What is the best lightweight tent stake?

[gobbler1662]

Okay i admit it. I am one of those ounce counters that weighs everything. I have a paratarp and currently have a hodge podge of stakes, a few msr ground hogs, a few north face stakes a few vargo titanium nail stakes. I dont like the vargo nail, easy to loose, dont hold well. Just wondering what you guys use anybody tried the vargo carbon? Or mini ground hog?

 

[Trout bum]

MSR groundhog stakes and groundhog minis have worked well for me and are extremely lightweight. (.7ozs and .35 ozs)

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Vargo titanium ascent stakes work pretty well, are 6.25" long, and weigh in at .4oz.
With my Supertarp in bad weather I prefer to take four of the Coughlans 9" stakes (.59oz ea on my scale) and the rest are the Vargo ascent stakes. If it's not a bad weather trip I use all of the Vargo's.
My MSR Groundhogs weigh in at .49oz each on my scale.

 

[dotman]

I don't highly recommend the Hillberg viper stakes unless you are in a soft soil enviro. I'll be trying something new.

 

[ohhiitznik]

I use MSR Groundhogs. They can be pounded into any ground and hold very well.

 

[RosinBag]

Mini Groundhogs and the MSR Carbon Core. The Carbon Core's I used this year and they were great, and at 0.19 ounces they were light.

http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/tents/tent-accessories/secure/carboncore-tent-stakes/product

 

[gobbler1662]

Rosinbag good to hear that about the carbon core. My thoughts so far is stick with the groundhogs for gut outs front and rear and maybe fill in with the carbon core on the sides. Do you feeel the carbon cores would do fine in rough conditions as guyouts? I am in hells canyon in the spring backpack hunting and it's not unusual to have snow in conjunction with high winds.

 

[RosinBag]

Gobbler, the carbon cores I dot think will work in snow unless you have cleared it away. They are only 6", so you may not get enough of the stake in the ground to get solid purchase. I used the carbon cores exclusively with my big Agnes platinum and they worked great. If I ran a tarp I would use mini groundhogs on the main corners and the carbon on the the rest.

 

[luke moffat]

I like the MSR ground hogs for the main 9 stakes of my SL-5 and then use Hilleberg Vipers for all the 11 guy outs. Haven't at a problem one with the hillebergs, but for the main staking I want a longer stake than a mini groundhog or a Hilleberg Viper. I'm not lucky enough to camp in the dirt but rather spongy tundra so thats probably why I don't have a problem with the Vipers like Dotman does. So I'll continue to save the weight with the vipers rather than hauling 20 MSR Ground hogs along.

 

[crazy_davey]

Just remember to only pack the absolute minimum you need for pegs. For guy lines etc I always use rocks, and on free standing shelters/tents I never use pegs or stakes, just rocks and guy lines with tension adjusters on them.

 

[luke moffat]

Just remember to only pack the absolute minimum you need for pegs. For guy lines etc I always use rocks, and on free standing shelters/tents I never use pegs or stakes, just rocks and guy lines with tension adjusters on them.

I used to think this way....right up until the wind kicked up a bit too much. Stakes are .4-1 oz per stake.....cheap and light insurance too maintaining a strong shelter. Many better places to clip weight than just taking the bare minimum of stakes.

 

[crazy_davey]

I used to think this way....right up until the wind kicked up a bit too much. Stakes are .4-1 oz per stake.....cheap and light insurance too maintaining a strong shelter. Many better places to clip weight than just taking the bare minimum of stakes.

Use bigger rocks .

Atleast half of the places we pitch a tent or shelter you couldn't get a peg or stake in the ground no matter how hard you try. And yes, here in southern Alberta we get wind from time to time as well . Only lost a tent once and that was because the wind picked up before we had her tied down. It sucks watching your tent with all of your gear inside go rolling down the side of a mountain!

 

[luke moffat]

Use bigger rocks .

Atleast half of the places we pitch a tent or shelter you couldn't get a peg or stake in the ground no matter how hard you try. And yes, here in southern Alberta we get wind from time to time as well . Only lost a tent once and that was because the wind picked up before we had her tied down. It sucks watching your tent with all of your gear inside go rolling down the side of a mountain!

I bet that did suck....luckily up here in Alaska were is a bunch of soft ground so staking is USUALLY not too much of an issue. Bummer about the ground down there, pretty much eliminates the use of floorless shelters huh?? My grandparents used to live in southern Alberta, it can howl for sure from what I remember when I was a little tyke visiting.

 

[Mike7]

I really like the Mini MSR Groundhogs for their overall versatility with multiple types of ground, strong hold for such a short light stake, and ease of removal from the ground. I have a potpourri of stakes but the minis are my overall favorite. I haven't tried the Carbon Cores but have a similar longer round carbon stake that doesn't seem to hold as well as the groundhogs, but is somehow still a real pain to remove in some soil types.

 

[crazy_davey]

I bet that did suck....luckily up here in Alaska were is a bunch of soft ground so staking is USUALLY not too much of an issue. Bummer about the ground down there, pretty much eliminates the use of floorless shelters huh?? My grandparents used to live in southern Alberta, it can howl for sure from what I remember when I was a little tyke visiting.

It can make using a floorless a challenge at times for sure. Of course a guy can hunt harder or go lower for a spot to pitch but I don't use floorless all that much anyways. We did use Wrongsides SO BCS last fall and it was a challenge to pitch it and when we did it most certainly wasn't perfect. A combination of rocks and pegs to make it work.