Vintage Mountainsmith Tent ID and Details

4 man Mountain Shelter

I’ll see if I still have set back instructions written down.

Spent over 100 nights in one of those.

Found my notebook with setback numbers.

First pound a peg solid through both stake loops at the door. Go to the opposite side and pull snug but don’t stretch. Mark where that point would be, then move back 10.5” and peg solid.

Go to one side and pull out snug, then set back 13” towards center and peg solid. Do the same on the other side.

Unzip the door, leaving both peg loops staked. Insert the pole. Just get it snug. Re-zip the door and stake every other peg loop. Once all the way around get the mid loops.

You can then fine tune the pole height and any pegs that might need tweaking.

After doing this several times, you will have it pitched in a lot less time than it took to type this.

Good luck!

Looking at what I’m guessing is a patch job. That might actually be my old tipi:)

Thanks for the info Ed.  I haven’t noticed any patches, it really looks unused other than a bit of mud. No wear at all other than the PU is starting to degrade.

I’m curious about the end shape, do it have it right in that it should pitch like an arctic tent with the walls at the bottom vertical then inward at the guy points? or should it be more tipi shaped, when i started out like that, the angles looked way wrong and it was very saggy.

–ben

This is what looked like a patch to me.

The shape should be an oval, the guy outs snug the shape and provide more room near the side walls.

Nope, that’s the window. There is one on each side.  Two doors, Two windows.

Interesting! Yours must be one of the latest models. No windows in mine. Don’t remember for sure, but I think I bought it in 1987.

The pitch can be kinda funky. It’s a lot dependent on the pole. Too high or two low can mess up the geometry.

yea, I estimated the pole length at 164cm based on staking the front and back, and taped my BD poles together to get that length, so I didn’t want to fuss with it too much.  I’m going to order an adjustable aluminum pole from Luxe that 163 is the middle of the adjustment range and go from there.

Brings back memories. I had one in the late 80s early 90s. Had the collapsible sheet metal wood stove that went with it too. It was great for ski tours as you could dig the floor out and have a circus sized space inside and bury the edge for wind management. Probably weighed 4-5 lbs. Which was considered light in that era. My Gregory backpack was 7lbs empty back then.