4 Season Tarp?

Dave O is right: for Artic and Antarctic conditions they often use pyramids.

(image courtesy manufacturer One Planet, Australia)

This tent is high enough for you stand up inside. It takes Antarctic gales. But there is a cost.
The fabric is 8 oz canvas.
The poles are 48 mm diameter (1.9").
The guy ropes are 8 mm climbing rope.
Yeah – reckon it might stay up.

Cheers

David,
I agree with a lot of your points. A square mid is easier to get tight to the ground on uneven surfaces for sure. I find it easy to judge the angles for the hex (engineer by trade) and the golite tensioning straps work well to take up unevenness, albeit with some ground gap.

For me and Kath, the hex is great. I'm a giant who needs to sleep corner to corner, whereas Kath is a shorty, who can tuck in beside me in the space left. This leaves us lots of room for gear and cooking on the other side of the pole.

For a serious expedition, and minimal weight with two more even height people, I'm sure your square mid is more efficient.

Much respect for your craft and the quality of your work.

Chad, I've got to express my thanks for your helpful diagram. It definitely cleared up a major source of the confusion I've had about the weight discrepancy between these two competing products. The Duomid is great in that it's the first 2-man pyramid shelter I've seen that weighs less than a pound in silnylon, but for a sub-20 ounce pyramid shelter you can practically stand up inside of, the alphamid would be the shelter of choice.

I think they are great in the snow regardless of the conditions. I have had mine in Sierra storms and high winds. The only advice, is position the door on the downwind side. The Oware 10×10 has a lot of room. I use it as a kitchen/dining area for large group trips or as a personal shelter and eating area for small groups. I have had up to 10 people in it at one time. Set up is fast and easy. We first make a quarry and then cut out the foot well and use the blocks as a perimeter wall to set the pyramid on.

As Dave said, set up is easy. The pyramid is laid out so we could mark where to put the perimeter wall.

Sunset

Fabulous dining area!

Happy campers inside the Oware dining room enjoying Sarah's Freezer Bag Cooking.

Erin and Hig used mids for thier year long trip from Seattle to Alaska – a Spinntex fabric version for the first half (minimal snow) and a Silnylon version for the toughter winter storm second half.

Here is a link to their blog and one pic shows the Sil mid totally buried under snow!

http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/blog/index.php?paged=3

I posted a new thread regarding a 4 person semi pyramid with one vertical end "Tent idea- Smaller Shangri La 6". Size needs to be good for two adults and two kids who are quickly growing- so let's just say sleeps four.

A couple of my thoughts were to limit height so I could use trekking poles and have fewer seams. Taller may be better though and it seems joining two trekking poles is pretty simple.

Which brings me to the "One Planet, Australia" pyramid phot that Roger posted above. I like the fairly high vertical door on one end. What about something similar to the Oware pyramids (9×9 or 8×8) but with one end raised up like that?

Thanks for any feedback.

excuse my ignorance but I always assumed that the inherent strength of a pryramid or similar shelter was the fact that the stresses and strains of the shelter (and any wind hitting it) were directed down through the centre via the straight pole. Is it just as valid to say that if you have 6 panels instead of 4 that its not only the size of the panel presented to the wind but also that you have 6 stakes in the ground equalizing the stress via the central pole?
I am not an engineer, just a lowly brewer so i would interested to see the thoughts of a civil or structural engineer……

:)

Yes you are correct as far as I have found, but as you add
more sides
you start to get diminishing returns. More weight for less
usable space (sleeping people fit better in a rectangle than
in a hex, etc.) and setting up the shelter gets more complex
and difficult to lay it out straight if it has no floor.

Does anyone have any experience with snow flaps/skirts on floorless shelters? Do they offer any value for the added weight?

Jumped into this late, but want to offer a perspective from the land of ice and snow, at least snow. We use the Oware 9×9 from October through now and have found it to be the best shelter for wind, snow and rain.

Winter and fall shown here