Review by Rich Steele

Introduction

As the name implies, the Beta Light is a lightweight version of Black Diamond’s popular Betamid tarp tent. The Beta Light shares the same footprint and all of the essential features of the Betamid – a no frills floorless shelter that is pitched with optional ski poles or trekking poles – but the Beta Light manages to be 50% more compact and 40% lighter than its already slender cousin. The secret is in the fabric construction. The Beta Light is fashioned from silnylon, an ultra-thin 1.1oz ripstop nylon that is completely impregnated with silicon.

This slippery space-age fabric enables the Beta Light to tip the scales at an astonishingly light 22 ounces. If you get rid of the included floor stakes (7) and their carrying sack (not needed when pitching in snow), you’re looking at a 2-person shelter that is a little bit bigger than a nalgene bottle and weighs a scant 18 ounces! I can hear the trailhead conversation now: "Dude, I'll carry the tent if you carry the stove, cookset, fuel and groundsheet."

Like other tarps and floorless tents, including BD’s flagship Megamid, the Beta Light isn’t for everyone. Some people simply can’t hang with the idea of sleeping in an unenclosed shelter. Others don’t like what they perceive to be a high “fiddle factor” with getting a floorless tent pitched. But the Beta Light isn’t designed for those folks; it is intended for the serious ounce counters among us who are more than willing to sacrifice some protection and comfort in exchange for significant weight reduction in the pack. My testing has shown the Beta Light to be roomy, easy to pitch and even easier to break down. It also offers a surprising amount of protection from the elements that belies its compact size and ultra-lightweight. The Beta Light is the perfect shelter for long spring tours, but it also serves well on short mid-winter forays where the weather window doesn’t call for severe storms.

Description

The Beta Light is a modified A-Frame style tent held up by two poles stood vertically in the center of the longitudinal axis of the floor. The roof dips slightly in between the two “peaks”, giving the tent a funky look that is reminiscent of the Denver airport. The tent itself is constructed of several panels of silnylon, stiched together at the seams, and capped at the apex of each peak by a cone of heavier fabric with strips of webbing that criss-cross inside the cone. A metal grommet at the intersection of this webbing forms a secure seat for your ski pole tip and prevents damage to the delicate silnylon roof. The exterior of the tent has a few small loops sewn into the seams where you can attach guylines for additional stability, and the lower edge of the tent panels have larger (3”) webbing loops to serve as tie-outs for staking the tent down. The tie-outs also have a longer elastic loop attached to them that allows the tent to be pitched higher above the ground. To do this, simply increase the pole height on your (hopefully) adjustable poles.

Consistent with its no-frills nature, the Beta Light has one zippered door and no windows. There is a buckle at the bottom of the door zipper that is designed to keep tension along the bottom of the tent when the door is unzipped. It really isn’t necessary, as the tent stands fine with the door open, but I have found it helpful to keep it buckled in windy conditions when I unzip the tent to stick my head out.

[BD's amazing Beta Light: A hotel for two, in a package scarcely bigger than a one quart Nalgene bottle -->]

Setup

There are some people who recoil at the thought of setting up a floorless tent, their visions clouded by chilly experiences digging out a megamid floor and struggling to pitch a tall single pole teepee. The Beta Light is comparatively a cinch to setup. First, lay down your ground tarp, if you are using one. Personally, I don’t think a ground tarp is needed when camping in snow, but sometimes I bring a custom-cut piece of Dupont Tyvek. It is loud as hell, but is a light waterproof fabric and serves the purpose well. Second, stake out the four corners of the tent. Don’t stake out the ends just yet, as this will make it tricky to get the poles up and the shape right. Third, crawl underneath and insert your poles into the grommets in the roof of the tent. Adjust your poles to the desired height (usually dictated by how far apart you staked the corners) and stand them straight up. You can use this tent with fixed-length poles, but doing so increases the required precision in setting up the tent and doesn’t allow you to fine tune the setup as easily. I therefore recommend using only adjustable poles. Since splitboarders and backcountry skiers are generally carrying adjustables for other reasons, this really isn’t an issue. Fourth, zip up the door and then stake out the end of the tent and the door tie-outs. At this point you are pretty much done, but I usually at this point will walk around the tent once or twice quickly and fine-tune the ends and the corners to make sure everything is nice and taut and the shape is symmetrical. Even first timers can set the Beta Light up in 2 minutes or less. Almost without exception the Beta Light is the first tent set up in a group (and always the first one to be broken down and packed up). The rumored “fiddle factor” with floorless tents is a non-issue with the Beta Light.

