Thread: Tahr base camps

Show me your base camp….

I’m interested both Gucci base camps and minimalist camps used for the wilderness ballots.

Experiences of those who have gone without a dedicated cook tent as well as how the likes of MIAs have been utilised for sleeping.

interested in the logistics of flying in a heavy miners tent or whether something like the points south tepee may be a suitable option.

If nothing else just post your pics of what I can expect to land in if I’m successful with the ballot.

Cheers

We decided to have a 4 man sleeping and cooking tent.
So, quite a bit bigger than the 2 & 3 person MIA.
Our mate designed and made one. He checked out the max length for poles in the chopper which was 2 metres.
The frame is steel poles tensioned together with tape tiedowns and it was very rigid when set up.
It was also very heavy, needing many man loads from the ute to chopper pad.
Also somewhat expensive but my mate would be happy to build one for you for a quid or two, now he's got the plans.

Here's the inner tent:


For a stove, he bought one off the internet.
Once he got back he bought a better one but this was fine. It weighed about 20kg and folded down pretty flat.
We stacked stones under it to retain some heat.
He used a fireproof grommet in the roof. A standard item apparently.
We burned some wood and some coal.
It was great for drying clothes and we were never cold in the tent.
You'll need a couple of big plastic sheets to cover all the ground inside.


Over the top, I had a fly which was the largest toughest tarpaulin at Mitre 10 I think. Cost about $200. Guys were pretty solid kernmantel type nylon rope in generous lengths from a marine shop. Tensioning the poles and ridge rope was again done with tape tie downs. We were never able to get enough tension to lift the fly up away from lying on the inner tent ridge. You need some big ReBar pegs and a small sledgehammer to place them in.
Wooden tomato stakes came in handy to hold the edges of the fly up from the tent
The hole for the chimney was cut with a knife on the spot after setting everything up. Too hard to plan its location and get it just right under stress. A bit of rain did come through the hole but not a problem the tent itself was waterproof.

Awesome mate how good. Just kicking around the concept at the moment.

I see most videos of the MIA people don’t actually sleep in them?

Originally Posted by Bagheera

We decided to have a 4 man sleeping and cooking tent.
So, quite a bit bigger than the 2 & 3 person MIA.

Attachment 234962

WHere is this place, NI or SI?

I suspect MIAs aren't big enough for a whole tahr party to sleep in so people use small cold wet one man tents.
We wanted to be able to share body heat all night, hear each other turning over, snoring and so on.
We had a couple of olympus type alpine tents for emergency but the weather was pretty good and the big tent held up.

Black Rabbit, there's nowhere like that in the North Island. It's Abel Lake.

I've been into half a dozen landsburough ones. Take our own seperate 2 man tents and then a large warehouse tarp to sit under if needed. I certainly couldn't justify 1500 to buy a MIA purely for sitting in.

This is my typical NI camp so either way I’m going to have to buy a 4 season tent.

Something like a kuiu pitched under a tarp was my initial thought but that would be pretty shit for days on end with bad weather.

Softies. Rangitata

You guys are just built different @Tahr, I recall going on a hunt with @SmokeyJason up a valley and he said there's a good campsite here and then proceeded to point under a big matagouri we were standing close to.

Abel Lake 2022. MIA used as communal shelter, fire, cooking etc. One of us slept in there but the other three of us just had our two person tents setup or sleeping in. Did similar thing this year on the East Coast. That’s flying in obviously. Small camp chair each and a table for food prep, cooking etc.

Having the tents there gives the option to camp away from base if you feel like a mission too.

Note the tarps over the tent were more for kea claw protection for the tents rather then extra rain shelter lol.

We thought that place would be a Kea Central but only saw half a dozen for the week and none at the campsite.

Are you happy with the 3season kuiu or would you get the 4season if buying again?

Originally Posted by SPEARONZ

Are you happy with the 3season kuiu or would you get the 4season if buying again?

Very happy with the mountain star. I have had no need for a storm star (4 season) so far. Done fiordland, west coast tahr, east coast tahr, central NI etc.

More ballot questions,

Are there any issues subbing out party members? The ballot process requires details of all members but if something comes up is it an easy swap?