ALPS Mountaineering Tri-Awning

Three grandbabies napped under the shade while their moms sat in beach chairs, also under the canopy. Held up in 25 mph lake winds.

Ease of use

Easy set up and take down. Suprising amount of shade/shelter. We use this at the beach along with two or three "Easy Up" shade tents, and this is much better! Way easier to set up, and its size/weight is a tiny fration of those tents. Very stable in wind when properly staked as well.

This set up fairly easy and quick and provides a great deal of shade and protection. The bonus side wall is quite nice, and not available on other shade structures. We used it on the beach where there was a good deal of wind and it stayed up with the use of sand spikes (definately recommended for the beach) but started to bend in under the wind pressure. Granted, it was some heavy wind, but with some additional sand spikes and additional ties (rope not included)it may have worked out very well. Set up in a snap with two people. Will make a great camp shelter!

Great baby shade at the beach!

We saw this on the beach at South Padre Island. A man was testing this one and a similar awning by Kelty. About three days into the week the Kelty disappeared. We talked to the owners about the awnings and looked at them ourselves. The owner told us that the Alps Mountaineering was of better quality, except for the stakes. He had to use the Kelty stakes to keep the Alps Mountaineering awning from blowing away. You can expand or contract the legs to shade more or less area. However, the more that you expand, the shorter the awning gets. This could be a problem for tall people. At normal height, the awning will shade a couple of lawn chairs and a cooler with no problem. The breeze easily passes through, so you are not suffocating. We bought the awning because we were tired of messing with a beach umbrella, but we did not want to go through the hassle of carrying and setting up an E-Z Up type canopy on the beach every day. Whereas it takes two people to set up the E-Z Up canopy, one person can set up the awning in about 15 minutes. (However, Alps Mountaineering advises you to practice setting up the awning before taking it out in the field. Take heed of this advice!) It also weighs only 11 pounds and takes up a minimal amount of space when packed. Two positives for us. I took a star off the rating because the rods slip into sleeves of the awning in a similar manner to a tent. The pockets where the rod ends seat do not appear to be reinforced. It makes me wonder how long it will take the material to wear out, especially on the sand. Oh, and the owner of the Alps Mountaineering awning bought another one online from Sierra Trading Post before he left the island.

Looking forward to using at the beach to shelter our family from the sun and heat.

So far we've only used it in our yard, but it is so easy to set up and so compact that we plan to take it to the beach with us this summer. We have three kids and I think it will provide just the right amount of shelter from the hot sun.

We keep the small kids out of too much sun by keeping towels and snacks under the fly. We are going to need another, the kids are getting bigger. We all find this free entry-awning to be just right and its set-up quite easy to understand. Don't know if it's waterproof but it does a good job with sun.