First a few words about keeping your tent, tarp, geodesic dome, or whatever shelter you choose actually in the state of Nevada (rather than blowing like a tumbleweed over the Canadian border...)

Playa winds can hit 70mph in storms, and a brief storm with 40mph winds is almost guaranteed while you are there.   Plan accordingly...

okay, that oughta do it.
 
 
 
 
 

Click on the following for info on:

  • Tent and Tarp Stakes  (rebar)
  • Tent and Tarp Poles  (1.5" or larger PVC)
  • Happiness Is Both A Tent And A Tarp (and here's why)
  • Two Simple Yet Effective Tarp Setup Designs
  • A Creative High End Tarp Variation
  • How Not To Kill Yourself Or Your Neigbors With Your Tent/Tarp



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    Tent & Tarp Stakes

    You might as well just leave those fay little tent-stakettes that came with your tent at home. The playa surface is about as hard as dried (though unbaked) clay.   Trying to hammer something that looks like it was made out of hanger wire into the playa might yield some cool jewellery, but definitely nothing that will hold your tent down.

    You will need something robust enough to go a foot or more into the playa -- and while the playa surface is quite hard, the sediment and salts below it are rather loose.  That's why you need to hammer something substantial at least a foot deep -- deeper if you are trying to hold up a large tarp.

    The best solution, and the one favoured by most playa regulars, is REBAR ("Concrete REinforcement BAR").  This can be found in 20 foot lengths at contractors supply stores.  At the fay retail variants  (like HomeDespot and the like) you can find it shorter lengths.  It comes in various diameters, i recommend 1/2 inch diameter -- called # 4 or 4/8ths in the trade.

    Home Despot (oh how scary to watch the parade of ecco-toxins being carried out on a Saturday morning...)  offers rebar in the following sizes and prices.

    1/2" x 12" rebar $0.30
    1/2" x 24" rebar $0.60
    1/2" x 6 foot rebar $1.75
    another option is
    1/2" x 10"    Anchor Bolt   $0.75 per   (these it looks like upside-down L's)

    Recommended REBAR stakes for playa use:

    2 person (small) tent            |        f our  12" lengths of 1/2" rebar

    3/4 person tent                    |         six 18" lengths of 1/2" rebar

    larger tents, tarps                |        eight or more 24" lengths of 1/2" rebar

    a 50' Burning Man                |        forty 36" lengths of 2" rebar (yeow!)

    Now this is important -- you want one end of each of your pieces of the rebar to have one sharp end and one flat end.      do this by cutting one end at an angle (to make it sharp enough to cut through the playa crust) and cut the opposite end perpendicular (flat) so that the exposed end that will end up poking out of the ground is not a lethal weapon.   you don't end up living in the middle of a field of sharp stakes to impale yourself and your neighbours on, do you?

    If you buy longer length pieces of rebar and need to cut it to size, the trick is to make every other cut a flat (perpendicular); and those between them at an angle.  Like this

      |========/========|========/========|

    this way each piece has a sharp end and a not-sharp end.  the above example yields 4 such pieces.   A standard 20 foot length of rebar will yield, uh.... about twenty 12" stakes or 13 18" stakes with a bit left over...    sheeesh!

    Rendering your rebar stakes non-lethal:

    At this point you have an excellent stake -- but also an excellent weapon and a genuine hazard -- as the end sticking out of the ground is surprisingly sharp and dangerous to naked and unaware feet. A large amount of injuries at Burning Man are due to just this reason -- called "the stigmata" among the rangers.   So instead of poking holes in people's feet,  be sure to cap the exposed end of your stakes. A cheap and reasonable effective way to do this is to use old 1 or 2 litre plastic soda bottles stuck upside down over the end.  I make a point of wrapping a golf ball sized wad of duct tape over the end of my rebar stakes then forcing gatorade bottles (which have a wider mouth -- about the size of a golf ball) over it.   You can also pick up mushroom shaped plastic caps made specifically for this purpose at construction supply houses, but i've found that these must be taped down and are not as obvious as a big 'ole plastic bottle.  Keep in mind that you need to arrive with enough empty plastic bottles to cover each of your stakes -- waiting until you drink the contents of bottles that arrive full doesn't cut it.  .

