antarctica expedition tents

what kind of tent did they use?

tunnel tent, three hoops, guyline on each hoop plus guyline at each end

I think that would be the best type of tent for extreme wind?  and not a pyramid tent?

Hilleberg Keron 3 GT?

http://us.hilleberg.com/EN/tent/black-label-tents/keron-3-gt/

yeah, that looks like it

maybe Keron 3 rather than Keron 3GT

If that pic is from Colin O’Brady’s Expedition, I understand he took a Keron 3 (not the GT). The Keron GT has four poles.

However if it is from Louis Rudd’s trip, he took a Nammatj, but I also think I read somewhere that he took two tents.

And yeah – tunnels are hard to beat for extreme prevailing wind, assuming they are guyed out all the way and pointed into the wind. Even better if they rig an internal guy system that Rodger discusses Ad nauseam (for good reason).

I have posted several times that the type of pyramid tents we use backpacking are not at all like the type of pyramid  tent you see in some of the Antarctica photos.

Those Scott tents use 4 x  1″ poles and are over 60 lbs for a 2-3 person tent.

Yes the design is more or less the same but….

BTW, one of those is made right here in Melbourne by One Planet.

The current One Planet owner used to work just a few meters up the road from were I worked.

He was a customer.

and…

One of the not ,maybe, so well known brands that have consistently made expedition grade tents used in Antarctica is Norrona.

They made the first 3 pole tunnel tent with front and back entrances, the Ravnskar from 1972 , well before some of the better known names we have now.

I believe that for a given weight, a properly guyed tunnel tent will handle the most wind. But note the caveats; if you don’t guy it out properly or your guys fail, all bets are off, and if weight is not a concern then a more rigid structure may be better. As in, the type of pyramid often used by gasoline powered antarctic travelers, which has poles running down all four ridgelines and does not rely much on guylines. Much heavier, but much more forgiving of operator error.

And yes most likely a Hilleberg, I’d go that way myself. For icecaps where you have plenty of room for guylines and nice hard snow and ice to hold stakes they seem ideal. Seems like every photo I see from a human-powered polar venture shows a Hilleberg. Not so much on mountaineering expeditions, you see more domes/geodesics, I suppose because room for guylines is harder to find (ever try running a guyline on the downhill side of a tent sitting on a ledge carved out of a steep snow slope?) and those types rely less on guylines and more on pole structure for stability.

Edit: I see Franco posted about the beefy pyramids while I was writing mine. Good onya, mate.

That does looks like the Colin O’ Brady set up, so a Keron 3.

(sled cover…)