Ultralight Tent Stakes - Amazing or Disaster?

When I first saw these stakes, I thought, “no way”. This just looks ridiculous.

These are Pachallama Ultralight Tent Stakes. They are made from carbon fiber. They are six inches long. They weigh a whopping 2 grams each; that’s .07 ounces. They have a glow in the dark head on them, which helps even when it’s not dark. But, they are very basic: a carbon fiber rod with a pointy end and a plastic head. That's it.

One of the favorites among backpackers is the MSR groundhog stake or others of a similar design and weight. They are a favorite because they are light, sturdy, and effective; they have withstood the test of time. So, why deviate from this if it’s working for you?

Well, we live in an age where technology and innovation will always push the envelope and challenge old standards. Horses were great until Henry Ford made his Model T cars affordable. And now we drive even when we could walk.

Is this Pachallama going to replace your horse? Probably not. But in the overpopulated tent stake market, it’s either going to change the way we think about tent stakes or it’s just another ridiculous ultralight for nothing fad item.

It’s always easy to talk bad about the new thing, especially when everyone has been sold on the old thing. But the curious adventurer will be open to some investigation and testing, if for no other reason but to prove the old ways are always better.

The risk with any tent stake is how it performs in the worst soil conditions and/or the worst weather conditions. When the soil doesn’t grab the stake well; when the wind blows and rains come, will your tent still be standing in the morning? That’s the test.

For those of you who know me, I don’t do ultralight for the sake of being the coolest ultralight kid. Time and testing has proven to me that ultralight for the sake of ultralight is a fools journey. If it’s not comfortable. If it’s not durable. If it’s not functional. It ends up being a lot of money spent on something of little or maybe short term practical use.

The question becomes, is a 2 gram tent stake durable and functional when I need it the most: on those windy, rainy nights with loose or rocky soil in a tent or under a tarp? 

What information do we have to start? We have lots of positive testimonies that suggest these work as advertised.

I did find some bad reviews, but all of those where from people who were hammering the stakes into the ground with a rock. If you do that with any stake, just stop. Use a tent stake pusher or maybe a simple 1/2 inch PVC pipe end. Using rocks as hammers is an exercise in tent stake replacement. 

All the other reviews were encouraging, but who completely trusts reviews on the Internet?

I went out on a windy day and used these stakes to secure my 12-foot tarp. Keep in mind this size of tarp becomes a sail in high winds. So, this seemed like a decent test. 

I did not test in a pouring rain with high winds. But I’ve read where others have and they held up fine. So, for whatever that’s worth.

I had various types of soil and the stakes held up fine except in very loose soil. But I I’ve had that happen with even my MSR stakes. Loose soil requires long stakes and sometimes we just have to use rocks.

Because these have a small diameter which worked fine in gravel soil, as long as I wasn't up against a big rock that no stake can penetrate.

Will they break when bent under pressure? I’ve seen others do pressure tests on these and they actually did better than some metal stakes. So, it seems they are reasonably strong. 

However, I did have one stake fray a little, which happens to carbon fiber poles when under too much pressure. I can't say exactly when this happened, but up on examination after my tests, I saw the fracture. 

So far I’ve had them out in various conditions around 20 times. 

The weight, I mentioned, is 2 grams per stake. MSR Groundhog stakes by comparison weigh 14 grams. One could say these stakes are 7 times lighter. But the actual saved weight of 8 stakes is 88 grams; that’s 3oz. Is that a big to you? It's not to me.

Conclusion

I wouldn't run out an buy these if I didn't need new stakes. They just don't impress me as a "must have" or that I must replace my currently working stakes. 

But if you need new stakes, if you want to save a little bit of weight, and if you can refrain from using rocks to hammer in your stakes, these may be worth considering.