    Or: Kandy-Kane ReBar
    If you want to go this route, cut your rebar into at least 18" lengths -- 24" for larger structures.    The tools required is simply two long pieces of steel pipe to slip over the end of your cut rebar.  These should be at least 4 feet long (the longer the better) and, of course, 1/2" or greater in interior diameter.  (Dope!)    Place one pipe on the ground and brace the far end against your house or something of similar rigidity and weight.  Now slip a piece of your pre-cut rebar into the pipe so that about 4 inches sticks out of the end.  Take the your other mighty piece of pipe and put this over the short end of the rebar that's sticking out.  Now crank the thing over until you have made a candy-cane out of your rebar stake.   The result is even safer then capping straight rebar with a plastic drink bottle -- and also is far less likely to let the rope tied to it slither off.


     

    Rope and Cordage:
    If you get your rope from a hardware store, avoid that slick stiff yellow stuff.  It is by far the cheapest (and hence most tempting) but doesn't hold a knot worth a damn.   Parachute cord is plenty enough, much easier to work with, and not much more expensive.  When you cut pieces of any synthetic cord, hold a lighter to the cut end to keep it from fraying -- though don't make a big glob of melted plastic or it will make your knots impossible to tie.
    Bunjee Cord Shock Absorbers:
    Here's a slick idea -- bring a bunch of bunjee cords and tie them into your tent/tarp guy lines.  This makes your shelter "self adjusting" and reduces the chance of it being destroy or carried off by the wind.  Standard commercial bunjee cords (the ones with the metal or plastic clips at the end) are fine, but it is cheaper and easier to just buy 20 or 30 feet of bunjee line off a coil.  Better hardware stores and boating supply shops sell bunjee line by the foot.  get at least 3/8" diameter;  1/2 inch is better.
    Rendering your tent/tarp guy lines non-lethal:
    Be sure to bring strips of some type of reflective material (the mylar bags that PC cards come in are ideal) and hand these strips from your tarp/tent guy lines so that you and your neighbors don't trip over them.


     

    Poles for tarp creations:  the answer here is PVC Water Pipe the white kind made for household cold water lines.  This stuff is cheap, there are all manner of slick T's and similar connectors available, and most important  it bends rather then breaks when hammered by wind storms.   It can also be bent into some very cool and useful shapes (such as a nautilus shell 60' in diameter).  The standard error is getting PVC pipe that is too small in diameter - it bends too much in even a light breeze.  one inch  (1") diameter white " Schedule 40" PVC (the cheapest kind) is about right for small to mid sized tarp structures.
    Smaller diameter pipe turns into a noodle at the first substantial wind, so avoid it.   Larger diameter PVC pipe might be needed for huge constructions -- but then you wouldn't want to attempt to pull off one of  these playa temples until you've had at least a year or two practice with more typical small to mid-sized variants.

    FWIW, Home Despot sells  10 foot lengths of 1" Schedule 40 PVC pipe for $2.10 a pop.


     

    The Tent/Tarp Combo: I personally like to sleep in my tent (a small simple dome type -- without the rain fly) placed under a low slung tarp.  Why?  Because the tarp cuts out much of the heat during the blazing sun of day, while letting the cooler breeze that flows almost constantly between 6" and 18" above the playa surface.    The same tent (or any tent) without such manmade shade quickly heats up even hotter than the ambient temperature (which runs around 100'F at noon).  The tent gives a little privacy and a place to stash drek.    If you don't want to deal with the hassle of both a tent and a tarp -- I'd recommend you go with just the tarp.  The greater airflow and ability to customize the shape to maximize shade and breeze make a big difference.  At night you can lower your tarp or even put one side on the ground (on the windward side) and sleep pretty warm.
    Many first timers arrive with a small, dark coloured, 2 person tent that is ideal for Yosemite or the like and set it up rain fly and all -- and find out fast it is an Easy Bake Oven on the playa.


