Separating ice and Cuben Fiber

[FreeGoldRush]

Is there a concern with vigorously shaking a Cuben Fiber tent to remove ice? Last night I slept in the ZPacks Duplex. It got down to 21F and there was freezing rain and sleet all night. Even though I shook the walls of the tent many times during the night to remove ice it was covered by morning and it seems to require some real shaking to get it to break loose. The inside also has a good layer of frozen condensate. The ice experiment took place in the backyard, so no hurry, but how do you deal with this on the trail without tearing up your pricey tent? Waiting for the sun to hit it seems like one solution.

[ScareBear]

Except you don't want to be inside it when the interior frozen condensate starts to thaw....drip...drip...just sayin...

Tough conditions for any single wall tent. 21F and freezing rain...high humidity and below freezing temps...I know it would have been counter-intuitive to increase the venting to max...but...you see the end result of buttoning up a single wall tent in these conditions. I don't think your interior freezing is any defect in your tent...except that some single wall tents vent better than others....YMMV

Before you go snap-shaking a frozen Cuben Fibre tent, give Zpacks a call and see what they recommend...

[MuddyWaters]

dont be overly worried about $$$ gear.
In a few years it will be worth little whether you use it or not
just use it, do what you need to it, dont worry about it. Its not a lifetime investment. Its a consumeable.

I dont recall ever doing anything with frosty tarp but rolling up and shoving in outside pocket on pack. Ive woke up with ice all over tarp inside above my head..just pack it up. worry about it later. It will melt. Never been encased in sleet or such.

[cmoulder]

This is one of the factors I considered when getting my Duomid, which is my winter shelter, and the reason I got the silnylon version... ice shakes off of silnylon much more readily. I use a Duplex the rest of the year...

Photo of ice sheets easily flaking from my silnylon Duomid after an ice storm. Only about 1/16" or so in thickness, but still quite heavy!
37797

[SawnieRobertson]

I was using my 1-person cuben tent by Lighthearted. This weighed only one pound. That bought me a little less than 2 pounds that my previous tent weighed. The thought came to me that I had something like at least a one-pound credit available if I could find anything worth that 1 pound. I did. So I grabbed a 1-lb. silnylon tarp which I pulled out of my pack first of all. I hung its almost square self over my tent site. Then I proceeded to set up my little tent beneath it. That night there came the most gawd awful electrical rain and wind storm I have ever experienced. It sounded as though the tarp was being whipped to shreds all night. In the morning there it hung just as 'i had set it up, and my tent was dry. The rainwater on the tarp was easy to remove by wiggling it a little. I think it would be likewise with the icing, and your tent would have no condensation to speak of. Ain't synthetic materials grand!

[K2 Travels]

Just pack like normal. I make mine a bit looser and keep on outside of pack until later in day.

[FreeGoldRush]

This is one of the factors I considered when getting my Duomid, which is my winter shelter, and the reason I got the silnylon version... ice shakes off of silnylon much more readily. I use a Duplex the rest of the year...

Photo of ice sheets easily flaking from my silnylon Duomid after an ice storm. Only about 1/16" or so in thickness, but still quite heavy!
37797

That sounds like a good plan. The ice storm Friday left much more ice thsn that. And it really sticks to cuben fiber. Pretty sure I would have damaged it if packing it early in the morning. Winter camping is not my thing. Just wanted to see if 10 pounds in gear would keep me comfortable in an ice storm. It more or less did.