Pitch a Tent in Rain Without Soaking the Inner

Most tents sold in the United States are inner-first designs, which is exactly backwards for rain. If you unroll the inner and clip it to poles while it is raining, you are filling your bed with water before you ever get the fly on. There are three ways out of this, and two of them cost nothing.

How to do it

1. Pick the spot before you unpack anything

   Walk the site first. You want a slight rise, not a hollow, and no depression that will be a puddle in twenty minutes. Look up. Standing dead limbs come down in wind, and rain is usually wind. Thirty seconds here saves the whole night.

2. Get the footprint down and staked

   Lay the footprint and stake two corners immediately so it does not sail. If your footprint is bigger than the tent floor, fold the edges under. A footprint that sticks out past the fly collects runoff and channels it under you.

3. Check whether your tent can pitch fly first

   Look at the fly. If it has its own stake points and pole clips or sleeves, it pitches fly first, and you should read the instructions once at home instead of in a storm. Many freestanding tents also allow a fly-together pitch: leave the inner clipped to the fly permanently, and the two go up as one unit.

4. If it is inner first, build the fly into a lean-to

   With the poles up but nothing attached, drape the fly over them and stake the two windward corners. Now you have a roof. Clip the inner up underneath it. This is awkward and it works, and it is the single most useful tent trick nobody teaches.

5. Stake the fly out fully, then vent it

   Every guy point, every time, in rain. A slack fly touches the inner and wicks water straight through. Then crack both vents. Condensation soaks more sleeping bags than leaks do.

6. Keep the wet layer outside

   Boots, rain shell and pack live in the vestibule, not the inner. Once you break that rule the inner is damp for the rest of the trip.

Where people go wrong

• Pitching in the flattest spot. Flat usually means water collects there. A gentle slope with your head uphill beats a flat hollow every time.
• Digging a trench around the tent. It scars the site, it is banned in most wilderness areas, and a properly sited tent does not need it.
• Skipping the guy lines because it is not windy yet. You will not want to get out and do it at two in the morning, and that is exactly when you will need to.
• Storing a wet tent packed. Get it out within twenty four hours. Mildew ruins the coating and no amount of washing brings it back.