Jason Merrill 
If someone would pay me to trash tent stakes, I could probably make a pretty good living for myself.
That being said, the reason I am featuring the Ruta Locura Sorex Stake in this article is because I am blown away by how tough these featherlight stakes actually are. When I got these, I was fully prepared to not have them last very long. I decided I wouldn’t baby them and just treat them like all my other stakes. I am a firm believer a stake needs to go in the ground . . . by whatever means necessary.
I have pounded the heck out of these things with all sorts of rocks countless times over the past few months and they have so far survived the onslaught. I’m still shocked. Now, of course, you aren’t supposed to beat stakes like these with a rock and I don’t recommend it, and I’m sure the manufacturer wouldn’t recommend it either. But I just don’t know any better.
The Sorex stake is available from Ruta Locura and Zpacks. Ruta Locura is the original designer and Zpacks is making them in house in cooperation with Ruta Locura. Ruta sells these in either 6 or 9 inch length and offers them in packs of 4. Zpacks only has the 6 inch at this time and they offer them for sale individually or in quantity.
The Sorex stake is a hollow carbon fiber tube with a glued in aluminum head and tip. They are very lightweight with the 6 inch weighing 6 grams and the 9 inch weighing 7.5 grams. *note the 6” stake is actually 6 ⅜”. I can’t comment on the specs of the 9″ as I do not own any.
In summary, these are some really durable, high quality, and affordable lightweight stakes. I wasn’t expecting too much from these and have been pleasantly surprised. If they can survive what I have been subjecting them to, then I believe they will excel at “normal” use.
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