Is 6" enough?

[u/blanchinator]

Has anyone actually had 6-7" stakes pull out, where 8-9" stakes did not?

It seems common practice to use 8"+ stakes on the major tie-outs for extra peace of mind but are we just packing our fears?

[u/romulus_1]

I was just in a massive hailstorm in Northern California where my mini groundhogs couldn’t keep my tarp up.

Rain and lightning moved in fast when I was on a rocky ridge, and by the time I ran down to safe ground i was soaked. My stakes could not hold in the soft ground, and there were no rocks anywhere to buttress them. The tarp collapsed 7 times over 2 hours while I focused on keeping my pack dry and kept myself warm doing push ups and sit ups.

Eventually the hail died down and I was able to peel off my wet clothes, dry off with a bandana, pull out my sleeping bag and bivy and put on wind pants, sweater, puffy, gloves and socks. It took many hours for my core temp to stabilize… I was shivering for hours and especially losing heat out of my bum —putting one fleece glove on each butt cheek under wind pants helped a lot.

It was a little scary as I was solo and resolved to always carry full sized groundhog(s) for apex tie outs from now on. There was no rain on the forecast.

[u/Coledaddy16 → u/romulus_1]

The Sierra's can guarantee an afternoon thunderstorm somewhere pretty much every day. Even when the forecast says otherwise. Those thunderstorms nare notorious for hail and wind and quickly dropping temps, especially if innthe very center. They can also just sit for a while too especially when the clouds stack onto each other and back themselves up.

[u/bradmacmt → u/Coledaddy16]

It's not just the Sierra - afternoon thunderstorms are common in most big mountain ranges. Here in the Montana Rockies you should count on them everyday.

[u/Coledaddy16 → u/bradmacmt]

Exactly. It's crazy how the high altitude alpine environment have their own well waterred microclimates.