Best UL hammock

[Boghog1]

Also, if you are trying to shed weight, then ditch the suspension webbing and use an SLS. There are two versions to choose from. Webbing for the suspension adds a lot to the weight and the bulk. Also, with an SLS you don't need biners or special gadgets like the JRB tri-glide. They are replaced by a simple stick you can pick-up off the ground - zero carry weight. Webbing is about 3 times the weight of equivalent strength rope. You will still use webbing for the tree huggers or you can even ditch the webbing for the tree huggers by using a trick that Turk recently said he is using. I've used it for quite a while now and it is tricky to get right, but with practice is as convenient as anything else.

Pardon my ignorance but what is SLS?

[Cannibal]

SLS = Single Line Suspension.
We probably need to add that to the "Hammock Acronyms" list.

[drewboy]

I just wanted to follow up in this thread with what I ended up doing for a lighter hammock solution. There seems to be universal agreement that the bridge has the highest potential for reduced weight. I'm saving that option for another project longer term. I'll need to get different hiking poles that I can dual utilize as spreader bars and also figure out a more customized tarp solution that doesn't squander weight to reach around the spreader bars.

I ended up ordering a SL 1.7 Warbonnet Traveler from Brandon. To keep the weight down I went with tree huggers and amsteel suspension option. Brandon gave me a little bonus and also included a structural ridgeline on the hammock. He mentioned that he may include that on all Travelers going forward. The weight of this setup including suspension is 15.45oz. It pretty much lays the same as the BB, without the footbox.

As mentioned earlier, I picked up a cuben fiber hammock tarp from Mountain Laurel Designs last year at a killer 24hr sale they were running on prototype designs. It's weight is 4.5oz. It's approximately 10 feet long and 4 feet wide, with tapering at the ends. That gets me to just under 20oz, not including stakes and line. I'm a little concerned about side coverage issue though. Does anybody out there have experience with a tarp this narrow? I'll probably use this for milder conditions only.

FYI, for information sake I went and weighed my Hennessy Hyperlite. (I just bought a gram accurate scale and am having fun with it ) That hammock weighed 21.2oz including sack and tree straps. Almost identical in weight to a similarly configured Blackbird SL 1.1. No contest there!