For those of you who kindly replied to my original query and for anyone else who may be interested, here's a short report on the effectiveness (or not) of my hammocking setup during a recent backpacking trip to the Isle of Arran.
Three of us took six days to walk the official Coastal Way path including a few small excursions to points of interest so I guess we walked a total of around 70 miles. Keeping the daily mileage down to around 12 miles meant we had plenty of time to chat to locals, take small detours to points of interest and enjoy the stunning scenery.The Coastal Way is a relatively new path and as such there are still lengthy sections that have not been walked sufficiently to provide an obvious route. The terrain can be very rugged varying from steep paths (Goat Fell), to tussocky and marshy grass (ankle twisters) to sandy beaches to bouldered beaches some of which need to be 'scrambled'. The Coastal way is a very beautiful and worthwile walk.
As for the hammocking. Two of us were equipped for hanging whilst the third used a conventional tent. Us 'hangers' managed to find suitable spots 4 nights out of the 6. The main problem was not so much a lack of trees but finding somewhere that was sheltered from the typical Scottish weather (strong winds and driving rain followed by strong winds and bright sunshine!) We really did want to avoid waking up to find the hammock tarp 'spinnakering' up the hill!
Effectively this mean't getting a few yards into a reasonably dense wood.
Although studying the map before we departed showed that there were plenty of 'green' patches around the island, in reality it needs to be more than that. We found that some of the coniferous areas were relatively young and the trees here were too close together and had a lot of growth close to the ground - no good for hammocks but provided you had a pad (we did) and not an underquilt then you could 'go to ground' under the tarp. A few armfulls of bracken also helped here.
The other major problem for 'hammocketeers' is that many of the wooded areas on the west of the island consist of widely spaced, mossy covered and often rotten silver birch on steep ground.
With the strong prevailing wind coming from the West and accelerating up the steep ground through the trees, there was very little shelter between them. Again this led to us having to tarp camp in a sheltered hollow out of the wind.
I have spent a fair few nights out over the preceeding few months experimenting with my winter hammocking setup and had finally arrived at what I thought was a workable solution before we left. This consists of a Hennessy Expedition Asym with Hex Fly, homemade snakeskins for the fly only, Marmot Helium sleeping bag used as a quilt over a full length thermarest with a homemade pad extender. A homemade pertex 'undershell'is slung beneath the hammock.
The end of day procedure used was to setup tarp and hammock with undershell attached, stretch spare fleece pullover and ventile jacket over ends of thermarest to act as wicking layer, then feed thermarest into pad extender and wrestle the whole lot into the hammock. Then stuff waterproofs etc into undershell to provide 'dead air'space and decrease temperature gradient below me in an effort to reduce condensation on the sleeping pad.
Previous experiments showed that the 'dead air' space in the undershell definitely reduces condensation on the pad.
The first night was spent just below the treeline on Goat Fell and the temps must have dropped below freezing since there was ice in the platypus that morning, However, I was 'roasty' all night and even had to push back the quilt at one point. So at this time I was happy with the comfort and warmth of my setup. However as the week progressed I began to temper my resolve about hammocks being the best solution for this trip.
By the end of the trip I had concluded a few things about the suitablilty of hammocks for backpacking in the early season UK climate.
Firstly I noted that our 'tenter' was always 'covered and cooking' before us 'hangers'. Although we often had the tarp and hammock strung before he had erected the tent, we then had to make final adjustments for leveling and tarp alignment before adding pad setups and undershields etc. This is obviously a seasonal problem and would not be as relevant during warmer periods. However I found I was wishing for a much 'simpler' setup when tired at the end of the day and on the colder days it would have been nice to crawl into a warm sleeping bag and cook from here rather than sit in the hammock and still be exposed to a cold breeze.
Secondly, although it is not difficult to find places to string a hammock, it is much more difficult to find places to string a hammock AND be protected from the sort of weather Scotland can throw at you.
Lastly - weight. The weight of the entire winter setup was 6lb 15 oz - this includes undershell, pad extender and all pads. I know Hennessy sell much lighter hammocks and alternative tarps and underquilts are available but I hadn't the knowledge about winter hammocking when I first purchsed the Expedition and the weight then seemed reasonabale. I have experimented withh CCF pads instead of a full length Thermarest but I cant get the same comfort level and they move around alot more inside the hammock - even using the pad extender sleeve.
I cant justify the expense of a down underquilt at present and would not have been confident on this trip without a pad since this gave me the flexibility to go to ground.So weight wise I certainly wasn't gaining anything over a conventional tent and pad setup.
That said, it is the comfort and freedom of a hammock that I enjoy.
On the occasions when we did go to ground I felt that the tarp alone was much quicker and easier to setup as well as allowing a much greater scope of sites. Although I've done plenty of tarping in the past I shall now be looking more seriously at a tarp and bivvy bag combo as a lighter and more effective sleep system for 3 season backpacking.
As well as suiting my 'simple and functional' style of backpacking, the tarp setup should save me more weight by using less components overall and allowing me to revert to a CCF pad.
I'd just like to add that the views cited above are based purely on personal experience and I would be the first to admit that individuals need to experiment for themselves to find which techniques suit their activity styles.
At present I'm now using the Hennesy Hex fly as my tarp but am considering the Golite Cave 1 - anyone any experience with these ?
" philosophy. It's also such a popular hiking area that there are a lot of folk there camping.
