Two tents in high winds

[AK Granola]

I did a 3 day 2 night 31 mile trip over the weekend. Chena Dome, Alaska. 8300 feet elevation gain. Most of you will be interested in the two tents pitched in high wind, my Tarptent Notch Li and a Hilleberg. Both held up great but all that flapping made it less than restful. Now that you’ve watched the tents flap, watch it again and you can see that the scenery makes it worth the suffering. All the flowers blooming and no mosquito can match a gale strong enough to make us hikers stagger like drunks. (Drank only tundra pond water, for the record.)

https://youtube.com/shorts/8ZDeWy4mSUA?feature=share

[Philip Tschersich]

You couldn’t get behind some trees? (Or maybe you were- yikes.) That looks slightly unpleasant.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8ZDeWy4mSUA

[AK Granola]

No trees without descending a long long way off trail.

[BlackHatGuy]

how do you pronounce ‘chena’?

[Sam Farrington]

RMB, Thanks for the additional YouTube link, as the first did not connect for me.  It says to me that we have a ways to go in developing tents that will perform well in stiff winds.  That’s good, because it’s an incentive for DYIers, if not the industry.

[HkNewman]

There’s many variables though. A number of trekking pole tents had guy lines ripped from DCF shelters or, for framed tents, had aluminum bent, crushed and/or snapped (vs the thousands of tents out there this past spring).  Similarly one woman who’s thru-hiked a number of trails told me she was in her shelter on Mt San Jacinto when the wind just repeated lifted her up in her shelter, then slammed down … more then once.  I however put up a floorless sil mid and slept pretty solidly (with earplugs).

Pretty sensationalistic, moreso if a hiker (and their tent) got victimized by Mother Nature.

[AK Granola]

Chena is pronounced as if it has two ees like bee. The word isn’t really Athabaskan, but an interpretation of a local Athabaskan word, which might mean river. Chena is the original name for the town established here near Fairbanks during a local gold rush; that town is long gone, except for some remnants like old foundations and some objects. That’s probably more than you wanted but you got it anyway.

[BlackHatGuy]

Never too much info! :-) I ask because I adopted a Siberian (the pup waiting for her belly rub in my avatar) last year, and her name is Chena. When looking up the name I came across the story about the river and the long-gone town, and assume she was named after something up there. She was a year old when I adopted her so I kept the name. She probably looked at me a bit quizzically at first since I’ve pronounced it ‘Chain-uh’ since I got her! Oh well, she’s used to my pronunciation now! :-)

Thanks for the reply.

[Mudjester]

Sweet AK – hey, the tents held! = bottom line I’d say. So essential to apex guy the Notch, isn’t it? And to pile on those rocks to the little 6″ stakes. I’ve had mine weather similar speed winds, but not all night! Love that AK scenery!

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