take less. do more. 〜 ウルトラライトとMAKE YOUR OWN GEAR by グレン・ヴァン・ペスキ | #08 グレンによる最新のプロダクト、超軽量シェルター「Whisper」。

Whisper Tent

The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) is an iconic, off-road cycling route that roughly traces the North American Continental Divide for almost 5,000 kilometers between Jasper, Alberta in Canada and Antelope Wells, New Mexico in the United States. Created by the Adventure Cycling Association and completed in 1997, the GDMBR is considered the world’s longest off-pavement cycling route and is often cited as the birthplace of modern bikepacking.

The typical time for riding on the Great Divide is between late June and mid-October, to avoid leftover winter snowpack and miss early storms in the high passes. So when my adventure buddy Mike proposed a trip to take place in June and July of 2021, my first thought was… bugs.

My go-to backpacking shelter is a DCF Wedge, a simple one-sided tarp. I’ve been in rain with it, but it’s not ideal for stormy weather, and it’s definitely lacking when it comes to mosquitos or other flying insects. For fringe situations, I’ve gotten by with a head net, ear plugs, and wearing a hat to bed so the brim keeps the mesh off my face. But it’s not ideal. Since I knew we would have bugs on this trip, I was looking for more protection.

The only Gossamer Gear tent at my disposal was a DCF version of The One. It’s a great little shelter, but at 15.6 oz/440 g, it was heavy compared to the 2.7 oz/76 g Wedge. The One also requires two 125 cm poles… no problem if you are using trekking poles, but problematic on a bicycle.

So I thought maybe I could design something lighter, more compact, and not requiring the same total length of poles. Since I do more backpacking than bikepacking, I wanted something that would adapt easily to situations where I did have trekking poles, so I could have a lighter bug-proof option when backpacking.

I was obviously going to need some mesh. I could have added a bunch of mesh to the Wedge, but my plan was to use 0.34 oz/10 g DCF, and that’s lighter than the lightest mesh available to me. Besides, we expected to be subject to frequent afternoon thunderstorms, so a more rain-worthy shelter would also be a benefit.

I started with a single pole concept, to minimize the pole length I had to carry on my bicycle. Since a Lightrek 5 pole extends to 130 cm, I started with that. Single wall shelters are of course known for condensation in the right conditions, so I wanted enough space to move inside without getting drenched from the accumulated condensation. That meant tall enough to sit up comfortably when waiting out a storm, and long enough for me to stretch out in without getting too close to the roof. I wanted a shelter that gave me good coverage from a rainstorm, with perimeter mesh to keep out the bugs.

I started prototyping in Tyvek, since DCF is expensive. I must have made 5 or 6 versions before I gave up on the single pole. I’m a tall guy at 6’4”, and a single pole shelter either required a huge footprint to get lines far enough out, or a ton of space that was unusable because it was too short, or both. I finally relented to a smaller pole at the foot end of the shelter, to keep the shelter off the foot of my sleeping bag. I designed it for the length of a fully-collapsed Lightrek 5 trekking pole (24 in/60 cm) for convenience when backpacking.

Now I was getting somewhere, and by the time I had version no. 12 in Tyvek, I was ready to start working with DCF. I taped up a shelter and sewed in a mesh perimeter. To minimize weight, I designed it for use with a separate, removable floor, of Polycryo in my case. If a floor is sewn into a shelter, it has to be made heavier to protect it from wear. So my solution was to separate the floor from the shelter.

My final prototype, no. 14, weighed 6 oz/170 g. Next I had to source some light segmented poles that would be stiff enough for the unconstrained support of the shelter. I had to weigh factors like segment length, diameter and thickness. I tested (and weighed) some options, and settled on some Easton Syclone Max poles from TentPole Technologies, with a 18 in/45 cm max. length for the long pole, and a 12 in/30 cm length for the short pole, and a total pole weight of 5.0 oz/144 g. The final design uses one long pole at 130 cm. The pole is set at an offset, to create room underneath the peak. The tip of the pole goes up, into a reinforced grommet in the shelter (for when using a trekking pole with a sharp tip). The single point creates a better pitch, and the handle being on the ground protects the ground sheet from damage, and allows adjustment from the inside by moving the handle of the pole. The rear of the shelter is asymmetric, using an extra stake to create additional room to help compensate for the pole. At the tail of the shelter, the pole is inserted from the outside, so it’s easier to set up. There’s a tie line to keep the small pole vertical. There’s a single waterproof zipper to open the shelter, to minimize weight, with a lightweight tie to keep the door open if bugs aren’t an issue. To save weight, only three of the guy lines have tensioners on them.

With that, Mike and I were off on the GDMBR. We couldn’t get into Canada because of Covid, but we rode 800 miles/1300 km from the Canadian border to Jackson, Wyoming that summer. We had plenty of bugs, and lots of thunderstorms, but my diminutive shelter kept me dry and bug-free.

When I returned, I brought the shelter to the Gossamer Gear design team. Any time I come up with a product for my personal use, the first question from the team is; “Okay, are there five other people in the world besides Glen who think this is a good idea?” Often the answer is “Probably not.” Those products, like the Wedge, never go into production. With the new shelter, the answer was; “…maybe?” So we got the top DCF manufacturer to make a batch of 100 to see how they were received. We called the shelter the Whisper… It kind of fit with the pack I use called the Murmur, and we figured not very many people would remember the early GVP Gear 3.5 oz/100 g spinnaker pack that had been called the Whisper.

The Whisper definitely fits the ‘GVP Gear’ warning; “If you aren’t sure this is the right one for you, it probably isn’t.” It is not for everyone. Many people like the convenience and security of a bathtub floor, and are willing to pay a weight penalty for that. It can be a little more difficult to get a good pitch with the Whisper than a more conventional design. But we’ve been surprised at the number of people who have declared, upon seeing the Whisper, some variation of: “This is the PERFECT shelter for me, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!”

When we got the final sample from the factory, due to stronger construction and having to use heavier 0.7 oz/20 g DCF, the weight was 9.8 oz/278 g. I really wanted to get it under half a pound, but it had to stand up to more sustained use than one trip on the GDMBR. By the time we finished our trip, the zipper on my homemade prototype was starting to fail, and several stress points were showing wear. So with tent, a trimmed Polycryo groundcloth, 5 MSR Carbon Core stakes and 2 titanium v-stakes for the main pullouts, assuming you’re using trekking poles, the total weight is 13 oz/370 g. People are surprised at how roomy it is inside for that weight.

There are some downsides to the shelter, as saving weight almost always involves compromises. It is NOT good for getting away from bugs during the day, as the translucent DCF creates a very effective greenhouse effect, making the shelter VERY hot during the day. The super light mesh we used keeps the bugs out, but in my experience also allows for limited airflow. In cold weather, this can add some extra warmth, but in warmer temperatures, the lack of airflow is not a positive. Overall, now if I know it’s going to be stormy (like a trip to Iceland awhile back), or buggy (or both), I reach for my trusty Whisper.