Snake Skins

[Clockw3rk]

I have decided snakeskins are a pain in the butt, and not much more. No offense to skinners.
My cousin talked me into stuffing everything into my pack with no stuff sacks whenever possible.
It's easy, fast, lighter (no stuff sacks), my down stays fluffier, and I'm pretty sure my gear is lasting longer. Repeated folding and stuffing into tiny sacks creases and wears things out. Also if there is any spare room in my pack, everything expands to fill it nicely. So once again the simplest option is the best for me.

[krshome]

I have decided snakeskins are a pain in the butt, and not much more. No offense to skinners.
My cousin talked me into stuffing everything into my pack with no stuff sacks whenever possible.
It's easy, fast, lighter (no stuff sacks), my down stays fluffier, and I'm pretty sure my gear is lasting longer. Repeated folding and stuffing into tiny sacks creases and wears things out. Also if there is any spare room in my pack, everything expands to fill it nicely. So once again the simplest option is the best for me.

I don't know if I would want a wet tarp stuffed with my down quilts ��.

[Clockw3rk]

Tarp goes in the outside pocket in my ula nothing wet goes in the compactor bag.

[maggot]

I have decided snakeskins are a pain in the butt, and not much more. No offense to skinners.
My cousin talked me into stuffing everything into my pack with no stuff sacks whenever possible.
It's easy, fast, lighter (no stuff sacks), my down stays fluffier, and I'm pretty sure my gear is lasting longer. Repeated folding and stuffing into tiny sacks creases and wears things out. Also if there is any spare room in my pack, everything expands to fill it nicely. So once again the simplest option is the best for me.

No offense to you or your cousin but this doesn't make sense to me... sure it may be quicker to stuff in a backpack, but my tarp has 8 tie outs not including tree ties, under quilt has bungees, and the hammock has suspension. If I stuffed everything in the same bag it would be a massive amount of knots when trying to deploy.

[Deerfight]

I just stay away from the snake skins and stick with the good old stuff sack. It works wonders for me.

[Clockw3rk]

No offense to you or your cousin but this doesn't make sense to me... sure it may be quicker to stuff in a backpack, but my tarp has 8 tie outs not including tree ties, under quilt has bungees, and the hammock has suspension. If I stuffed everything in the same bag it would be a massive amount of knots when trying to deploy.

No offense! It sounds crazy! I felt the same as you! But backpacking and moving day after day has a way of streamlining systems for you. When you consistently take longer but achieve the same work as your hiking partner reality rationalizes for you. I'm ex army so trust me I was set in my thinking. Now let me clear up a couple things:

If you try this I think there will be less tangles than you expect to incur. My brain doesn't stop working just because I stopped folding. Your underquilt gets stuffed into a small bag, and your hammock gets stuffed into a small sack or bishop right? Not much diff! When I used to take all that time carefully removing my tarp and generally getting abused by the wind while I tried to fold it's massiveness into initial thirds I would eventually reach a point where the 4 corner guy lines and the 2 apex lines of the tarp would be folded near each other and eventually wrapped around the neat package. Same thing with the Ball O'Tarp!
I pull it down and grab the middle top of the tarp and start to lovingly ball it up. As it balls up I manipulate it in a way where the lines come together in a general mass and give 'em about 4 wraps around the mass. I also use a different color line for the apex so they are easy to find first when pulling the mass out. It's easily achievable in such a way that i don't knot up. Not any more than I did before.

I use a trash compactor bag inside my pack as I imagine many of you do. It's cheap and works. Pack covers work on short jaunts and light rain but over any distance your straps wet out and capillary action takes the water where it may. So into the backpack goes the compactor bag, then my GG sleeping pad,then if they are dry goes my... top quilt(push it right in there!), bottom quilt,(no sack! Get it in there!), the blackbird(I have a small cuban sack for wet straps and whoopies). I leave the suspension attached, and just push them into the suspensions cuban sack and pull it shut. Piece of cake. Use 2 different color amsteel or mark your head end whoopie w sharpie for easy deployment. Then goes the tarp unless its wet, if wet it goes outside in the mesh on the Catalyst or G4. Then my clothes wrapped in whichever wool shirt I'm not wearing(long or short sleeve) then my food bag and kitchen kit which all goes into a 10L sea to summit bucket bag (under 4oz) which I love and functions as a campsite water bag(with my sawyer mini filter), dish sink, clothes machine, and bathtub of sorts.
I carefully push these things down and into appropriate spots and everything gets pulled out and deployed in a decent/sensible order.
I have a few other things/incidentals that generally go in 1 or 2 freezer bags and go into the mesh outer pockets.

Now I will say people will snicker when you pull those wrinkly lumps out of your bag but our gear is always wrinkly at first and the time savings really is huge. Try it for fun some time and be honest with your self. Time set up and take down both ways and rationally compare. That's what developing and streamlining systems is all about. Sometimes streamlining teaches us a little less system is actually the answer.
I know it's not for everyone, not many things are.
One thing is for sure, whenever feasible less is more in MY pack.
That being said if you love your system, stick with that system. If you get that giddy feeling you used to get as a kid when setting up your gear, you my friend have the right gear.
Take care. And be excellent to each other. (Cue air guitar)

[Clockw3rk]

I do remember liking the ability to use the skins when leaving camp for day hikes or water grabs during nicer weather when the tarp wasn't up.
You know, it looks like a nice day but I'll just slide the snake skins into place in case something blows in.

I think I was speaking candidly with the pain in the butt comment, not fully realizing possible offense to the creator of snakeskins and the current prosnakeskin group/organizations.
I would like to further publicly state that while I no longer use snakeskins I do not claim non-supporter status officially, and went ahead and knocked out 40 pushups just for good measure in a small attempt to effect remuneration for the discomfort some might have experienced reading my opinions.

[Oms]

I love using skins. The set up and tear down is faster and easier for me. I have noticed the Hennessy skins make the hammock somewhat like a stiff tube. Still fits in the pack ok. I got a set of "lazy slug tubes" for Christmas that I am looking forward to trying out.

[Gravity]

I made a set of DIY no-seeum snake skins and found that packing the tarp was more difficult and took more space. I like a double-sided stuff sack much better. Here's a good reference: http://theultimatehang.com/2012/12/m...ed-stuff-sack/

[wa4chq]

I'm still new to all of this.....before buying my tarp I thought that I would go the snakeskin route. However I ended up getting the tarp before getting material for skins. I remember reading a post from somebody here on HF about using 'outchless' elastic hair ties. I bought the hi-vis ones. They work like a champ, slip on easily ... also with the extra ties I use to secure my tree hugs when stored and keeping them wrapped on free end when tree huggie is in use...the hi'vis making it easy to see so I won't forget to take strap off the tree when packing up.... still learning but thought I'd give my thumbs up to the simple hair ties.