     

    Two Simple Tarp Designs

    (1)  The Super Simple No Brainer For One or Two People With a Vehicle:    OK, not pretty, but very easy and very effective.  This setup doesn't even require poles, it uses your vehicle as a support instead.  The alignment of your car is very important in order to give you maximum shade and maximum cool breeze.  Point the front end of your car either due North or due South.  Now figure out which side of the car is facing west (the highway along the playa is roughly on the west side), open the doors on the car on that (west) side, and wedge the edge of a 12' x 16' tarp in.   (a larger tarp might be called for if your vehicle is a Ford Valdeez or something equally god-less)     push a two or three feet of the tarp into the car to keeps it in place and to help blocks out sun from glaring through the windows and into your inner sanctum.    once you have the tarp pinched it (yet still stretched out fully)  simply slam the door shut.    Keep the windows on this side of the car closed -- as the cool breeze flows just inches off the playa surface, under the car.  Inside the car it will be 4,380'Kelvin and you don't want that hot air in your face.
       Now using bunjees and parachute cord, tie the ends of the tarp (the ends of the same side you just wedged in the car doors) to the front and back bumpers -- this gives you the full length of the tarp.  Now pull the side of the tarp that is opposite to the side you wedged in the car door taut and mark where you need to put your 2 or 3 rebar stakes in the ground.  DO NOT stake the tarp directly to the ground -- instead use pieces of parachute cord (or better still, bunjee cord -- self adjusting while you sleep) to attach the tarp to the rebar stakes in such a way that the tarp remains 6 or 8 inches above the playa surface.
       Use a couple extra stakes and lengths of cord to "optimize" your tarp (essentially pull it taut in all directions) so that you get maximum shade.  Now toss your sleeping pad or carpet remnant under the tarp and slither in.  Works like a charm -- perhaps the coolest place in camp to be when the sun is high and raging.

    Here's a simple diagram (ok, i'm no graphic artist...)

    that's "6 or 8..." INCHES...   some dopes wrote to ask if it were feet.  and we wonder why some get so wounded on the playa.  now lets look at the diagram again.  the distance between the ground and the person's head are about the same.  and both are smaller than the height of the passanger car.   8 feet?  your head is 8 feet accross?  sheesh,  yah dopes.  and we wonder why some kids get hurt on the playa.  sheesh!


     
     

    (2) A More Stylish Approach For Up To 4 People:  Now lets consider a setup that is still pretty simple, but uses the PVC pipe and tarp design elements you will see everywhere on the playa (some remarkably complex and very hip).   This on requires only four 10' sections and one 8' section of 1 inch (or 1.5") PVC pipe, two PVC "T" connectors of proper size for your pipe, and a tarp of around 16' x 24' (this is one of the standard sizes and costs about $15 -- for a more deluxe structure for more people and more shade go with a 16'x30' tarp, about $30).     You'll also need about 8 rebar stakes and 150' of parachute cord; and , as above, bunjee cords tied into you guy lines is a swell idea.
    Alignment to the sun and prevailing wind direction is crucial to this setup.  The ends of your PVC pipe should hit the ground at the North and South poles.   This allows your tarp to be tilted from East to West as the sun arcs through the sky -- thus giving you maximum shade and maximum breeze at all times.  And that's the magic of this design -- you get the most possible shade area per square foot of tarp.
    Keep this structure wide and low.  If you are going to put a tent under it, then it should be as high as your tent plus about 2 feet (you want some space between tent and tarp to allow the heat to pass under the tarp).   Otherwise, the lower the better -- as you get more shade and will have less wind problems the lower your structure it.  As with the "car-tarp" setup above, never stake your tarp directly to the ground.  Instead allow at least 8 inches between the bottom of the tarp and the playa surface for the cool breeze to flow through.

