4-Season: Hilleberg Akto vs the rest

Heavier, but more stable than an Akto: Hilleberg Soulo.

Arguably even more stable, lighter and under half the price of a Soulo: Wechsel Pathfinder Zero G. But it’s low and possibly not as snow proof. Sadly, the Zero G (silnylon) version of the Pathfinder has been discontinued, but is still fairly widely available, often at a bargain. There is also a polyester version (Travel Line) of the tent that is even cheaper (less than € 200!) and is still produced. And finally, there is an Unlimited Line version that is intended to be more snow proof than the Zero G – also still in production and made of silnylon (with a genuinely bomber floor, too), but slightly heavier than a Soulo.

I don’t have a Soulo, but I own both a Zero G and a Travel Line Pathfinder… excellent tents, imo, if you can deal with the low height. Due to lack of experience, I can’t say anything specific about the Unlimited Line… but suffice it to say that I may even get that one too, one day. It would be my third Pathfinder.

The Nordisk Lofoten is a race tent – totally unsuited to your purposes, imo.

Admittedly, true 4 season tents are something I know very little about but a 4 season tent would usually handle high winds, handle a moderate snow load, and the one thing that I think particularly differentiates them from 3 season tents, is that their fly extends all the way to the ground to prevent spindrift from blowing into the tent.

One caveat, is that tents that are good in wind are low to the ground and have flat(er) walls that catch the wind less, than steep walls, but flat walls don’t handle snow well, so its a trade off between the two.  One way to make a tent do both well is to add lots of poles for support but then that gets heavy.

What are your goals?  Do you expect high winds (it sounds like it)?  What about snow when you are in the mountains?  How important is weight?

The Atko is a fine tent, and I have seen seen a youtube video where it holds up to 80 mph (128kph) winds (yes he has a krestel wind meter in the video.  It isn’t pretty, but I was seriously impressed that a tent that (relatively) light could hold up to that kind of winds.   I don’t think the Atko would hold up to snow loading very well though.   A very similar tent that that many in Scotland and England use that some say hold up even better than than the Atko is the Tarptent Scarp due to the way the struts are on the corners.  I don’t think the Scarp’s fly goes all the way to the ground though.

Tunnel  tents do pretty good  with both, but they have a large footprint (probably not an issue above treeline) and are heavy(ish)

Mids are a light option that are fair in wind and snow, but not as good as tunnel tents.

“A very similar tent that that many in Scotland and England use that some say hold up even better than than the Atko is the Tarptent Scarp due to the way the struts are on the corners. I don’t think the Scarp’s fly goes all the way to the ground though.”

I stand corrected.  Franco is the Tarptent authority here on BPL.   I would go with the Scarp 1 over the Atko since Franco has confirmed the fly can go all the way to the ground.  I would get it with the solid inner-net and the crossing poles for when you need even more stability.

Fjallraven’s Abisko Lite 1:

Some comments from Chris Townsend from 2009 :

I thought the tent might attract attention! When pitched with the cross poles the Scarp 1 is better than the Akto in heavy snow. Last week it was completely buried in heavy snow and stayed up. In the same conditions the ends of the Akto collapse. A full review will appear in TGO.

http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2009/02/camp-in-snow.html

That was on the first version of the Scarp.

(BTW, Chris T is a big fan of the Akto)

Hilleberg Enan:

So we designed our first Yellow Label tents to be very light, yet strong enough for use during the snow-free months of the year, in fairly protected conditions,

Not quite good enough for the peaks in the Alps.

Cheers

Hi Christoph

I am sure many people will tell you that I am a shade biased about pop-ups and tunnels. However, that bias is based on hard experience.

The Unna is a 2.2 kg 2-pole pop-up. It has long bendy poles and a huge fabric span between poles. That makes it weak against serious weather – which is what you get high up.

The Soulo is a 2.4 kg 3 pole pop-up. To be sure, it is stronger than the Unna, but the poles are still long and bendy.

So with either tent, if the weather goes bad you will need to retreat to a more sheltered position. Retreat is not a silly idea! That is, provided you CAN retreat. If a front moves in fast, you may not have that option.

Corn snow at 80+ kph all night. Visibility in the morning of 1 – 2 m. In this area, retreat is not an option.

Stuff happens, and we prefer to not lose our members.

Cheers

I worry that you are assuming that you won’t or can’t get fast changes in the weather up in your mountains. Now, this may be true in your area – I wouldn’t know. But my experience has been that it can go from sunny to a howling storm in 4 – 6 hours. A bivy bag might save your life, but I doubt you want to spend 24 hours sitting out a storm in one.

Cheers

OK, you obviously have different meteo conditions to me. In which case, my advice may not apply.

Cheers
PS: we have done red and purple Via Alpina, and yes, the weather was more stable there.

I live in Australia. The weather can change fast in our mountains.

Cheers

If you are considering Akto-style 3-season tents and want it as light as possible this can be an alternative:

http://www.helsport.no/ringstind-superlight

Its 0,99kg. The weight savings of cause come from somewhere, thin fabrics and smaller tube dimensions, but Helsport is a Norwegian company with good reputation, and people that have it says it stands up well in hard wind. I have no idea about snow. (I would not use this tent nor HB Enan as winter tent here in Scandinavia.) I think it is somewhat larger than Akto. If you consider it, you should double-check that it has a solid inner but I believe that is the case.