Bought a cheap rain fly off Amazon and it shredded in a storm at Yosemite last June

I was three days into a backcountry trip near Half Dome when this crazy windstorm hit around 2 AM. My $30 rain fly just tore right off the tent stakes and flapped away into the dark. I spent the rest of the night huddled under my sleeping bag while everything got soaked (my phone, my map, my morale). That tent was a $60 special from some brand called 'Mountain Peak' or whatever. Now I only buy rain flies from REI or places where I can actually touch the fabric before buying. Has anyone else had a cheap fly fail on them in bad weather? I'm still mad about the $20 worth of dehydrated meals that got ruined.

2 comments

2 Comments

elliotadams1mo ago

Bro you're blaming the price but the real issue is you set up a $30 fly in Yosemite which is like putting a paper hat on in a hurricane. I've run a $20 Amazon special for three seasons now in Colorado and it's held up through hailstorms because I actually pitch it right with proper tension and angle to shed wind. Half the time people get cheap gear destroyed because they don't know how to stake out a fly properly or they leave it loose like a bedsheet for the wind to grab. That Mountain Peak brand is actually decent if you seal the seams yourself and use some extra guylines. You probably could have saved those meals if you'd just thrown your pack liner over you instead of crying about the fly.

benc531mo ago

Huh, is losing a few freeze dried meals really worth all this analysis? I mean yeah it sucks when gear fails but we're acting like dude committed some crime against backpacking. It's just a tarp and some soggy food, not a survival epic.