Garlic Camp Tarp Rigging Guide

New for 2023, Garlic Cave Camp is "practical" (Ben Chaddock, 2023).

This guide was written by Joe Stell in 2023 (week 5) with much help from Jono Lester, and as Garlic Camp is still very much a work in progress, feel free to experiment with tarp setups and update this guide should you find an improvement - make sure to credit yourself!

This guide was written by Joe Stell in 2023 (week 5) with help from Nadia Raeburn-Cherradi and Jono Lester - as Garlic Camp is still very much a work in progress, feel free to experiment with tarp setups and update this guide should you find an improvement - make sure to credit yourself!

Directions, Terminology and Pre-amble

Anytime I give directions, it is either from a plan view perspective with the entrance of the cave at the bottom, as shown in the diagram below, or just a view from the entrance (generally, from the entrance)

This diagram should give an overall sense of how it was rigged as of week 5 of the 2023 expo - it is a terribly drawn diagram on my phone, and is too shoddy and cluttered to be of much use for rigging, so I will probably attempt to draw a better one.

Three tarps were set up this year - two at first, but with a third added later (by myself and Adam A.) to stop the incessant drip next to the kitchen. I will refer to these in size order, with tarp 1 being the largest, tarp 3 being the smallest etc., as seen in the diagram above. There does seem to be a fourth, even smaller tarp, but we didn't rig this - for years with poor rainfall, this could be rigged underneath the strong drip at the very far top/back of the cave to provide more rainwater.

• Tarp 1: Sleeping Area
• Tarp 2: Water collection
• Tarp 3: Kitchen Area
• Water funnels

In addition to this tarp rigging guide, I've added a little information about the areas in Garlic and their uses - the stonework in Garlic is, like the tarps, a work in progress; again, do improve on it, update this guide and credit yourself.

Tarp 1

Tarp 1, the biggest, is rigged over the main sleeping area, right at the front right of the camp

Firstly, this tarp is so large its difficult at full size for many reasons, one being the snow, and so it is folded in half - making use of the other half of the tarp is far too much faff for this year, but definitely something that could be thought about for the future; at the moment, however, folding seems to be working perfectly fine.

The tarp is set up such that it is actually resting on 5 ropes, with only the corners fastened, via putting a rock on the underside of the tarp, and tying a string around it - from others' experience this improves the lifespan of the tarp as the eyelets apparently will just rip over time, though I personally have insufficient life experience to have much input here.

The ridge rope is rigged between two bolted anchors in the ceiling - this rope serves an important structural purpose, so should likely be at least taut, if not tight.

The remaining ropes essentially serve as secondary ropes to help add structure to the tarp, stop it flapping about in a breeze, and also act as drying lines.

I personally believe that the supporting lines should be rigged first, before the corners are fastened. This is the way that top camp is rigged, and although I was not there for actually rigging this tarp, it makes sense to me.

Tarp 2