Seek Outside Tipi Review: An Ultralight Stove Tent for Cold Weather Backpacking with a Group

Good read, Doug.  Our family loves our tipi and stove combo.

Well written review.

I’m glad to see a relatively light weight option for a tipi style tent. Our family car camping tent is an 18′ canvas tipi, and after many nights camping in cold and inclement weather I came to deeply appreciate the design elements and style of that style of shelter. Being able to stretch out in front of a warm fire inside your tent is a wonderful experience.

I have so many fond memories of experiences in hot tents.

Of course, canvas and steel to start out with. Nostalgic images of a group of Boy Scouts hanging out in a hot tent and feeding the little wood stove with scraps of wood we collected from the winter landscape.

But we migrated to silnylon and Ti and my son Chase and I have tons of terrific experiences in tents like this (a TiGoat specifically – in fact, the one Sam now has!):

* A ten-below night at Mammoth Hot Springs. Brr! Fun. He slept like a baby. He was littler then, like 11 y.o.

* One April night deep up in Beartrap Canyon on Montana’s Madison River, we got hammered with snow. The whole thing collapsed on us at 6 am – broke one of those big thick carbon fiber center poles! Nope, they aren’t bombproof. Fortunately the stove had died out by then!

* A more recent (2014?) October night in the Gallatin NF with our pal Rory. We’re all older by then, more introspective, lots of great conversation. I remember tying into a giant cutthroat – 24″? – at the lake where we were camped, on a Tenkara Hane. It broke me off. I was not happy to have lost that battle! I retreated with my tail between my legs into the hot tent and licked my wounds. I think that one was a Ruta Locura.

* Stephanie and I spent a night in the TiGoat on a freezing but starry night on the shores of Leigh Lake as part of one of our wedding anniversary packrafting / hiking trips. Best tent partner ever. Great tent for romance with the wood burning stove and all.

I love hot tents!

Great stories, Ryan.  Thanks for sharing!  For me, hot tents are a newer thing, but I can add a few memories:

• Snowshoe camping on the shorts of the Cle Elum River in the Cascades with my son and niece.  Her first night backpacking EVER was in a hot tent on New Year’s Eve as it dumped two feet of powder.  She loved it!
• Hiking in on a secret trail to a unnamed beach on the Olympic Coast in the middle of winter with my friend Marty.  It rained constantly and we chatted by the stove all day, sipping scotch.  When the storm broke, we went for an amazing hike on the beach, playing bocce.  Incredible.
• My family in the hot tent in a crazy storm, cooking over the stove, building ships out of Legos.  It was a cabin weekend, but we had the entire section of coast to ourselves.

Many more to come!  I love hot tenting too!

Doug

Thank you Doug for the excellent review and cozy hot tent memories. Lots of smiles in those photos. Makes one want to hasten winter and warm up a cinnamon hot chocolate…After you’ve experienced several years hot tenting and more than that with 3-season family shelters:

1) Which style of shelter do you prefer as a family or 3-4 adult hot tent, the Seek Outside Redcliff or their 6 Person Tipi, or other shelter, and why?

2) Which hot tent stove do you prefer and what do you like about it? How often did you have to feed this model through the night?

3) Do you find that you can securely use 2 trekking poles lashed together with straps in place of the carbon pole for such large shelters?

4) Which is your go-to 3-season family or 3-adult shelter (not hot tent)?

Hi Ethan- thanks!  Here are some of my thoughts:

1. 1) for my family of 4 I prefer the 6 person. It’s taller and has more space for all of us, stove, wood and gear. That said, if I wanted a lighter shelter to use for non- hot tenting, or if I had 2-3 people, the Redcliff is excellent.
2. I’ve only used the Lite Outdoors and Seek Outside stoves. Comparing the two, the first is lighter and has a door that’s easier to use. The second is a bit more durable, easier to set up, and it gives a flat surface for cooking. I usually have a separate stove and I can still use a 2l pot on the Lite Outdoors stove, so I go with that to keep the weight down a bit.
3. No to the trekking poles. The 6 man is just too tall. The included pole is so much stiffer.
4. A Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 4 is my go-to family tent without a stove. I have found the large pyramid tent to be great for a family. We have both inner tents, but tend to use the floored version.

habe a good one!  Doug

I also have a Tigoat 7.5, we use it for back country hunting trips, our season starts August 25 in Alberta for sheep, it, usually snows on us at 6500 ft, this year we bought a owareusa.com 11×11 tipi tarp this year to use it it as a kitchen, oware does not put stove boots in there tarp shelters, but one can be bought from tigoat to allow you to have a 30d Silnylon 40 ounce shelter at- 2.5 pounds, and it’s only 265 dollars cheaper then seek outside kifaru and tigoat

Thanks Doug for your review, Sheldon