Tarps and Shelters

Pick a safe site

A shelter site needs material to build with and a spot big and level enough to lie down ¹. Then look for what can hurt you ¹:

• Overhead: dead trees and hanging dead limbs (widowmakers). Look up before you unpack.
• Below: ground under the high-water mark of a lake or river, and dry washes that flood.
• Around: rockfall slopes, insect nests, and poison ivy.

In winter, pick a spot out of the wind with fuel and water close; in summer, a breezier spot with fewer bugs ¹.

Small and insulated

“The most common error in making a shelter is to make it too large,” according to the Army manual. A shelter has to be big enough to protect you and small enough to hold your body heat, especially in the cold ¹.

The ground is the other heat thief. The manual warns that at rest you can lose as much as 80 percent of your body heat to the ground ¹, so insulate underneath before anything else: a thick bed of leaves, pine needles, grass, or spruce boughs, or a closed-cell foam pad. A tarp over your head and nothing under you is a cold night.

A tarp lean-to

The fastest shelter, from a poncho or tarp, 2 to 3 meters of cord, a few stakes, and two trees 2 to 3 meters apart ¹:

1. Check the wind. The back of the lean-to goes into the wind ¹.
2. Tie cord to the two corner grommets on one long edge and tie them off to the trees about waist high, using a round turn and two half hitches with a quick-release (slipped) finish ¹.
3. Tie a short drip stick to each cord a couple of centimeters from the grommet. Rainwater running down the cord drips off the stick instead of running into the shelter ¹.
4. Stake the other edge to the ground ¹.
5. Put insulation inside, and pile brush or your pack at the open sides against the wind ¹.

For more than one night or expected rain, add a center support: a line from the middle of the tarp up to an overhanging branch ¹. A ridgeline strung tight between the trees, with the tarp hung from it, is the common modern version.

A fire reflector

In cold weather, a reflector wall throws a fire’s heat back into an open lean-to. The Army manual’s version: drive four 1.5-meter stakes in two pairs, stack green logs between each pair, and fill the gap between the two rows with dirt; bind the stake tops so it stays together ¹. Poles laid from the lean-to’s ridge to the top of the wall make a drying rack for clothes ¹.

The debris hut

When you have no tarp, the debris hut is “one of the best” for warmth and ease, says the manual ¹:

1. Prop a long ridgepole on a stump or a tripod of two short stakes, or against a tree, at about waist height ¹.
2. Lean sticks along both sides to make ribs: just wide enough for your body, steep enough to shed rain ¹.
3. Lay finer sticks and brush crosswise as a lattice so the leaves don’t fall through ¹.
4. Pile dry leaves, grass, or needles on top at least 1 meter thick; thicker is warmer ¹.
5. Put a 30-centimeter layer of debris inside to lie on ¹.
6. Leave a pile of debris at the entrance to pull in behind you, and lay branches on top so the wind doesn’t blow the debris away ¹.

A Wisconsin oak or maple woods in October has all the leaves you need. It takes an hour or more and a lot more leaves than you’d guess.

Try it

Pitch a tarp lean-to in your yard or woods using only a round turn and two half hitches and two stakes, with drip sticks on both lines, and sleep under it one night with a foam pad and one without (or a leaf bed). In fall, build a debris hut to the 1-meter standard and spend an hour inside on a cool evening with a thermometer.

What to take from this

Check overhead for dead limbs and stay above the high-water mark. Keep shelters small enough to hold your heat, and insulate underneath first: the ground drains heat fastest. A tarp lean-to goes back to the wind, tied waist high with a round turn and two half hitches, with drip sticks on the lines. A reflector wall turns a fire’s heat into the shelter. A debris hut needs a waist-high ridgepole, ribs, a lattice, at least 1 meter of leaves, and a 30-centimeter bed.