for airflow, low too for wind resistance and to keep rain from blowing under the edges. 

A low pitch in very wet and windy weather above Loch a' Bhealaich on my Scottish Watershed walk, July 2013.

 

 

The Trailstar does have a big footprint but I don't find this a problem as it's easy to pitch over rocks and bushes. I've even pitched on small sites with one side halfway up a bank. Working out how to pitch on awkward terrain is much more interesting than pitching a tent with a fixed shape.

On the TGO Challenge, May 2014. A wet and windy site in the Cairngorms.

I love the feeling of contact with nature and the landscape the Trailstar gives.It's airy and open. I usually sleep with my head at the door so I can look out at the night sky. If wind and rain disturb me I can quickly shift to the back, out of their reach. I do have a mesh inner which I use in midge season though. There are limits to how close I want to be with some of nature!

TGO Challenge, May 2016. Beside Loch Morar.

At 3500 metres below Mount Whitney on my Yosemite Valley to Death Valley walk, October 2016

On the GR5 Through the Alps, September 2018.

TGO Challenge, May 2019. Below the Mamores.

High in the Colorado Rockies, August 2019

After all this use the Trailstar is still in good condition. Only the little MLD label has faded and frayed. I smeared sealant over the seams when it was new - straight out of the tube, no messing with thinning or multiple layers - and it has never leaked. I'm hoping to be using it for many years yet.

On the Moine Mhor, Cairngorms, May 2022

Camping on the GR5 Trail through the French Alps

Camp opposite the Pointe de la Selle

When I set out on the GR5 I intended to camp as often as possible. I knew that you can stay in accommodation every night as there are many mountain refuges and settlements along the way but camping in wild places is a major part of long walks for me and I had no intention of not doing so. As it was after the second week of September most of the refuges and even hotels in towns were closed. An autumn walk on the GR5 requires camping.

First day, first camp. Below the Col de Bise

The walk took me thirty-two days, two of them rest ones. I ended up camping on twenty-one nights, eighteen of them on wild sites, one on an open commercial campground, and two on closed campgrounds that might as well have been wild sites. Ten nights were spent in hotels and guest houses.

En route to the Col de Chesery

Finding camp sites wasn't quite as easy as it is in some areas and I quickly learnt I had to think about the terrain and water sources. Much of the GR5 is on steep slopes with few places to camp. Water sources are sometimes many hours walking apart, especially in the southern half of the walk. I found it was better to stop early if I found a good site as pushing on could mean walking well into the night and crossing high cols in darkness, which I did a couple of times. I also soon started to fill up my water bottles late in the afternoon and carry water the last hour or two so I could use sites far from any water.

Clearing skis at a camp by the Ruiseau d'Anterne after a night of thunderstorms and heavy rain

Mostly, once away from villages and farms there were no restrictions on camping, as far as I could tell. Exceptions were in the two national parks, the Vanoise and the Mercantour. In the first camping is forbidden except next to some refuges, which weren't on my route. I camped just outside the park on two nights and spent a third in a guest house. In the Mercantour National Park camping was forbidden but bivoacing was permitted between the hours of 7pm and 9am. As I'd already learnt a bivouac in the French Alps means using a shelter in which you can't stand up - so backpacking tents and tarps are fine.

Camp en route to the Col de Brevent

Whenever possible I chose sites with spacious views. Sometimes though stormy weather made it more sensible to head down and camp deep in the forests. These sites were also enjoyable - I love trees - and the quietest of them all. Partly because there were no cows. Most of the uplands crossed by the GR5 are used for grazing cattle and sheep. I saw many hundreds of both. Often the animals wore bells, which could be heard jangling from far away. A few times I used ear plugs to reduce the noise. Sometimes I woke to find cows all round my camp. Another result of all these animals was that I often camped on ground liberally covered with cow and sheep dung. By the end of the trip my groundsheet stank, something I've never experienced before.

The GR5 was a great walk that I really enjoyed and I had many splendid camps. The Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar, a well-used shelter that had been on two previous multi-week walks and many shorter ones, was ideal, giving masses of room and resisting wind and rain. Here are some more of my camps.
 

En route to the Refuge les Barmettes

Below the Col de la Vallee Etroite

Opposite the Pointe de la Selle

A frosty morning below the Col des Fourches

En route to the Col de Crousette

Below the Col des Deux Caires

My last camp on the GR5, above Utelle

Wild Camping on the TGO Challenge

Camp in Glen Doll

For me backpacking is as much about wild camping as walking. Where I camp and how long I spend in camp are important. Camping is an opportunity to stop and spend time in a place in contrast to moving through it during the day. Staying overnight I can watch a place change with the light, the pattern of clouds, the sunset and the sunrise. On this year's TGO Challenge I had many fine campsites and enjoyed much time both wandering round the sites and watching them from inside my shelter. Here are some wild camping pictures from the trip, featuring the Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar.

First night's camp by Loch Morar after a frosty night

View from the Trailstar at the camp by Loch Morar

One advantage of the Trailstar that's not often mentioned is that it's roomy enough to set up a camera and tripod inside and take pictures like the next one

Chceking the map before heading out on a cool windy day

A flash of sunshine after a very wet night in Glen Banchor

Dusk at a camp in upper Glen Feshie

I've written about my TGOC trip for my column in the July issue of The Great Outdoors. That issue will also includ a piece about the gear he used on the Challenge by Will Renwick plus a list of my gear. I'll then be describing how key items performed in my online columns on the TGO website.