mountaineering tents

These look like expedition, base camp tents. Nice to have standing room when you're out their for 1-2 months. You'd want something lighter for fast moving camps up the mountain.

The higher tents might also help you go longer before you have to shovel snow off? I've read a few mountaineers have sufficated before when they didn't wake up in the night to shovel snow off the tent. : (

yeah, 1 – 2 months

The standard 2/3 man Scott Tent (made by several manufacturers including one here in Melbourne) is of a pyramid design with 4 1" poles supporting it.
I have used this photo several times to illustrate what happens when you have verified 100MPH winds on a tent.

Next time you read comments about 2 lbs tents supported by trekking poles holding 100mph winds, take those reports with a spoonful of salt.
BTW, over $3000, 60 lbs….(for the Aussie version)

I wonder what the air speeds were at Everest Base Camp at the time of the avalanche. It trashed most mountaineering tents in its way. It trashed the Everest ER tent and that had a stout metal frame with a double layer of heavy fabric over it. But I guess that was not just air but had some snow drift in it to add weight.

those tents are made here in alaska.
the 10×10 size goes for about 1650.

http://www.alaskatent.com/oven/ao-10-extreme.html

"Tunnel tent is similar, although it would be good to have a pole along ridgeline connecting the hoops".
There are tents like that, sort of an hybrid between a tunnel and a dome tent.
The Exped Polaris is one of those :

2 person tent, single skin (PTFE) 41" headroom

That's sort of what I did to my Tarptent Moment DW by putting the optional crossing pole inside the fly in a stressed position..

Still, in gusts to 65 mph. (local weather service figures), the main hoop did deform a bit, even with a guy line on each side of the hoop. The ridge line pole did not deform. Two inside Velcro loops and one central strap loop and held it in place.

But I learned than it will be good to stake out the ends of the main hoop pole.

NOTE: Take a look at the YouTube video on an Akto in 80 mph winds (England) and you can see how the internal X-ing pole of my Moment DW (and the previous Moment single wall) make so much difference. Additionally the 4 fly hem stake loops helped keep the Moment's walls pulled tight so they don't deform a lot.

The Moment DW with an internal X-ing pole makes the shape much like the Vango "Blade" design tent on another YouTube video of high wind testing in England.

Cuben mid. End of story. 100+MPH winds no problem. A few guylines and it'll handle snow like a champ.

JK of course.

"100+MPH winds no problem"
Yes , sure, no worries.

Can you back up that claim?

"I wonder what the air speeds were at Everest Base Camp at the time of the avalanche."

Someone will calculate it based on damage. But 100 to 200 mph is in the ballpark.

"100+MPH winds no problem"
Yes , sure, no worries.

I figured you'd get a kick out of that. I am curious to know how a sil or cuben duomid, ultamid or Khufu would do in 80-120mph winds, assuming proper guidelines and adequately strong stakes. Has anyone stress tested these to failure based on wind?

I am not aware of anyone stress-testing a light-weight mid to 100 mph. Basically, the design is wrong for those conditions: the height of the tent and the unsupported areas of fabric are just too great. The Australian (One Planet) Antarctic pyramid tents use 1" poles at the four corners and a much heavier fabric, and climbing rope for guys.

Tunnel tents in silnylon can take very high winds, having been used at over 100 kph very successfully. But they are expensive.

> assuming proper guidelines and adequately strong stakes
Yeah, you bet!
And adequate sod clothes at ground level too.
Remember, at those wind speeds you will get fretting on fabric and guys.

Cheers

70 mph Wind Tunnel Test

Enter “DAC Wind Lab” in the YouTube search box for more.

Wind just coming from one direction, they need to rotate it around

35 m/s = 80 MPH

With the tent flapping around like that, I wonder how long it would survive

Still, good to be testing it…

Ed veisturs book about the himalayas he didn't talk much about tents tearing. He has a couple first hand accounts of surviving avalaches in them, holding on to the poles to support them. He did mention the tent flapping, but said he didn't sleep much anyways on climb days due to the altitude. He spent most of the time melting snow for soup/altitude hydration

He did say, that the key to surviving the night was camp site selection. Finding a nook with wind shelter but no/low risk of avalanches, Seracs falls. I imagine wide open spaces like in the OP post, would be tougher to find shelter besides piddling snowwalls.

I think he said his tents were whatever he could convince local stores to donate. And they would loose alot of the climbing tents in blizzards(literally couldn't find them), so he'd bring a crate of tents.

MLD Solomid, 25-40MPH

The poster of this video says it was 25-40MPH. If that’s correct, it seems to hold up quite well. 80MPH, I am sure, is another story due to exponential wind forces.

Original Vango Force Ten was designed for early British expeditions to Everest.
A-frame at each end joined by a ridge pole, cotton inner with bathtub floor and cotton fly. I spent much of my youth in one which I still have, fly is now bleached white from sun. 15 lbs for the 2-3 man version! You can still buy them.

" The poster of [the] video says it was 25-40MPH.If that's correct…"

If he used an wind-gage. Because unless you've had a meter in your hand, standing in the wind, several times, it's Very hard to estimate.

Watch the video with the sound off.

At 40 mph, it's hard to stand up, let alone walk around to shoot a video.

It's an interesting video, but I'd want to see the numbers on a meter.

"> assuming proper guidelines and adequately strong stakes
Yeah, you bet!
And adequate sod clothes at ground level too."

What are sod clothes? Sorry, I don't speak Australian.

Sod clothes are material at the bottom of the tent, which are about a 8-12 inches wide which make a seal at the bottom which stop wind and snow from entering the tent.

you pile sod on top of the sod clothes

or snow or rocks

Hopefully the sods you poor sods use on the sod cloth are not sodden – that would be a sod, and your tent buddy might suddenly tell you to "sod off!" Sad…, and all in English.

Hi Justin

> What are sod clothes? Sorry, I don’t speak Australian.
Various people have already explained what the term means. It applies to tents for bad weather. It is not specifically an Australian term.

Have a read of When Things Go Wrong, and look at the photo near the end labeled “About 4:00 am, Sue’s pack inside the vestibule of the tent”. That will show you what happens when you do not have a proper sod cloth in a snow storm. A teensy leetle bit of snow creeps in …

Cheers