When staking out the tent, you have a couple of options. As noted above, the tent comes shipped with seven stakes for the tie-outs. I have never used these. First of all, stakes don’t do so well in the snow. Second, they comprise nearly 20% of the packaged weight of the tent and can be easily dispensed with. In the winter, I use skis, ice axes, shovel handles and ski poles to stake out the tie-outs. Tree branches or rocks buried as deadman anchors work equally well (in the summer, I usually carry the stakes, or instead I loop the larger elastic tie-outs around long skinny rocks and then bury the rock anchors in rock piles). On multiday base camp trips, obviously it is better to use rocks or tree branches as dedicated anchors because you’ll need your skis, poles, axes, etc. for use during the day.

One note on seam sealing: the Beta Light out of the box is not seam sealed. Tape seal doesn’t adhere to the slippery fabric so it is recommended to use a liquid sealant. Because of the unique fabric, you should use a sealant designed for silnylon such as McNett’s SilNet. It would be nice if BD would include a small tube with the tent (like Integral Designs does with their SilTarp), but SilNet is more easily found these days, both in outdoor stores and at online retailers. What would be nicer is if BD would seamseal the thing for you. What a pain it the ass it is to seal this thing. The task probably isn’t much different from doing any other tent (although the slippery fabric adds some additional challenge), but it is something I still hate doing.

Spaciousness

The Beta Light is a comfortable two-person shelter. For one person with all of his or her gear, it is like a portable 18 ounce suite at the Four Seasons. For two people it is more like a small hotel room in Manhattan. If you add two backpacks and assorted ski gear into the mix, it begins to get a little tight, but still completely manageable. I am 6’3” in height and the tent is plenty long for my frame. As with all A-frame designs, the floor space near the edges of the tent is somewhat useless except to stash small gear items. However, if you pitch the tent higher off the ground using the elastic tie-downs, you can increase the usable floor space and headroom slightly.

One thing folks might not like is the fact that the tent poles come down right into the middle of the floor. You have to be somewhat careful not to kick them out of place or roll onto them in the night, which would cause the tent to collapse onto you. However, I haven’t found this to be a huge issue. In fact, when using the Beta Light with two people, the tent poles act as a sort of natural boundary between the two stinky halves of the tent. I guess if you’re planning on getting some action at the end of the day, the poles can get in the way; otherwise they aren’t a big deal.

Protection

The Beta Light is marketed as a three-season shelter that is not intended for strong winds or heavy snow. While I would not recommend this tent in severely inclement conditions, experience has shown that it more than holds its own in rain, light snow and moderate to high wind. In a spring basecamp trip in California's Palisades region, my Beta Light stood up to some ferocious winds while a neighboring Megamid collapsed and suffered a broken center pole. I've also slept comfortably underneath it in some non-trivial rainfall with no leaks. Just make sure you've got a moat around you to channel the runoff or you may get soaked from underneath. I haven't tested the Beta Light in heavy snow, nor do I intend to. It isn't designed for that kind of abuse. If you find yourself in a dump, dig a snow cave.

[<-- Beta Light and Bibler I-Tent below Matterhorn Peak, Sawtooth Ridge, CA]

One issue with the Beta Light's simple design is that it doesn't ventilate well. There are no vents or windows, so vapor tends to get trapped underneath. Again, pitching the tent higher off the ground can increase ventilation, but since heat vapor rises, this only gets you so far. On cold windy nights, it has been "snowing" inside the tent from frozen condensation that blows off the tent walls in the wind. Visibility is also pretty dismal inside the tent, which makes it a tent that you don't really want to hang out in if the door is zipped shut.

Breakdown

The Beta Light breaks down faster than any tent I've ever used. There are no separate poles to futz with -- just pull out your ski poles and the whole thing collapses. Pull out your stakes and stuff it right into the ample stuff sack. Takes about 30 seconds. The other great thing is that since it is a single tarp, it is easy to shake excess condensation off the tent before stuffing it. You can also stuff it wet if you're in a hurry, then easily pull it out and lay it on a rock or tree for quick drying.

Options

Black Diamond also offers the “Beta Bug” – a see-through mesh floored tent that fits underneath the Beta Light and keeps out bugs and other nasties. Personally, I don’t feel the added weight of the Beta Bug justifies bringing it along. It certainly isn't needed in the winter non-bug season. Even in the summer, at 1lb, 15oz, the Beta Bug brings the total weight of the shelter to almost 3 1/2 pounds -- which is getting close to some of the newer ultralight freestanding tents.

Bottom Line

The Beta Light is a terrific shelter for those seeking to seriously shave weight in their backpack while still keeping a modest roof over their head. Sufficient protection against the elements, ample room for two and a lightning fast setup and breakdown makes this the perfect shelter for multi-day spring tours, and a decent option for mid-winter forays with predictable weather.

• Buy the Black Diamond Beta Light Shelter -- $159.45 at Backcountry.com