Which tents under 3kg will take 100km/h winds from any direction?

about 4lbs, 2 poles, 3 great reinforced guy-out tabs/triangles on 3 of the sides and then additional guy you can sit up in it and it has an additional 4 guy-out spots, one on each of the four pole corners.

It is fairly low to the ground and takes wind great. Additionally has 6 stake-out points along the bottom of it, one at each corner and then two in the middle of the long sides. side note, being put up very taught and firm, even small pieces of hail or raindrops sound very loud. These pictures are not in-situ shots of bad weather, I'm in the tent then, but it held very nicely during storms on rainier. But they give you some more info, since there is a dearth of information about this tent on the web.

"What would other people like to see "reviewed" – a product or a design?"

A product. A good design doesn't guarantee a good execution. :)

Not from 'any direction' but my quaint little Outer Limits 'Backpacker' tent has taken around 100kmh with me in it, and it didn't even flinch. They're pretty cheap, and I take mine up to our highest point every year and spend the night in it. It'd be getting on 7 years old now but still performs well. And yes, I've set it up single-handedly in a gale before with no worries.

It comes in at 2.3kg (actual weight fully packed), sleeps 2 comfortably, and has a front vestibule for gear/cooking/shoes. The interior height is easily enough to sit up in, and two people can sit if you have company.

Their website is outer-limits.com.au , think they currently retail for around the AU$150 mark. At least, thats what I bought mine for 7 years ago. I certinaly couldn't imagine it being any more than AU$200.

Regards – boingk

The Power Odyssee arrived today and it was one heavy box: UPS = 8lbs. Of course I did what any reasonable person would – I went and weighed the components to my UL conscience chagrin:

Poles = 23.1 oz. / 655g
Fly + Body together = 4 lb. 11.3 oz. / 2106g
Stuff sack = 3 oz. / 85g

Min. weight = 6.14375 lbs.

Vaude list the complete weight as 2.85kg, so near enough.

There's a small portion of the door that is mesh only I think?

What's it like to put up and get into/out of?

Can the top vents be closed?

http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=10384&storeId=207&catalogId=10201&langId=-1&from=subCat&parent_category_rn=11750&variationId=1W3

"Withstanding winds of 130.2 mph, you'll be blown away by how resilient this two-person tent just is."

I owned this tent, and have to say it felt bulletproof, and was light (under 4 lbs packed weight)…

Cheers

> What about exoskeleton tents – is there a way to directly connect guys to the
> poles without them slipping along the length of the pole?

I suspect that MANY designers have wished for something like that! I know I have. However, my experience has been that good guy rope attachments – ones that spread the load for a few inches along the pole seam, do work quite well enough. The pole keeps the tent up and the guy rope holds the fly against the wind. It is the fly, not the poles, which cop the wind after all.

I think Hilleberg figured out a very elegant and practical solution to this with their Soulo. From the moment I first saw the guyline attachments on the fly I was very impressed:

But doesn't its strength depend on facing the wind – basically the pressure of the wind through the vent blows it up so it can't be squashed by the wind?

It must get windy inside?

Wonder what it'll take from the side?

Stay away from the TNF Spectrum 23. It is a condensation machine. There is very little ventilation within the tent. The vestibule is really tiny. It is also a 1.5 person shelter. Two people and the sleeping pads would overlap.

However, these are usually on massive sale at the end of the season so you could pick up a decent deal….

@Stu –

>There's a small portion of the door that is mesh only I >think?

Yes, you are correct on the interior and there is a prominent covered vent above the exterior door of the vestibule that is permanently open and mesh covered.

>What's it like to put up and get into/out of?

I set it up in the living room and it went quickly and smoothly. The poles are slipped over the newer style male inserts on each of the ends and then the clips are attached. The front smaller pole goes on first, which is a little unusual.

>Can the top vents be closed?

