The magic of the SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp is what it leaves behind. The design of this shaped tarp leaves room for only the bare essentials, still ensuring that you're protected from the elements — and nothing else. Removing all but the essentials keeps the SplitWing unfathomably lightweight, perfect for those whose trips are about moving all day and into the night, rather than camping for extended periods. Multiple additional guy out points afford one a little more assurance once things get nautical, and the extremely lightweight tarp material is stronger than it looks.
Being a smaller shaped tarp, livability isn't the primary goal of the SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp and its low score reflects this design direction. If you're looking for a shelter where you're primarily hiking into a picturesque lake to hang out for a few days before packing everything back up at the tail end of the weekend, there are much better options available to support your plans. Headroom is going to be limited to the area right beside the interior trekking pole, and the open-air back beak will let both breeze and bugs in without much difficulty.
Rather, what is optimized in the SplitWing is weight, simplicity, and just-enough weather protection. This is the shelter we grab for when livability isn't as important as other goals for a trip. “I brought this shelter out for a strenuous ridge romp on the Continental Divide where my kitchen scale was seriously stressed to keep my pack weight low and the SplitWing beat out almost everything else I had.”, reveals our lead tester: “Flat camping options were going to be limited, so I wanted a shelter with a smaller footprint and the SplitWing's svelte profile became a major advantage.”.
If you're compelled by the Keep It Simple advantages at the expense of livability that the philosophy of the SplitWing offers, explore some of the many modular accessories that SlingFin offers for this product, including an interior bug mesh, footprint, and vestibule that closes up that back split beak. These optional, modular accessories empower you to then choose how bare-bones you want to make your trip, depending on weather conditions and trip objectives, essentially turning this shaped tarp into a very ultralight trekking pole tent.
Coming in at an astoundingly impressive 7.76 oz/220 grams for the tarp alone, weight — or should we say the lack of — is the absolute standout feature of the SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp. Even in the Ultralight category, the SplitWing comes out on top. If you're looking for one of the lightest shelters that also packs down small, you've found it in the Splitwing. This shaped tarp does require at least six stakes to employ (included), as well as two trekking poles (provided by you), and variable-length poles are best. All told, the entire kit weighs in at 11.28 oz for the tarp, stakes (2.54 oz), an extra guy line (0.56 oz), and the bags for the tarp (0.25 oz) as well as stakes (0.18 oz).
The SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp pulls off this feat of weightlessness using a few strategies. First, this tarp is shaped very aggressively, with a taper both in length (approx 72" down to 36") and in height (approx. 47" down to 18" ) from the opening by your head to the end at your feet.
The tarp material itself is an extremely thin, 10D sil/sil ripstop nylon. You would have to use a much more expensive DCF material to get a more impressive weight to a tarp material, and this 10D nylon has the advantage of being easily stuffed in a sack when not in use, rather than needing to be carefully folded and rolled like DCF. Finally, there is just not much to this tarp: No footprint, bug net — even the front is fairly open to the elements.
Weather resistance is not a strong point of the SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp, especially because there's an opening at the head of the tarp that allows weather to come in. Because of that, it's important to orient the tarp so that the foot is pointing towards any potential weather.
The SplitWing does have a few tricks up its sleeves to help you weather through a surprise storm. “I found myself over 12,000' on a ridgeline when a midnight wintry storm rolled through, bringing in some unexpected snow, by the SplitWing kept me safe underneath.”, admits our lead tester.
Unlike many other tarps, the foot is fully enclosed, which helps prevent weather from coming in from that direction. The “split” beak design means you can re-adjust your trekking pole to be lower (or higher) to make the tarp fare better in windy or wet conditions without having to re-stake the tarp. And there are additional stake out points to reinforce your pitch.
We employed our ice axe as a stand-in for another stake to give ourselves a little more overnight assurance. Finally, even though nylon has a reputation to expand and sag overnight — especially when it gets wet — new nylon materials like what are used in the SplitWing that are treated with silicone on both sides tend to sag far less than other, older nylon with a PU coating. The SplitWing's sil-sil nylon won't beat out DCF in this area, but it's a smaller concession that you may fear.
Tarps like the SlingFin SplitWing UL Tarp generally score favorably in Adaptability, and this one is no different. With its fairly small footprint, it's easy to find just enough space to stake it out and have a restful sleep for the night. The ability to adjust the height of the tarp without needing to restake when conditions change really sets it apart from other tarps out there. The additional accessories knock it out of the park to turn this tarp into an incredibly lightweight, featured tent.
Slingfin does market the SplitWing as being able to handle two people, but that would be somewhat of a packed tarp and only for those very hard-core hikers that are looking to squeeze the most out of such a lightweight shelter.
What we really love about the simplicities and feather-weight of this tarp is that we sometimes bring it with us as a just-in-case shelter for day trips that may go awry, because of weather or our own lack of route-finding skills. For the price, it could be one of the more cost-effective pieces of safety equipment to add to your pack.
Being a tarp, the setup of the SlingFin SplitWing takes a little more practice than the easiest semi-freestanding ultralight tents, and we suggest a trial run setup in your backyard or at the local park to get the hang of it. Trekking poles need to be adjusted to a specific length to get a good pitch, and it's good to know this length beforehand and not in a rising storm.
But once you've gotten the basics down and learned the small set of new skills that differentiate the SplitWing from a more batteries-included shelter, setup will go quickly. We're able to set the SplitWing up casually in less than three minutes.
The 10D nylon fabric of the tarp is much more forgiving in getting a passable pitch than its DCF brethren, whose material is so rigid, one has to be absolutely spot on when placing stakes.
If weight is absolutely the most important metric that you are basing your decision on, then yes: absolutely, the SlingFin SplitWing is an excellent choice as a shaped tarp shelter. It's very impressive specs. on the weight scale, combined with its extreme packability, and price tag make it an excellent value, even if you just use it as an emergency shelter. We're intrigued by the modular after-market components that SlingFin offers to extend the livability of the SplitWing, which allows this product to be used in a variety of situations, rather than “just in case”. Our own field testing proves it has just enough weather protection for serious trips. We can't wait to take it back up into the high country.
