Hilleberg Tent Thread Part 2

The whole point of this thread I started was to share Hilleberg pics, not to discuss if a Hilleberg tent belongs under some forest trees or if it's funny looking to be used in the 3 other seasons. So Jake S—you conveniently leave out mentioning Rick M and Stuart D's posts.

Such comments bring up several subjects, namely the Right Tool for the Job policy and a response to Stuart D's comment that such a tent (Hilleberg) is ". . . wasted on people who . . . camp below treeline." This is the comment you should be most interested in as it changed the focus of the thread, and not my response about tools and site selection.

If I wanted to create this thread as a troll I would've gone right into it at the beginning and not posted so many pics, but heck I like Hilleberg pics. The thread changed and I responded. What you call a "troll" is just the organic nature of internet forums—they develop naturally as the discussion evolves. And some of the non-picture posts deserves comments. Otherwise, back to regular programming—

Staika pole ice.

Staika in the snow.

Might as well add some more shots of the beloved King Kerlon—

Keron caught in a nasty windstorm.

Sometimes I have to place rocks on top of my tent pegs.

"Such comments bring up several subjects, namely the Right Tool for the Job policy and a response to Stuart D's comment that such a tent (Hilleberg) is ". . . wasted on people who . . . camp below treeline." This is the comment you should be most interested in as it changed the focus of the thread, and not my response about tools and site selection."

Tipi, I'm not particularly bothered whether you agree with my comments. But selectively quoting me distorts the point I was making. You claim that the purpose of this thread was to post Hilleberg photos, but I don't see that stated in your opening post. There's some really valuable content in the original Hilleberg thread, and that's where my contributions will continue, rather than in this train wreck.

Fine with me, I've got a lot of Hilleberg pics to post all by my lonesome. The reason I started this thread was because the other was many pages long and needed a Part Two. Here's some more—

The green Staika atop Whiggs Meadow in TN.

Some spindrift.

I have been following Tipi's postings on whiteblaze.net for years and I totally respect his ability to hoist 60 lbs in the middle of winter and stay out for weeks at a time, and by golly, the most important thing is that he ENJOYS it. I like winter camping as well, but the necessity of taking as much gear as needed to be safe and comfortable is beyond my capabilities. I have spent very brief times in blizzards at 15 degrees (in a hammock, a bad choice it turned out) and realize that just doing it for the sake of the experience, for a few days, and being able to sustain a positive attitude about it for weeks are two entirely different things. Tipi is the real deal, an ultra lighter, no, but still to be respected for his ability to handle what winter has to offer, at its best, and worst. And besides, even though I don't own one, I like looking at pics of Hillebergs too.

Thanks Lapsley for the encouragement.

Now let's get zesty—

Windstorm with a Staika and a vastly inferior tent . . . just kidding. It stood up to the storm. Mt Hardwear Light Wedge.

Little Mitten pokes out by the Staika.

As I sort thru my Hilleberg tent fotogs I should add a couple which point out a few flaws—as no tent is perfect.

Other than the stubby shortness of many Hillebergs, I'd say the biggest weakness is their use of elastic connectors holding the inner tent to the outer fly. After a couple years of hard use these connectors permanently stretch and deform as above, causing the inner tent to sag more which isn't good on your square footage and/or bag footbox canopy wetting.

Another problem is the tendency for the Hilleberg DAC tentpole end caps to slowly pull out, requiring gently hammering back in before every trip.

"I totally respect his ability to hoist 60 lbs in the middle of winter and stay out for weeks at a time, and by golly, the most important thing is that he ENJOYS it."

Then why in the heck does he consistently come on this website and bash those that choose not to hike for 8 miles and set up camp for three days by packing a light load. Last time I checked this was backpacking LIGHT and from what I see, those that pack lightweight appear to ENJOY it.

No one said anything about his heavy load until HE BROUGHT IT UP.

Tipi does this on every site he is on and he comes accross as horribly troll like.

Dave U—I know you have more Hilleberg pics than that. Let's see them. Oh, and no opinion about Hilleberg elastic or the DAC poles? Odd. Here's a few more from my kerlon trove—

A high mountain pond at around 5,000 feet and frozen solid.

Looking off Hangover Mt into North Carolina.

There was a comment about the Allak getting shredded.

Any details available?

thx

I forget what Hilleberg labels their tents now—Black, Red, etc. When Hoppin John got his Allak it was designated a "1200" kerlon tent and not as beefy as the 1800 models. If you study the guyline webbing tabs of the 1200 vs the 1800 you'll see a big difference as the 1800 are much more beefy than the 1200.

Anyway, he got caught in a terrible late night hurricane windstorm atop a 5,300 foot North Carolina bald and had an epic experience as his Allak guylines ripped from their webbing tabs. Not good.

There's no good written report of this adventure but he told me the details. I went up a few weeks later after the storm and found all sorts of storm damage—like a blown Western Mountaineering sleeping bag stuff sack in a bush, etc.

Here's Hoppin John during better times—

Tipi,

Think I recognize that high mountain pond. Near Whigg Meadow?

Ryan

Ryan—good observation. Few people know about the Whigg and fewer still know about the pond. Here's another shot at another campsite, this time much warmer and the croaking frogs kept me up all night.

Cool, thought so. Only reason I found it was I could barely hear some frogs croaking one evening and thought – "Wait, that doesn't make sense." So I had to investigate, and there it was.

Ryan

Here is another shot of the pond with a different Hilleberg Staika—

A snowstorm hits the Whigg.

A neat shot.

Hilleberg Village ( Cascade hut – kosciuszko national park Australia)

Redefines the term "down under" but I'll help you out—

Beautiful pic Mitch!

It occurred to me that, the AKTO, having rectangular ends (unlike the triangle ends on a TT Moment) a cool solution to an INTERIOR X-ing pole sould be a Y'd X-ing pole at each end.

i.e. Make a >–< shaped pole with a circular aluminum "donut hub" where the poles connect to the "Y". All of this can be shock corded.

This arrangement puts support out to the end corners. The Y at each end gives more support to the AKTO's wider canopy at each end. A bit heavier but much more canopy support.

If I had an AKTO I know I could do this and make it work very well.

Did anyone ask you to invert the pic? ;)

I thought I'd leave it for the view from up your way ;)

Sorry about that. Took it with an iphone. It shows correct way up in my album. Annoying. Also shows right way up on here first up.

Thanks Diego, it was the first time I got to try try out night photography with my first real camera. It was a 60sec exposure and that's why the stars are a bit too blurry. Live and learn :)

If you read my previous posts in this thread you can see I advocate an interior X-ing pole for the AKTO fly for wind and snow load resistance. I've seen photos of AKTOs nearly totally collapsed under snow load.

>Do any AKTO owners here use your tent for winter camping?

>If so do you see any merit in my X-ing pole proposal?

>(And for a heavier duty main pole?)