I've been looking for a 2-person shelter suitable for 3+ season use in the sierras. The best option seems like the mid style tents (betamid, shangri-la, superfly) or the tube tents. The mids don't have much in the way of headroom and I don't like the idea of having poles between me and my companion. The tubes are quite heavy with the support poles. My thought is to combine the two by using the mid design and putting two small 30" fibraplex spreader poles perpendicular to the trekking pole supports. These would be inserted under stress to create a supported peak.
The result would look something like this except that a used a straight line rather than an arch (can't figure out how to do that in sketchup) to approximate the curve of the spreader poles.
It will use about 8.5 yards of fabric and can be made with 4 pieces of spinnaker which should yield a fairly low weight.
Is there any rule of thumb as to how much additional weight is added with seams, tie out points, zippers, etc?
Has anyone tried anything similar? Will the flatter top collect snow if there is any significant snow fall? Any other critiques and criticisms?
Thanks for looking.
Edit: Sorry for the lack of pretty colors.
