Since it's winter and the mountains are covered with snow, the new Speer Winter Tarp or Black Diamond Betamid (if we have to stoop that low) will need stakes for snow camping.
REI sells snow anchors for tent guylines but they cost $10.50. They look feasible to emulate so I made my own. I used some old ripstop nylon scrap from an old DIY hammock. The piece of nylon is about 11" long and 9" tall. I hemmed its edges, then sewed cord within each end. The cord loops are about 18" long. JoAnn's Fabrics had 14 small plastic rings for $2.29. Each anchor gets 2 rings, one for each string.
Each string is closed with a bowline knot. 2 snow anchors weigh 2 oz. at most. The snow in the Cascades is wet and normally makes good snowballs so it should stamp down with these anchors enough to hold a tarp guyline.
I may put an elastic loop on the 2 rings of each anchor to help with snow or wind build-up. Each anchor took about 15 minutes to make. With using skis, ski poles or ice ax and trees for guylines not many of these should be necessary. 2 years ago I made snow stakes out of aluminum moulding from the hardware store.
I don't know how well these anchors will work. If you have used these, please reply and describe.
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