    Here is a diagram of the basic "skeleton" made using the PVC parts:

    Lash the two ends of the PVC pipe at each side together.  Then attached this lashing to a piece of rebar -- not too tight!  for you want enough slack to be able to roll the entire frame as the sun moves across its arc from East to West through the day.

    Okay, with your skeleton up, drape your tarp over it.  Best to have the skeleton standing straight up (with the midpoint of the 8' cross pole as far from the playa surface as it can go).   Its a good idea to have at least one friend on hand to help you (lest you go land sailing off downwind); four people is ideal for quick set up.   Tie a LONG (about twice the length it appears you need) piece of rope to each of the grommets on the East and West sides of your tarp.  Now hammer in rebar stakes so that their distance from the tarp is about equal on both the East and West sides.  This will allow sufficient room and rope slack on both sides so that you can tilt the structure in a full half circle.  Ropes from two consecutive grommets can be connected to a single rebar stake.  It should be obvious by this point why you want your ropes to be twice as long as it appears is needed when the structure is standing straight upright.   Now attach parachute cords to the 2 grommets on each side closest to the poles (this would be on the North and South sides) and lash these cords firmly to the poles and the rebar the poles attach to.

    OPTIMIZING THIS DESIGN:  when you want to sleep or get out of the sun, tilt this structure towards the sun (imagine a point at the center of the crossbar and aim that directly at the sun).  You tilt the design by loosening the guy lines on one side while tightening the guy lines on the other side.  Having an assistant push the actual frame while you adjust the cords is best.  You might want to push the structure slightly further west to maximize the amount of time you have before further adjustment is needed.  The width of the tarp should give you at least 3 or 4 hours before more tilting is required.  Sleep with your feet pointing East as the sun will creep in from this direction -- and better your feet fry then getting the sun suddenly in your eyes.

    IF THE WIND BEGINS TO ROAR:  this setup can be quickly collapsed so that it doesn't become a spinnaker (then either tear or go into orbit).   Simply untie the lashing where two poles meet and untie it all from the rebar at that end.  with this the structure will collapse to a very low profile (a foot or two).  If time is short, just cut the lashing rope and the rope that attaches the lashing to the rebar -- you can always re-lash it quickly later.   Once the structure is all but flat it is a good idea to put some heavy objects (like water bottles and jugs) on it to keep air from getting under it.  When the storm passes, simply re-lash the two poles together and re-attach it to the rebar and your back in business in 2 minutes.
       Storms tend to come from the South/SouthWest which is the smallest surface area of your structure.  A storm from the East or West requires immediate knockdown of your structure -- but fortunately big winds from these directions is rare.

     
     

    (3) A Creative Tarp Variation Sure To Blow The Minds of Your Friends

      Yup, East Coast and I made this shelter variation last year -- using just two 10' lengths of PVC pipe, a white canvas drop cloth, an old blue poly tarp tarp, and 285 cans of spray paint-- and oh yeah, someone who can paint as well as East Coast.

    Here's a diagram of how we did it:

    Best to set this up at home in your backyard first, so you don't look stupid if you can't pull it off on the playa.
     


     
     

    HOW NOT TO KILL YOURSELF OR YOUR NEIGHBORS WITH YOUR TENT,  STAKES, OR GUY LINES (ROPES)

    Tent/Tarp:   be absolutely sure it is staked down so securely that it will tear into confetti rather than sail through the encampment killing people.

    Tent/Tarp Stakes:  all stakes, especially REBAR stakes, must be "capped"  at the top in order to keep it from being a lethal weapon (see "The Stigmata")   At minimum, this means putting empty plastic bottles on every stake that is above ground level.

    Tent/Tarp Ropes (Guy Lines):  hang strips of foil, shiny wrapping ribbon, or mylar strips (these can be cut from the mylar bags computer components are shipped in) to ALL of your guy lines so that you and your neighbors can see them, especially at night.