Henry Shires is a pioneer in ultralight gear, innovative, and stands behind his tarptent products. I have 3 tarptents that I've been happy with over the years. However, I'm not crazy about silnylon as a tent fabric. It's light, but it's slippery as heck and it tends to mist and stretch in rainstorms. I'm used to working around all this, but there's a new material to consider now - Cuben Fiber.
Cuben Fiber was developed for yacht racing sails and has made a big splash in the ultralight backpacking world in recent years. It's unbelievably light and strong. Imagine a semi-transparent mylar laminate that doesn't tear. There are several companies using it now, but Z-packs is a leader for innovative products and I can strongly recommend them for service.
www.zpacks.com Six Moon Designs is also using it a lot more and there are others out there. It's very expensive stuff and there's a backlog, but worth considering.
