Gear Review: Golite Shangri-La 1(2009)

By Jake Willits, and Cory "Will" Willits

Image property of Golite.com

     I purchased the Golite Shangri-La 1 as a stopgap before buying a much lighter, much more expensive shelter. My buddy Scopa has one and I liked the look and low weight of it. Since the shelter is one of the big 3 items in my pack, I know it needs to be light. I found a great deal on my shelter on theclymb.com. It was only $75. Nice. That's when I knew it would work for now.

     The SL1 is a modular shelter system. The tarp is the important part, but they also sell a bathtub style floor, and a bug "nest" with attached floor as well. This shelter came with the tarp, 6 stakes w/sack, and a stuff sack. No poles included. For best results, use adjustable trekking poles. The material is SilLite(tm) silnylon. It has heavier reinforced areas where the poles hold it up. It needs stakes at the 4 corners and the 2 ends, and has loops for 2 additional stakes on the sides. The entrance end(head) is much taller and much wider than the foot end. There are vents on both ends as well for good ventilation. It can be pitched high or low by changing the height of the poles. This can be used to control how much air flow you will have throughout the night. 

     My tent, without stakes weighs 16.3 oz. I switched the stakes out for MSR needles to reduce the weight slightly and because I just prefer those stakes. The factory issued stakes on my year model shelter were "Y" shaped 6" aluminum(weight=3.0 oz. including sack). These would work just fine, though I recommend adding 2 stakes to the shelter. The 2010 models come with 8-6" aluminum "V stakes", which are the same stakes that The North Face markets. I'm not sure of the manufacturing origin, but I will say that they seem to work great.

  

Without floor

Showing the floor clipped to the tarp.

Because the shelter has no floor, the pitch is a lot more interesting. It is difficult to determine how wide to set the bottom stakes, as well as how high to set your trekking poles. It is much easier if you use the bathtub floor as a guide. Its corners need to clip to the edges of the tarp, so it does serve as a guide of sorts. If you don't carry the floor, as I don't, then be prepared for lots of adjustments. I begin by laying my poles under the tarp, then staking the 4 corners roughly where I think they need to be. Then, I place the foot end pole upright and stake the end. Then I do the same for the head end. This usually will show if I need to bring the corners out or in. It is important to have a taut ridgeline so that there will be no sag. If there is sag, you won't have much room inside the tent. After I get the corners where they need to be, it is time to stake the sides. Then I make final adjustments with the stake straps.

     On my last outing, we used 4 of these shelters for 6 nights. By the end of the trip, I was the only one who still needed advice in my adjustments. It was kind of humbling, but I tried to approach it as any other part of my bushcraft. Pitching it properly is something to master. Since it is a long, narrow shelter, it is tantamount to have either the head or foot end into the prevailing wind. One night we had wind gusts of up to 40 m.p.h. broadsiding us. We set them properly into the wind, but the storm came from another direction. This crosswind made my shelter flap a lot and even collapsed the living area within the tent with the bigger gusts. But it DID hold up all night long. There was some moisture on the ground within the edges of the tarp, but I did not get wet, even without the bathtub floor. My groundsheet did not have a drop of water on it. The other night that we had rain, I chose a poor place to set up. The rain puddled almost underneath me. My sleeping bag only got wet from splatter. My brother had his SL1 set up in the same location and had the same splatter even with the bathtub floor. In both cases, it was a good result for the shelter.

     In the morning as you take the shelter down, the dew/frost or any other moisture is easy and fast to dry. You can just hang it on some low branches and the wind/sun will dry it fast. It packs into a stuff sack roughly the size of a football. All in all, I give this shelter a B+ grade. The only thing I didn't like was the difficulty in setting it up quickly. For a lightweight backpacking shelter, it fulfilled all of my needs. I do not regret buying it, and I will recommend it to my friends.

Will's take(2010 model):

     Be advised, I am the AFTraveler.  I have odd stories.

     I am torn with the SL1...high expectations, misleading weather reports, and a wicked-sick storm like I've never had in a small tent!  These are highs and lows folks!  And so it began...(get ready for lots of dashes and parenthesis...and triple dots).

     For me, a wanna-be lightweight backpacker (not ultra) I like this dang thing!  Crazy light, breezy, and waterproof!  After a week on the AT, I am stoked!  We had a night of about 35 naut winds with rain (worried about tree limbs), dang cold (just below freezing), and a full-on onslaught of regular good ole, puddle splattering rain whilst being camped in a puddle (dang weather jackwagons!).  Be advised, water will splatter up and into your tent IF you are camped on a used-to-be dirt-ish spot...the guys on grass were way better off.

Note the vestibule area for pack storage.

     I SET UP MY TENT by laying out the floor, with stakes at 15 degrees from the sides of the tent...think,  the two lines coming off the sides of the tent and go a little closer towards the long side.  I throw the tent on top, clip in the floor, connect the tent to the stakes with slack at mid length for tent mid-height (slide the stretchy floor loops over the tent loops for windy weather), tent end's slack at almost full out but not tight like the sides, slide head side hiking pole in as high as possible, crawl in and slide in foot pole.  Zip shut and make corrections.  During rain, set up tent...crawl in and do everything else...and make lots of corrections!  Hint:  I also know that the typical height of the front pole of my tent was just about my first rib...helps when you want to set it up without the floor...like Jake...

Cons:  Between freezing and 38 degrees I found a lot more condensation than expected, with enough side clearance to be the most breezy tent I've ever slept in...WTH?

Pros:   Having camped many times in Arkansas, Arizona, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (well all over Europe, Africa, the middle east, and Central America if you're headed out that way) I love this tent.  You may find a better, lighter, whatever tent out there...but for my overall likes, needs, wants, and versatility (I wanna try that bug net in Arkansas summers!) I have the tent I want.  It's a multi-tasker.  Good sell, GoLite, good sell. 

Shangri-La Village