The real question is, "can they be opened?" I found that the hoops would not hold their shape and the nylon just smashed right down on the mesh. The inside has small zippers at the apex that open to access the outer peak vents in order to open or close. I think they will hold their shape better with side tension from additional stakes along the middle of the sides. The vents seem well designed and placed.

My overall impression is that this is a stout tent with strong bones and lightweight skin. All of the seams are nicely taped and the prices is quite reasonable. There are very few tents in this weight range that share the features and the pole architectural details with the clip system truly set it apart. That said, it is is still a bit heavy for my purposes, given the size of the interior and vestibule. It would likely perform beautifully, but I think that for the weight, I would prefer a Bibler Fitzroy still, even sans vestibule. With the price factor thrown in, however, the Vaude becomes especially attractive.

Soulo: Used this tent for 1 month, north of the pole circle, high in the mountains. Used it with stronger poles than those from Hilleberg. (See: http://www.fliegfix.com)

Strong cons:

Condensation machine. Used the old Hilleberg Nallo, solo, for many years. Never had problems with condensation in spring/summer/autumn. In the Soulo, despite every available trick, in rainy weather / cold nights, my sleeping bag was wet. Cause: Only 1 very tiny vent. Flap covering the top touches the flysheet.

Noisiest tent I ever used. Flap, covering the top, gives a verrrry loud, penetrating, vibrating sound like "GRRRRRHHRRRMMMM" even in light wind. Fabric of flysheet looses tension very fast when getting wet. In practice it starts to wrinkle even with a light mist.With a tunnel, one can tauten the whole tent. You cannot do this with the Soulo. Trying to do it, you end up with 2 taut "strings" in the respective segment of the flysheet, the other parts still flapping happily beneath + above, going "BOOOM", "BANG" with every gust. This happens no matter which part of the tent faces the wind.

Silly design (apart from the non-existing ventilation and the noise). Poles only crossing at the very top. This makes for big loose segments of the flysheet, even with 3 poles.

Pros: Had some stiff wind, tent poles did not budge. Watertight even in heavy rain + storm. And: Beautyfully easy and fast to set up. A pity that the other design features are such a miss.

Hi folks,

I have owned both a Crux X2 Storm and its baby brother the Lightwave G1 Ultra, they are fantastic tents once pitched.

Cheers,

Stephen

in my x the issue is not if the tent can take the hits, it is if you can erect the thing without breaking it. my hoop tents cold be set head-end into the blast, and then you nail down the front stakes, then insert the poles, and THEN pull the rear end to make it all stand up. at that moment, it can fly away/rip/desintegrate, because you are held to the ground with only one end of the tent, and you can only be at one place at a time. two people would make this less challenging. 100kph is a LOT of wind.

my akto is best set sideways to any meaningful blast. then stake the two upwind corners, and it will dance and flap all over the ground. then one sets the windward side guyline (loosely) and insert the pole. for the initial part, it stays better nailed down as the pole insert goes deeper. then at the final moment of complete insertion (use your imagination) , if you had a true for-real 100kph wind, you might be very very busy. if your initial stakes sets were not 100% bomber, and you stupidly lost an anchor, you'd need a new tent.

i have sat there a minute or two hoping for a break in the breeze, but it seems that all i'll ever get is a nice steady moment to shove the pole home. once poled, the structure is stable, because it's all sagged to the ground mostly. you can pull the sideguy and this holds it nicer. so there you are, two anchors and a sideguy, and you are safe for a few minutes. clever folks will pre-have large rocks ready to anchor the other corners.

once firmly anchored, i have no idea how much wind it will take. a lot, i know that. it's not going to stay nice and pretty though. you'll have distortion all over the map. the tent can hit you in the face while you are laying down.

the size of rocks it takes to do this are rather epic.

at some point, as with hypothermia, we should have stopped some time ago, before this situation developed into a frikk'n mess, when we had a choice, and now we have made us in a pickle. and this is how even the occasional eskimo ends up missing.
… ever drive a Very Big truck, with a couple of hinges in the middle of it (trailers) ? you can motor down narrow streets going in, that you can NOT drive backwards out of. one needs to keep that sort of thing in mind. (is just a thought..)

and anyway, where is your pack going to be while we do all this ? it's going to be jouncing along downwind at about 40mph. near top of triple divide pass in glacier, i have had a fully loaded dana terraplane simply up and blow away. so we would need to also anchor our pack to the deck as well. ohhh… it's just so much easier to find an old inuit windbreak and hunker down there.

veeHaa!
v.

