I love the ultralight crowd because they're constantly pushing the envelope of materials/techniques to drop weight. Eventually I'll pick up on some of their castoffs and get rid of that heavy quilt, bulky tarp, or outdated cook stove.
However, I have to ask about the fascination with ultralight, super-strength guy lines. I see lots of people using zing-it/lash-it, dynema, spectra, and all manner of exotic cordage for their tieouts. I know this may save some weight but do you really need a tiny cord with a 600lb break strength to hold the corner of a tarp. I've never taken measurements but I'd bet most stakes will pull out of the ground with less than 50lbs of force. I don't know how much force my tarp will withstand before a corner rips out.
I had a kid trip over a guy line in a campground and it yanked the stake out of the ground but also ended up snapping a micro-biner I had used to secure my tarp ridgeline. Had one of those not failed I'm assuming it would have ripped the d-rings off my tarp. I decided then I'd rather break some string than destroy a tarp so I "downgraded" to some micro-cord. It's high-vis but only rated to a little over 100lbs. The texture is nice and it holds friction knots well. I'm hoping that worst case scenario this will let go before something breaks on my tarp.
Has anyone had any tarp damage from tying to an "immovable object" such as another tree with high-strength cordage?
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