Winter Tent

[RagingHampster]

I'm hunting for a new winter tent. Right now I'm still using my Arapaho Solo Tent, and it gets mighty chilly with it when it's windy. So I'm looking for a tent with these qualities...

- 4 Season (Winter)
- Lightweight
- Single Wall

I've been looking at the Bibler iTent, and can't seem to find a good used one cheap. I can order new from MooseJaw.com for $500 (with my discount), but that seems awfully expensive...

Suggestions... :-?

[DebW]

How about the Hilleberg Akto for $345? Single person double walled tent, weights 2 lbs 12 oz.
This is what Chris Townsend uses - saw it in his slide show and at the campground at the Gathering.

[RagingHampster]

Looks tempting Deb (especially the weight!), but I wonder what type of weather this tent can handle as far as winds are concerned. I'd have to make a snowwall around it to prevent drafts I think.

What do you use in the winter?

[DebW]

Chris Townsend's slide show at the Gathering was his 5 month hike across Scotland crossing 517 peaks
over 3000 feet, where there are virtually no trees and the wind almost always blows hard.
The tent held up, but sometimes the incessant flapping was so annoying that he'd sleep in boulder caves.
I don't know the tent personally, but seemed like a good endoresment that Townsend uses it.

When I started winter hiking, we all used 2-man double A-frame tents with double walls and no mesh.
The fly didn't reach the ground on the sides and had only a short beak over the door, so good ventillation
between fly and tent walls. But it was better to leave the fly off if snow was expected, as snow load would
usually compress the fly against the tent, resulting in heavy condensation. Some tents had snow tunnels for
entrances instead of zippered doors. Thses tents were not freestanding, but could handle most any wind if properly
guyed out (required 18 stakes for body and fly). These days my only winter-worthy tent is a 3-person dome
by TNF - a tent with 4 poles and no mesh to which I added 4 solid guy lines to the fly. I saved the poles off
my old A-frame tents - maybe I'll make a new tent out of them someday. I can see a design something like
the Clip Flashlight but without mesh and with extra guy lines being a very usable winter tent.

[RagingHampster]

I was worried about the same thing that you were describing... abandoning a 2-wall tent for a cave (or leaf-pile :p ) once the fly starts flapping around. I know thats no problem when you can hold them down with snow, but as you know many places get very cold before the snow actually builds up enough.

I do have one winter-worthy tent, a 3-man TNF VE-25 that I used last winter with another person, but we always split the weight up because it weighs almost ten pounds! I'm not crazy enough to lug that tent by myself. I did it once on my second time to the Breadloaf Wilderness above Middlebury Gap, and that was a mistake :D :p

Now that I've done a couple hundred miles of snow-shoeing, and winter camped a bunch with others, I want to do some solo winter over-night trips to the Mt. Williams/Mt. Rich/Mt. Greylock area (Shhhhhhh! ;) )

[MadAussieInLondon]

hilleberg are reknowned for making good tents. up there with terra-nova for good tents.

if i didnt mind the 2.2kgs, id be carrying a terra nova voyager... in uk.rec.walking, quite a few ppl champion the akto...

[Alligator]

I don't own one but have looked into pyramid tents as a lightweight winter shelter. The new silnylon metalight(?) or betalight are single walled, light, and spacious. I know a guy who has used a Metamid up in Alaska without problems.

[RagingHampster]

I've been seriously consideirng one of those pyramid tents, but I would want one with a floor, because of the same wind issues.

I recently eMailed Brawny, one of the owners of Dancing Light Gear and she sent me this eMail...


HI Nick,

Thanks for writing! Always glad to hear from an "old customer" .
David tells me a four season tent means it can hold up to snow. I take my tacoma solo out in the winter, and it got snow on it. Yet...I know there are more issues here.
So, although we don't have any new tents in mind, or under construction, I would love to converse with you on this idea.
What specifically, feature wise, would you like to see for a four season tent? Would it be double wall (more mesh, then a full fly?)
Would it be free standing? (thereby needing shock-corded hi tec poles, this is do-able)
Would it have a heavier, thicker, floor? (perhaps a 1.9 silnylon, or even something heavier?)
I imagine the tent would have a full fly, removable, which could also serve as a warm weather tarp. This fly would touch the ground on all sides, and anchor firmly to the main body tent stakes.
So, Nick, if you get a chance to reply to this e-mail, it would be fun to kick around some ideas.

best wishes
BrawnyI may ask if she could possible make a silnylon version of the BlackDiamond MegaLight that already has the floor sewn in, along with a zipper for the door. The only thing is, I would really like a free standing tent.
The other idea I have is a duplicate of the standard 2 pole "dome" tent that intersects once at the top of the tent. The body would then be all sil-nylon. But then I would have to come up with some vents and whatnot.

I've been looking again at the Bibler tents, and for some reason I can buy the ELdorado cheaper than the I-Tent from Moosejaw with my discount. The Eldorado is essentially the same as the I-Tent, except that it's 3" wider, 5" longer, and 5oz heavier. I'm still not jiving the 4-5lb weight bracket though. A pyramid silnylon winterized tent would be half that. My brain is cooking from too much thought :)

[stranger]

A free standing tent is not that important to have considering all tents work best pegged out and taught, especially if you are going out in winter you need to worry about high wind and instability.

I have done many trips in the Catskills and Adirondacks of NY in Jan and Feb and would recommend you learn how to deadman a tent, cause snow stakes don't hold as well, and there are times when it is absolutely necessary for safety on exposed ridges.

Even if there isn't much snow, it's a bitch to get a peg in the ground in -15F, so I do understand why you want a free standing tent!

[RagingHampster]

Well I have come to a decision... :jump

I read alot of reviews on the Black Diamond Mega Light pyramid tent, and found that many people have had wind issues with it. Apparently unless you can bury the exterior edges of the tent, it tends to pick up alot of drafts. This is what I was worried about, because I plan to do some early winter camping where there may not be alot of snow, yet I need something more burly than my Dancing Light Gear Tarp/Tent.

So then I looked very closely at tents offered by Integral Designs and Hilleberg. Integral Designs offers tents similar to those made by Bibler, but they are smaller, and I dont particularly like the vents. I came close to buying the Akto, but I would really like a free-standing tent that can handle snow, and I was also concerned with the dual-wall setup and it's same issues with drafts beneath the external fly.

I've decided to go with the Bibler Eldorado. It's a few ounces heavier than the I-Tent, but it will give me lots of room for my gear, and allow me to share it with a partner if I bring a vestibule for gear. I was torn up on whether to get an extra door for the ventilation, or save 8oz and go with the standard model. I've decided to opt for the single door, as the only time I will be using this tent is in the winter, and I'm less worried about frost-build up than I would worry about muggy water droplets in the summer.

I have read some horrort stories that pick at me about getting this tent. In no particular order...

- Guy used one on Mt. Washington above tree-line in winter. Wind pulled out one of his stakes, and a tent pole punctured the side of the tent. He ended up using it as a Bivy sack.

- A PCT Thru-Hiker had problems inserting the poles into the inner clips, and put one through the tent-wall.

- 2 guys sharing an eldorado in Alaska ripped the tent-wall when it abraded against a sleeping bag zipper during the night under heavy winds.

Other than these (which seem that they could happen with any tent), I've heard 20 good reviews for every bad one.

Now to choose the color, green or yellow. Both versions are yellow on the inside. This may be the toughest decision of all... :p :-? :p

EDIT:

Green.