Integral Designs Wedge Bivy.

Hmmmm

That's really disappointing about the Soulo. I'd sort of come to think that was the "best" solo shelter for heavy conditions – being liveable, strong, light enough for 1 person, light for its strength, exoskeleton / easy to put up in strong wind compared with other designs.

Re fabric: I do think perhaps marketing has created undue interest in silnylon where sometimes polyester would be a better choice (for UV and non-stretch in changing conditions). On the other hand it is somewhat elastic which may actually help performance in severe conditions. The downside is you have to re-tension it (it would appear).

Re condensation: Did you experiment with the vent and door openings? Was it a persistent problem or just now and then? So it was enough to wet out your sleeping bag?

I went skiing with a guy last year that had bought a Soulo and after about 2 nights I think he was just about mentally prepared to acknowledge he wouldn't be using the tent again due to the amount of condensation / sleeping bag getting wet. However, he then opened the vent fully and was happy with it (temperatures would have been close to freezing – not VERY cold).

Re umbrella flapping in the wind making a noise: That's crazy annoying. Did you ask Hilleberg about that?

Re poles: I'm in Australia and those Fliegfix poles would be silly expensive to ship here. I do think they would be a worthwhile upgrade for severe conditions though. Did you use the tent with the original poles at all and if so are you happy with that upgrade?

Re event wedge bivy: Somewhat less comfortable than the Soulo in the majority of conditions (can't sit up / limitations of single wall design / need the optional vestibule in heavy precipitation to prevent it getting into the bivy) but looks as if it would be super stable in wind due to the low profile and multiple guy points. Has anyone actually used one long term that can comment on these issues (I am aware of the original review here http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/integral_designs_wedge_bivy_review.html but no real follow up after long term use).

Caveat: the tent must be designed to use internal guy ropes: most are not.

Hi Roger, I want to add internal guys to my Nallo, From top guy point to top guy point. Does the Nallo fall foul of your caveat? A tunnel tent without the pole guys linked internally seems to me to be a structure with a crucial part missing

@Derek.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Nallo 2 – I think the August Outdoor Magazin stuck it in fronmt of a fan and it survived to 120 km/h – a very good result regardless of whether a tent is geodesic or not.

Does anyone know whether they quote the best figure (wind from the pointy end) or whether that is the figure with wind hitting the tent broadside? (surely not)

Hi Stuart,
I guess they test it end on. I was hoping to add internal guys because 1) they are easy to add and light 2) They do not get in the way much with the Nallo, one is just on the porch side of the door and quite high and the other is well over our feet,3) we intend to take the tent to Patagonia and up to 6000+m in the Andes this winter. Double poles are very heavy, perhaps we could get back to one set and some spares?

I was thinking about this more yesterday. Condensation is mentioned as an issue with the Soulo, although it also appears that some forget there is an upper vent and a full backed mesh door on the inner. But realistically, if one is dealing with 100KM winds, is condensation even going to be an issue? Some wind WILL find itself under the tent walls and if the vent is open the wind will take the warmer air with it.

No?

Sure David,

But what about the other X% of the time when the wind is insignificant?

Would be good to hear from other Soulo users in cold conditions to see whether they think the condensation is manageable or not.

