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.

You can read “The story of enan” here:

http://se.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/yellow-label-tents/enan/#link_historyLink

Where they ho through the changes they made to get a 3-season tent from a 4-season tent. Gives you an idea of a few differences Hilleberg see.

This BPL articles gives a lot of info even if its about larger tents mostly:

https://backpackinglight.com/tunnel_tents_part1/ (the first one)

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.

I just came across Aarn, when seeing if I could find any local cottages in NZ. They have a very unique approach to packs, and their tents look interesting too.

https://www.aarnpacks.com/aarn-tents

Discussions about them on this site is super limited (and seems to be 5-10 years old), and a 4th season shelter is not something I need so I don’t know much about what makes a good design. But NZ has something of a reputation for volatile weather. Im unsure if this is kiwi hyperbole or justified – Joe from zpacks notes the former, and I’ve only hiked in summer conditions in Europe, so I can’t really compare. In any case new zealanders believe our conditions any responses volatile, and you see people packing 90L bags in summer with full mountaineering tents..

So these tents are designed for pretty rough conditions (or people who think they’re in rough conditions) but unlike most kiwi designs there is an emphasis on weight (it uses trekking poles for example). I’d be curious to know what the winter campers think of the design and weight?

“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 imagine the Aarn tents will take a fair bit of wind (NZ does get some wind …), but the very flat tops are not going to handle snow loading very well.

Imho, the classic gold standard commercially-available tunnel is the Macpac Olympus, also from NZ. I have compared it with Hilleberg and others from Europe, and I think it is superior. I have also lived in one for some years.

You could try reading our review of tunnel tents, starting at
https://backpackinglight.com/tunnel_tents_part1/
https://backpackinglight.com/tunnel_tents_part2_2012/
https://backpackinglight.com/tunnel_tents_part3_2012/

Cheers

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.

Thanks for the insight Roger. So probably more of a very strong 3 season shelter at more weight (and perhaps better windperformance) than a mid?

Interesting comment re the Olympus, it’s very heavy. I suppose we are talking more about performance than weight though, and I have no expertise on what’s realistic for a true 4th season alpine shelter.

Will need to check out your articles when I eventually get the full membership..

Fjallraven’s Abisko Lite 1:

Flaps badly in light wind.
Flat ends to catch snow fall.
Door opens over floor in rain.

Cheers

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)

Thanks for all the comments! I’m still reading through the references and thought about my goals again. A typical scenario 1 week ago in the swiss alps was: Photography location at 3100m, I’ve set up my “base camp” at 2200m due the tent being too heavy to carry up (camera backback has a lot of weight).

What I would prefer is to a) move my base camp higher up and b) have the possibility to sleep on the peak (there were winds around 80kmh, not very well protected, I thought about using a bivy bag or tarp for this purpose, will only do it if the weather is on the better side). Temps were okay, which is around -10C at night on 3000m.
I do not expect heavy snowfall on these trips, however, but a night with 20cm of snowfall can always happen. I want to avoid condensation as much as possible as I only have down bags.

I think I will start at the lighter end and see where I get with it, thus I would set the Akto my upper weight limit, but I’d like to see if I can get lighter than that as well. I would maybe prefer the Scarp1 to the Akto from what I have read so far. The options below that sounded best are:

Hilleberg Enan, http://europe.hilleberg.com/DE/zelt/yellow-label-zelte/enan/#link_historyLink
Tarptent Moment DW, https://www.tarptent.com/momentdw.html (solid inner)
not considering the Notch as it has only a partial solid inner

They are partially similar but in a very different price range. People seem to have good experience with both of them in the scenarios I described for myself above. I would consider them as 3+ season tent.
I prefer a compact and quick to pitch tent, so I skipped the Scarp 1.

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

@rcaffin, I would not use the Akto/Enan or similar alternatives on the peaks unprotected, mainly due to high winds. If tent, I think the Unna or Soulo class is better for this purpose. That’s why I wrote I would rather use a (hooped) bivy bag like a black diamond spotlight or the MLD soul bivy on the peak as it is much lower profile.

I stay there only if I expect the weather to be rather good and not extreme. Then I only need a protection for wind and occasional rain (down bag).
That’s another topic though as I assume they are a condensation hell, however – feel free to suggest anything as I’m interested in this as well.

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

@rcaffin, you are probably right, yes. I was just taking two quick examples. I wanted to refer to expedition tents/shelters in general – those which are usually above 2 or 3kg.

As mentioned in my description I am rather looking for something else though. I think this is what I want:

a) lightweight double wall tent for 3+ seasons, the base camp where I can endure bad weather, not on peaks, where protection from heavy wind etc is easier possible
b) bivy option for the peaks when I don’t expect severe weather just for a single night – probably an event bivy sack or hooped bivy

I think for what I outlined in the previous posts, the Akto might be very well suitable, but the Enan or Moment DW might be the better choices.

These are tradeoffs to stay on the lightweight side for my purpose. I do not think they are suitable for extreme winter weather. In this case I would stick to a tent like you mentioned, however, I’m doing such trips yet.

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

@rcaffin, I know how fast the weather can change. I’m living in the Alps for my whole life. However, the chance of a howling storm can be predicted very accurately nowadays for the next 24 hours in my experience and in this case I will not camp on the peak for a photography trip. The scenario I was referring to is to use a bivy bag on the peak to avoid going up and down to my basecamp if I know the night is mostly clear.
I did the same many times, although with a rather heavy Black Diamond tent, distributed across two people when I know the weather can change. Sleeping bag + Cover only if I know it is a clear night.

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.

@rcaffin, ‘me’ is where? I would not call the weather conditions in the alps stable at all, I know it changes very fast. However, there are days where you can easily predict a clear night in autumn for a certain area within a short timeframe, and that’s the specific situation I was referring to.

Just to clarify as I think this is important: I would never take any of these shelters on a trip that is longer than 2 days in deep winter, where I have no idea where I exactly end up and how the weather will be with at least 80% probability during the nights – hence my choice of the examples above.

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

Cheers

What about one of the Black Diamond/Bibler tents like the Firstlight or I-Tent?  I have no experience with them but they are supposed to be mountain tents?

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.

Christoph and Roger,

It’s strange how variously complex and predictable weather systems in the mountains can be. Like Christoph, I often find 24-hour forecasts in the German and Austrian Alps pretty reliable (often depressingly so, if you’re hoping for colder skiing weather in the winter or warmer bikíng weather in the summer). By contrast, the forecasts for the entire southern Pyrenees region – right down to Perpignan and the coast – were often very far off, this August.

Best,

Martin