Airpin Ultralight Aluminum Stakes

The Nemo Airpin Ultralight Stakes are aluminium tent pegs with a clever head: a hole and hooked notches that grab your guyline and hold it tight, so you never tie a knot or fiddle with a slider to get a guy taut. We sell them as a set of four, in the same bright green that makes them easy to find in the grass at pack-up.

What it does

Picture the wind picking up at dusk on the Bibbulmun Track and one guyline flapping loose. With an Airpin you push the stake in, wrap the cord through the head, pull it to the tension you want and let go. The cord locks in place. Want it tighter in the small hours when the fly starts drumming? Unhook, pull, lock again, in the dark, with cold hands, no knots to pick at.

The shaft is tapered, which helps it slide into firm, gravelly ground rather than bending, and the flat head gives you a solid spot to push on or tap with a rock.

Which tents it fits

Airpins work with any tent, tarp or shelter that uses guylines. They suit the extra guy-out points on a lightweight backpacking tent, a flat tarp pitched as a rain shelter, or a vestibule you want pulled out wide. The locking head grips standard guyline cord; you can also use an Airpin as an ordinary peg at a tent corner.

They are a natural fit with Nemo tents like the Dragonfly, Hornet and Dagger, and just as handy on any other brand's shelter.

Weight and packed size

Aluminium keeps an Airpin light enough that carrying a few spares costs you almost nothing, and slim enough to slide into a tent's peg bag alongside the stakes that came with it. We'd keep them in the guyline kit so they are always on hand for the windy night.

Looking after it

Pull stakes out by gripping the head and twisting rather than levering them sideways, which is what bends aluminium pegs. In very hard or rocky ground, start a pilot hole with a stick or tap gently with a rock. Wipe off mud and grit before they go back in the bag.