4 Season Ultra Light Extreme Weather Shelter System

Where do you plan on using this system? What is your winter camping experience? Great first post.

Bob, I thought Nemo bailed on the air beam. But they still have two on the site. Ever see one in the wild?

So, take a 3-season tarp shelter, and put an inflatable dome/tunnel over it? I’m unclear on the plan for snow-loading on the dome/tunnel. Is it to manually remove it? I have little experience with the 4th season, and I’m not saying any answer is wrong…

I like the idea of two layers for wind deflection, each layer operating independently, with the outer layer being more capable of resisting the wind through deflection, sort of “sloughing off” a portion of the wind load. Flexing without breaking is key. Inverting the WP layer to the inner, and letting the outer work on wind more… I don’t know if it adds up to a lighter more efficient option, using the inflatable supports, but this particular two-layer strategy is a new one (at least to me), and that seems worthy of investigation.

The weight of the shelter would probably not be the best aspect of performance here, taken on its own, but maybe some measure of dry space per weight. Tunnel tents do that pretty well, but they rely on flexible poles… Maybe you can get under the weight of those, and/or roomier, but still dryer than a typical pyramid, using the the basic pyramid architecture, and a two-layer wind-protection system. If you used the same pole for both, but used an air-permeable material for the outer, I wonder if that would work as kind of a buffer, that would increase the overall wind resistance of the inner, allowing it to be a light cuben  (0.5 or even less). The outer would deflect more, so you need a big gap with the inner, especially on the sides.

The outer would drip, especially if it is blowing around, but you have a WP inner in light cuben to catch the drips and deflect them to the gap. Assuming the outer is blocking most of the horizontal aspect of sideways precip, the inner WP could have big vents. Designed right, so could the outer outer portion of the mid, at the apex. A design trouble spot is determining how fixed the apex has to be, deflection-wise. Assuming the pole has very little deflection, the material there would provide less buffer action, and more direct resistance. So maybe the top foot or so of the outer mid is a different material, like heavier cuben.

Now I’m getting carried away maybe, but maybe  that WP cap on the outer mid allows a matching hole at the apex of the inner mid – think of the tipi with a whole in the top – and a cinch of mesh if you want. The weight is starting to get close to a typical mid + inner. If there is wind-deflection benefit to the inverting the layers of breathable/WP fabrics (I want to formally acknowledge I am just pulling this out of my a…), then this could be a good design for dry space per weight.

Someone remind me… Why can’t we mix cuben and nylon? (Sewing cuben to nylon… I am sure that’s been debunked. But if anyone has a good link…)

+1 Roger.

That wheel was invented a long time ago.

Get in line, Homey!

(the line of people wanting a Caffin winter tent) (and summer tent)

I’ll be calling it the Coffin as a tactical mis-spelling of Rogers last name, the purpose of which is to annoy him to the point that he gives me v.3 or whatever to keep me from associating it with a cadaver conveyance.  But ‘knowing’ Roger he doesnt even read my posts anymore, except to skim for cuss words like:

Big Sky Chinook
Pop-up dome. Poles not threaded into fly. Good luck pitching that in a storm.

Crux X1 Assault
Single-skin pop-up, but with threaded poles. Still difficult to pitch in a storm, but one of the better pop-ups. Assault tent: not a lot of room.

Cheers

If you want a top of the range winter mountain tent in a finite time, I would suggest the Macpac Olympus. Curiously, it is one of their oldest models, but it keeps selling. It is well-known around the world. Unfortunately, since it is rather bomb-proof, it weighs 3.1 kg all up. This is above your 4 lb.

We bought one in the late 80s and used it for years and years in the alps here in the snow, and in the warmer months as well, and it took some serious weather. We never felt at all threatened in it. Home away from home.

I subsequently got into tent design because I wanted to reduce the weight a bit. Making my own tents was what convinced me that the prices they want for commercial tunnels are really very reasonable. I made and sold a few of my tunnels, but I found I was working for about $3/hr: Chinese rates of pay. Not fun.

Nylon vs polyester: I go for nylon myself. It has a bit more elasticity than polyester, and this makes it far more suited to handling extreme weather. With the right design, the nylon fabric absorbs the shocks from the wind and recovers, not loading the anchors too much. They talk abut UV-resistance, but the silicone coating blocks most of the UV, and we don’t leave the tent pitched in the middle of the day anyhow.

My 2c
Cheers

Mark, here is a two door Eldorado (they don’t make them anymore) with carbon fiber poles, some ti-stakes and guy lines:

If I add the vestibule and ground sheet, it’ll top 7lbs. As many have said, it’s a “bomber” tent, easy to set up (even in foul weather), and more versitle than the Firstlight. BUT, at 5 to 7lbs, it’s kind of heavy, so I would make sure I have a 2nd companion with me, and I make sure there ain’t a 2.5lb shelter that I could use for the weather & terrain I might encounter.