HMG Ultamid 2 issues

Oops, posted too early somehow

1) Pitching it on somewhat not flat ground.

Getting a really flat spot on the snow can be tough even if I shovel it out. The footprint for the tent is so large that I often do end up on a slant. I currently pitch out the 4 corners at 45 degrees and stretch the tent out to make the tent taut as possible. I also pitch out the front, and then put in the center pole and raise it up. I then tighten down the tent and pitch out the remaining side areas. I always end up with a side that sags or has a concave slope, decreasing the livable space. It looks like a sad tent and my friends make fun of me.

2) Headroom.

I am 5’6″. I find that when the tent is pitched and I’m sleeping, my head is nearly smashed into the side of the tent as are my feet. It’s not a big deal until I move and then shower myself with condensation.

I often pitch pretty low to the ground to deal with high winds.

Everyone rants and raves about this tent. What am I doing wrong?

Don’t stake it out so tight before raising it up. The sides should look flat not curving inward which happens when the corners are just too tight. Issue with pyramids in general. Easy fix. Pitch square but not tight. Insert pole after the four corners are done, then do the other guyouts.

It’s unclear to me what “pitch square not tight” means. In my experience, if you just drag the corners away from each other and pitch to allow some sag in the tent, it looks horrible. Instead, been stretching out the tents between each corner so the tent is as taut as possible. It pitches reasonably well but one side always looks terrible.

Adam, let’s imagine you have the perfect spot, level in three corners except a pothole where the stake numero four goes…

That stake in the low spot needs to be placed further away from the tarp. It’s guyline needs to be longer. Let’s assume your Mid works at a perfect 45° angle: if the pothole is 6” lower then the stake needs to be 6” farther away from the tarp. Pythagoras could tell you how much longer  the guyline needs to be (I think it’s 8.48”) but that’s not really important.

I hope that helps.

As Ken explained, if you pull the corners taut before erecting the shelter , the sides will cave in .

This is a good example of that :

it should look like this :

so have the base so that the corners are an inch or two from fully taut. If you can’t visualise that., just do it as you are now then move each peg in towards the center by an inch (if the tie outs are fixed…)

As for levelling on snow, well it works a lot better if you have a shovel and is done exactly the same as you make a terrace . You dig from the high side and pile up on the low side.

Something like this :

When they say “pitch it square but not tight” they mean to leave those four corner guylines a bit loose.  Then only really tighten them down after you put the center pole in.  But you can also tweak the position of the stakes before tightening them if you have to, to keep the guylines in a straight line with the corner seams.  Then you won’t get that splayed-out look.

Dean is correct. Sorry that was too vague.

A long and boring video I shot years ago showing the wrong and the right way :