Storm level class system
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We have many open bald mountaintops in TN and NC and Virginia which can get walloped with high winds and become Tent Testing Facilities at the whim of Miss Nature.
There are Six Categories of Rain and the Six Defcon Levels of Cold, but mountain winds have no such levels, except those based on Locomotive Sound and the degree of sphincter-tightening such winds produce. It’s therefore a personal scale or a scale based on Two Criteria: Is the tent still up or has it shredded and collapsed?
If you’re brave enough to set up in such a wind atop an exposed ridge or bald, and you have the proper shelter to handle the beast, what’s the problem?
The problem usually arises in this scenario: You set up at 6,000 feet in an open meadow with calm conditions at 20F. No problem. No point in practicing “better site selection.” Then at 2am the sky turns mean and nasty with 60mph gusts in a whiteout blizzard. You hope your tool for yesterday becomes a new tool for the morning as the job just changed.
In January 2006 I was atop a 5,300 bald in NC in my Hilleberg Nammatj 3 tent and got walloped with a tremendous all night banshee windstorm hitting from all directions. I placed rocks on the tent pegs cuz they kept pulling out of the ground. One tent pole was bent.
Another time I was caught in a Hilleberg Staika during a butt cold sleet storm in February 2007 and got walloped by another beautiful glance from Miss Nature.
In May 2009 I was camping on another open bald and had a friend’s tent get walloped by a surprise windstorm.
One of my worst windstorms was on Haw Knob in NC at 5,500 feet whereby my Staika tent got layed out flatter than normal despite the 14 stakes and 6 guyline pegs.
As a footnote, my backpacking buddy Hoppin John was on top of Bob Mt in NC with his Allak tent and got hit with a tremendous hellstorm which actually ripped off the guyline tabs from this tent and he had to do a A.M. bail off the mountain. A week later I went up and found several pieces of his gear strewn across the mountainside.
Great posts fellas.Currently using my ID wedge bivy for quick trips.I suspect it is bombproof .But for longer trips with the possibility of weathering multiday storms i have been looking for something i can sit up in.Just trying to understand the stormworthiness of the mids.I trip in the Northern rockies for two weeks a year and the weather is unpredictable but the weight saving game is always a temptation.This year i was considering just using my ID Wedge with a siltarp 2 as a canopy but those mids sure look simple.
Prefer side entry which is why i have not considered a tunnel and along with the Akto  not completely freestanding.The Soulo ,Unna and possibly Tarptent scarp with extra poles i’m thinking the soulo may be the most stormworthy.
Craig—So enough teasing, what the heck did the Big Agnes expert have to say about the wind limits on your model???????
Of course, no indoor expert’s counsel will duplicate a real storm in whatever tent we choose to use.
But as a footnote, a buddy and I were on a high open bald hellstorm in December 2012 and he was a couple hundred feet away in his Big Agnes tent—check out his report—
http://www.trailspace.com/forums/trip-reports/topics/137756.html
His tent actually survived the maelstrom so that says something about Big Agnes.
Patman with his Big Agnes preparing for a 10F night.
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