I am now enthused by internal guys in tents, at least in the Nallo2. I made a set yesterday and the increase in sideways strength is impressive. See my independant thread "internal guys on a Nallo"

There are a bunch of new videos of lightweight tent tests available on the Outdoor Magazin site and they make for interesting viewing

http://www.outdoor-magazin.com/hilleberg-nallo-2-im-test-vor-der-windmaschine.587507.3.htm

If Google's Translate is to be believed they are claiming the Nallo 2 will take 120 km/h from the side. I find this almost unbelievable (compared with the ultra quasar they rate at 95 km/h)

Compare this with the the single pole Akto which supposedly survived even stronger winds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1iJvk6tKs4

So we have amongst the tents I've just discussed in dercreasing order of wind worthiness:

1. 1 pole tent (Akto)
2. 2 pole tent (Nallo)
3. 4 pole (lightweight version) geodesic (Quasar)

WTF???!!!

Note also that the Quasar achieves a waayyyy lower result than the Crux X2 Storm (which they have covered in a previous test).

What does this teach me? Even accounting for different pole diameters it is impossible to predict a tents performance on paper. (Here I am using a very narrow definition of performance as ability to survive wind)

OK, so for the German speaking amongst us… Is Outdoor Magazin reputable? Are those figures to be trusted and do they rate that tunnel at 120 km/h from the side or is it end on test?

Hi Stuart,
I am pretty sure from the wind indicator and the behaviour of the tent that that is an end on test.
I am just off to the High Andes in an adapted Nallo 2. I have double poles and internal guys and extra guys at the front and back. I think all thos things would improve end on performance compared to the standard Nallo seen in the video. The back pole failed by being pushed down until it broke. An internal guy across the hoop from top guy to top guy would have resisted that. The internal guys only weigh 10 grams. The double poles should help a lot, of course they double the weight of the poles but the tent is still 2.4 kilo. I am just glad the fabric did not go first as I have not improved that.

I see that wiser and more experienced mountaineers have posted an answer to the 60+mph, 6lb issue and, although I recognize there's a plethora of product proffered by purveyors (ho ho), I will add to their point: BIBLER.

Bibler tents are not ultralight, although they "were" when originally designed and marketed by Todd Bibler. Bibler tents are designed and constructed to be bombproof when it gets down to really needing to be, and yet the designs maximize vertical-ish wall space to ensure the area inside the tent is useable. The poles are now old-school aluminum, but are burly, resilient and reliable. They are erected inside the tent. One person can erect and take down these tents, but you better be practiced and clear-headed if you do this in heavy wind.

These are single-skinned, Gore-Tex tents that use an interior fuzzy lining (called Todd-Tex) that grabs aerial moisture/condensation and either helps wick it to the membrane or, in real cold, holds onto the frost pretty well. The membrane won't handle two warm people during a rainstorm w/o opening the well-placed vents, but it works great in sub-freezing weather (and especially with a candle-lantern to keep moisture vaporized and zooming out through the skin of the tent).

My comments are based on years of experience in these tents and it pains me now how "heavy" they are and how I lust for a Big Agnes UL — but that I would never-ever take into potentially extreme conditions.

All of the Bibler tents are over-built, as you'd want. I have spent a night camped in a stupid location (hubris) with an Ahwahnee in 70mph winds that rotated around sideways to us — with the center pole pulled from within to allow the eaves to drop, we hunkered down and the lightest-duty of all Biblers did, too. The Fitzroy wouldn't have had any trouble at all in that particular wind.

The Fitzroy isn't UL by backpacking standards, but may well be by mountaineering measure. The suggestion above is well-made, in my view. You want the Fitzroy, or should look it up and check it out at a minimum.

I think the Jannu fits your criteria perfectly, and would take over a tunnel design…the tent feels incredibly tough, and is surprisingly light. I cut all the metal zippers off (annoying in wind, and now easier to grab with gloves), and with lighter guy-lines I come in at 5 lbs, 15 oz.

Look at the reviews, tough to beat. Of course, if you truly want the strongest tent on the planet you just grab a Tarra :)

http://rockandice.com/articles/how-to-climb/article/980-hilleberg-jannu-tent-review

http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/4-Season-Tent-Reviews/Hilleberg-Jannu

http://thebackpacker.tv/2008/11/hilleberg-jannu-tent-review/