Homemade Hex 3

my advice would be to make the tent in the traditional tipi style – a flat half-circle rolled into a cone, instead of having panels converge at the top like a Hex. look at Titanium Goats (done the traditional way) vs. Kifaru or Golite (done the hard way). i have done it the hard way, and the next time i make one (which will be soon) i will definitely be doing it the "easy" way. easy being a relative term….

i don't do snow camping, so i can't be any help to you with any other aspects. sorry and good luck!

Not sure if I understand correctly, but if you plan to move every night , how are you going to pack your tipi if it still has a layer of frost inside ? I found it relatively easy to knock iced condensation off silnylon , but I do have very limited experience with winter camping.
Franco

I should maybe clarify where I’m going to be using this tent. I live in Canada where things get mighty cold. On a typical night I can hit lows of -30C easily and I need to be prepared for -40C (without wind-chill). I admit, I haven’t used a SilNylon tent in the winter. I’ve only used a cheap nylon pyramid tent coated in who-knows-what. At those temperatures, the frost buildup in my tent can be pretty bad. After one night out I found my tent didn’t even fit into it’s stuff sack anymore because it had an estimated 1 liter of water frosted to the inside. It took hours to dry out once I got back inside. My sleeping bag gains half a pound of frost every night out. I have heard of one guy who came back with a sleeping bag weighing an extra 15 pounds because of the freezing moisture. You haven’t been winter camping until you’ve camped in Manitoba. Managing your frost buildup is a huge consideration for everything in your pack. It’s not unusual for a pack of gear to double it’s weight in moisture buildup after only a few of nights if you’re not careful.