Wind River tent

Why won't it cut it?

I remember reading a post here where someone posted a packing list for a multi-day the Winds. He mentioned that he used a Gossamer Gear SpinnTwin tarp, which, I think, provides comparable coverage to your Tarptent. On the other hand, I've talked with another person who spent a week in the Winds using a Bibler I-tent.

As for weather out West, in my experience it is no worse to the weather in the East. In the eastern part of the country you have tornadoes. Generally tornadoes don't sweep through mountain ranges and the weather only gets "bad" in those regions in the wintertime when you have lots of snow and cold temperatures. I've spent about a week in the Tetons for the past two years in the summertime and the weather was OK. About half the days, there were some afternoon clouds which often culminated into precipitation. Sometimes there was hail (this was at higher elevations mainly), sometimes the rain lasted an hour or two, but usually it let up after about 20 minutes of pouring. Up above treeline you'll get more precipitation. We saw some snow accumulation (even in July!) but it wasn't intense. When it was snowing where I was, it had been raining all evening, had let up at night, but then started snowing in the early morning. In the valley below, the weather was clear and beautiful, so it was just an altitude thing.

I've spent more time in the West in other regions and I currently live in the mountains of Arizona, but I think the Tetons is as close to the Winds as I've been. Really, the main place you'll want to be careful about the weather in the West is when you're at relatively high elevation like on a ridge because of lightning risk. Otherwise, I don't think western weather is as bad as you make it out to be, and this is coming from someone who grew up in Missouri experiencing monthly to weekly tornado warnings throughout the summers.

If you still want to go the tent route, I can recommend the MSR Hubba series. They are relatively lightweight, pack down small, require minimal brainpower to set up, are free standing and can be tied down pretty securely to withstand heavy winds.

My most recent trip to the Wind's was in late July last year. I used my Tarptent Squall2. The only real reason I set it up was to get away from the mosquitoes. The weather was not a problem.

I've only spent a week in the Winds, this past August, and it was incredible (however, I do live in the San Juans). The weather was bad enough we didn't get any rock climbing in though. But that meant better tent testing. The Black Diamond Megalite we used held up. We had a few nights with major thunderstorms, one with major hail. The wind and force of the rain/hail had us holding the walls out since the were getting really blasted, and we didn't want our shelter to self destruct. The night before we attempted Gannet Peak, it was really windy and it flapped so much we barely slept, only to get up at 3:30, go up Boney Pass in the dark, get on the glacier, and find the mountain buried in cloud, and it started snowing, so we turned around before things went epic. Why manufacture opportunity?

Anyhow, the Megalite worked out, but felt close to falling over a few times… I think a tarp (not a tarptent, which are normally fixed geometry) would actually have been best since when it is pitched really low it is very aerodynamic (although the force of rain/hail from would have affected it more)! Next time I'll bring a tarp!

and since you are probably going UL and not UL with loads of climbing gear (that we didn't get to use…) you may have the luxury of camping below treeline every night(?) in which case it will be more sheltered than where I was camping.

Enjoy!! It is the best mountain range I've been in

I did five days, in the Winds, last August with a Gatewood Cape. I endured a good blow from thunderstorms, but the GC did really well. It's a great shelter.
Paul