You’re looking for that perfect tent site and think you’ve found it. It has a great view, is sheltered, and is flat! But then you try to push your stake into the ground and hit rock. Fear not! There’s a lot you can do without stakes, especially if rocks are available. Here we’ll go over a few (of many) ways that you can anchor your shelter in rocky places.
- Minimize your disturbance
- Use a guyline extension
- A stake that only goes in part way
- Big rock little rock
- Same idea, with a stake or a stick
- The Rock Spider
- Firming up loose ground
- Breaking camp
Minimize Your Disturbance
To reduce your impacts, pitch on durable surfaces like bare rock, and stick to established sites. When you need a rock for an anchor, choose one sitting loose on the surface rather than one set into the ground. Prying an embedded rock loose disturbs whatever's living under and around it and leaves a hole. Put every rock back when you break camp.
Use a Guyline Extension
A rock pressing on your guyline is hard on the cord. When the shelter catches wind and works back and forth, the rock saws against the cord and can wear through it overnight. A short, replaceable piece of cord, aka a guyline extension, takes that abrasion instead.
Our guyline extensions are made from 100% UHMWPE, which holds up to that sawing far better than a standard guyline. When one finally wears out, you replace the extension, not the line on your shelter.
A Stake That Only Goes in Part Way
Sometimes you can only plant a stake a couple of inches, not enough to hold on its own. Lay rocks on the line ahead of the stake, so the pull comes into the stake horizontally rather than angled down. That greatly increases the stake's holding power, and even a stake that only seats partway can hold well once a rock pins the line in front of it.
Big Rock Little Rock
The idea here is to secure your cord to the little rock, then place a bigger rock, or pile rocks, on the line ahead of it.
Same Idea, With a Stake or a Stick
This is just like Big Rock Little Rock, but you use a tent stake or stick instead of the little rock.
With a stake: secure your cord to the stake's midpoint, then lay the stake flat on the ground, perpendicular to the line. Set a rock on top of the cord, not on the stake itself. If you don't have one bigger rock, pile several smaller ones.
With a stick: wrap the cord around the middle of a stick, then pile rocks in front of the stick. For longer sticks, you might try placing rocks on each end of the stick. Keep the stick square to the pull so it doesn't rotate out from under the pile.
The Rock Spider
For a larger rock or a fixed object, our Rock Spider skips the knots. It's a set of cords that cinch down around the rock and grab it from multiple directions at once. A clip on the Spider connects straight to your guyline. It's a fast way to get a solid anchor on a big rock.
Firming Up Loose Ground
When you're staking into loose, crumbly ground and the stake holds but not well, lay rocks flat on the ground around the stake, over the soil it's sitting in. You might also place a rock on top of the stake. The added weight holds the loose soil together, and it's often enough to make the difference.
Breaking Camp
Put the rocks back where you found them. If you pulled one from the ground, set it back in its hole the same side up: the exposed face often carries lichen built up over years, and flipping it buries that growth and kills it. Don't strip one small patch bare; if you need a lot of rock, pull it from across a wide area so no single spot is left scoured. A good rock anchor leaves almost no sign once you've broken it down.
See how our tie-outs and TensionLock system are built, shop the guyline extensions, or the Rock Spider →