The SlingFin Cinder Cone 4P Pyramid is a large pyramid tarp suitable for four-season camping with advanced ventilation capabilities to increase livability and let you cook under cover with less risk of suffocation. Weighing just 27 oz (765g), it’s an excellent shelter for windy and exposed terrain because it’s strong and sheds wind well. It does not come with a center pole but can be pitched with a ski, kayak paddle, or two trekking poles lashed together with a ski strap.
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- Weight: 27 oz (765 g)
- Materials: 10d Sil/Sil Nylon66 Ripstop w/ALUULA peak
- Dimensions: 108″ x 108″ (274cm x 274cm)
- Peak height: 72″ (183cm)
- Seam-taped: Unnecessary
- Capacity: 4 people, but a palace for 2
The SlingFin Cinder Cone is a versatile and lightweight pyramid tarp shelter that can be used with or without an inner tent (due to ship in early 2025) for moisture and insect protection. It’s a four-sided pyramid with numerous guy out points, a front zippered door, and strategically placed portals for ventilation. The walls are made with 10d Sil/Sil Nylon 66 Ripstop, the same fabric SlingFin uses on all their other storm-tested tents and shelters. However, the peak is made with ALUULA, a composite textile that is extremely tough and puncture-resistant.
The choice to use a silicone-coated fabric, instead of Dyneema DCF, is deliberate because snow slides off silnylon much more easily. It also packs much smaller, particularly in winter when pack space is at a premium, and you need to carry more clothing, fuel, food, and water. Packed, the Cinder Cone takes about as much space as a three-season quilt, making it easy and space-efficient to carry. That said, the tent fabric does sag during the night, when it gets wet or when loaded with snow.
The Cinder Cone is not seam-taped or seam-sealed because SlingFin uses a non-wicking thread and because the pyramid walls are so steep that water runs off before it can seep through. SlingFin does seam-seal the seams of their other tents, like the Portal 2, which has less of a pitch, but comprehensive rain testing by the company has not found that seam-leakage is a problem on the Cinder Cone. I’ve only used the tent in winter in temperatures far below freezing, so rain hasn’t been an issue.
The corners of the Cinder Cone are outfitted with reflective cord and triangular linelocs, which can be a little finicky to use in snow because they can freeze up. It’s early enough in the season that I have been able to drive tent stakes into the ground to stake out the Cinder Cone, but you may want to adjust the ends of the guylines to accommodate beefier snow stakes, skis, or deadmen. Filling cheapo grocery bags with snow and burying them works pretty well, but it requires some adjustment to your guylines.
There are two ways in which people tend to use a pyramid of this volume. The first is as a floorless tent shelter for one or more campers. Alternatively, you can use it to cover a kitchen area with snow “furniture” that you dig into deep snow to keep the wind off people while they cook. The Cinder Cone is lightweight enough that you could just use it for this purpose if everyone in your party also carried tents to sleep in. This second use is very social and a lot of fun on a winter trip while people sit around and cook or melt snow on their stoves. In both cases, you need to be sure to ventilate the shelter well when cooking so you don’t die from carbon monoxide poisoning or get drenched in internal condensation from melting snow.
The Cinder Cone addresses the issue of ventilation in two ways. The first is the placement of drawstring-adjustable portals on three sides of the Cinder Cone that you can open to vent the interior. The portals have awnings to prevent snow or rain from entering the shelter when they are open. The second are extra guylines positioned on the side panels that allow you to cinch the bottom seam of the pyramid off the ground in a short triangular-shaped opening so fresh air can blow into the tent, as needed. You could just as easily create a similar “transom effect” by mounding snow along the bottom seam to create an opening or by relaxing the corner guylines so air can blow under the bottom seams.
One thing notably absent from the Cinder Cone is a center pole or the option to purchase one separately. There are plenty of other large ultralight pyramid tarps sold with this convenience or option, such as the Mountain Laurel Designs Supermid or the Black Diamond Mega Lite, making them easier to use for car camping or more casual use.
Pyramid Tent Comparison
Recommendation
The SlingFin Cinder Cone 4P Pyramid Tarp is a lightweight and spacious shelter that’s gear for multi-sport use including backpacking, hunting, canoeing or skiing. It’s packs up small and goes up fast making it perfect when you want to get out of the weather fast. Pyramid tarps (also called monopole shelters) are exceptionally wind-resistant, making the Cinder Cone an ideal shelter for highly exposed terrain without windbreaks. The added ventilation capabilities provided with the Cinder Cone also make it unique among ultralight pyramid shelters and are ideally suited for winter use when you want to cook or melt snow under cover.
Disclosure: Slingfin donated a Cinder Cone for review.
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