Posted: 5/29/2025 2:36:24 PM EDT
There have been many tents in my life, and this is the most recent one of them: the Hilleberg Tarra A very nice gentleman was getting out of the Outfitting business and sold it to me brand spanking new at a ridiculously nice price way, way below market value, otherwise this would have been well beyond my means for a tent. Hillebergs are designed for extreme weather. The entire thing, ground cloth, tent body, and rain fly, are all attached to one another and pitched from the outside, such that the inside tent body doesn't get wet even in a downpour. The poles will hold up to the near worst that Wyoming winds can do to them, and will shrug off wet and heavy March snow loads without a care.   Our prior heavy weather tent was an MSR Trango 3. It is a great tent with a lot more floor space, but it still felt more cramped for me to sit up in. My son is well beyond the age of wanting to share a tent with me, so he has claimed the Trango for him and his buddies, which is good for my knees as it was a much harder tent to climb in and out of for me.  The Tarra is a design that is a cross between a dome and a tube, which makes it feel surprisingly spacious for how narrow it is. At only 50" wide, it will just accommodate two of our Exped down mats, but the barrel shape doesn't make you feel like you are crammed into the walls. And since I most often have it to myself, it is plenty wide for a mega-mat for one. I got it late enough in the year that the lowest night I've had it on was 10 degrees, but I suspect it will serve me quite well at Wyoming winter events, some of which have had me in a tent at -14 degrees.  The Tarra joins a Big Agnes Copper Spur 3 backpacker, an MSR Hubba Hubba, an REI Half Dome, the Trango, and an REI Kingdom in the tent arsenal. It is a tool for a very specific purpose, and overkill for nearly every condition we commonly camp in, except wind, for which Wyoming can test the very best. But I am delighted to have it and wanted to share my enthusiasm with you fine people of the Outdoors community, mostly because nobody else has any idea what this is or why I am so excited about a tent. |
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A big vestibule is underrated, IMO. How much would that be, list price? We borrowed a friends REI tent and it was well thought out. Way better than the REI tent we had at the time. I hated that tent of ours. That being said, I'll stick to my Sprinter van with heat and a memory foam mattress for most of our camping these days! Did I mention a fridge that holds a few cases of beer? 
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Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand, Paul Bhranfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933, Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics...
| I'm heading out in the morning for some mountains in central Nevada. I'm taking a cot a sleeping bag and a tarp, in case of rain. If I'm not back in a day or a few I have a freind that will come looking to see if I broke down or was eaten by a lion. |
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN
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I wish I had brought a tent. The wind almost blew me away. The problem I have with tents is finding a space to pitch one. The brush is so thick and if I can find a bare spot it is usually bedrock. I'm 2 weeks older than dirt and I like a cot. Seldom have I slept on the ground without a rock or a root under my back. What kind of price would you expect on that first one? |
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN
My biggest problem with tents is finding the most perfect winter tent. It does get cold & windy with lots of snow here in NW Maine, and I like camping on summits. My usual tent is a Marmot Hammer, it’s an internal pole assault tent that’s pretty light (just over 3lb without vestibule) but it’s pretty small inside. With an 85” floor length even my not very lofty NEMO Sonic 0F touches at the head and foot, and with a 6’6” Xtherm you can’t really angle it very much and sleep corner-to-corner. I understand it’s an assault tent and not intended to offer palatial comfort, but jamming the loft on your sleeping bag isn’t good. It’s a good tent otherwise, quick to set up and secure in wind with 7 guys on 3 sides and each corner. It’s single-walled so do NOT use it above freezing unless you like being rained on. Below freezing you’ll get snowed on.  I also have a TNF Mountain 25 but that’s just way too heavy for solo backpacking. It also has a short floor length (84”), which seems even more ridiculous than cutting weight on an assault tent. This thing weighs 10lb, are you telling me another 6” of length would make the weight unmanageable?  This is my old one, replaced under warranty 2 or 3 years ago. I’ve never used it, only set it up to check out the differences, and it may go down the road. PM me if you’re interested! Last fall I found a Lightwave G20 Mtn tent on eBay, after doing a lot of research I decided the price was very nice and bought it. 2.75kg so not too bad to carry solo, double-walled with spacers for condensation control, and a longer floor! (220cm or about 87”.) Max width is 130cm/52” so 25” wide pads can be used by 2,people, but the taper means you’ll need mummy pads. Peak height is 44”. The snow was dry and bottomless all winter long, no amount of stomping would pack it down enough to set up a tent and I wasn’t digging all the way down to bare ground. So I never used it. Setup is easy and it’s very sturdy, with one feature I like - the front of the floor unclips so you can fold it back and have more bare ground to set your stove on. One thing I don’t like is the brow pole is sewn into the fly so you can’t really stuff the tent and have to use the 18-20” long bag it comes with. But that’s not a dealbreaker.  So the Lightwave seems like it’ll do well, but I’m really liking what I see in the Tarptent Arc Dome. So if the funds are there later in the year I may buy one. I’m pretty happy with the rest of my gear, the Xtherm isn’t the most comfortable but it is WARM and I keep reading & seeing reviews about the NEMO Tensor EC letting cold air in from the sides so even though I find NEMO pads very comfortable I don’t think I’ll buy one. My backpack, snowshoes, and trekking poles are all spot-on, which just leaves tents! Winter tent sizing! Tent manufacturers need to wake up and design winter tents for real-world conditions, in which people use sleeping bags with 6+ inches of loft. A 6’6” bag therefore can easily be 7’6” or longer. A tent with an 84” floor might only offer 75” of length 6” off the floor, which means insulation is compressed and bags aren’t as warm. Pads are 3-4” thick now, putting you even higher up the walls. UL is incompatible with winter camping IMO, so give us tents with an absolute minimum length of 96” measured 12” up from the floor, and at least 60” wide @12” height for 2P models. 66” would be better, 2 people should be able to fit without their sleeping bags being compressed against the wall or each other. |
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I used to solo camp and climb in mountains in winter and used a Northface WestWind. It was long enough and wide enough for 2 climbers, climbers are usually not wide people. It was 6.5 pounds and bomb proof but was not free standing which was the only drawback. I still have it but after 30 years the inside polyurethane coating is sticky. |
Mach
Nobody is coming to save us.
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Nobody is coming to save us.
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The Tarra new sells for just south of $2K after tax. The very nice gentleman who sold it to me was very generous and charged me a fraction of that. He could have put it on any number of camping gear sites and sold it for a lot more, even at a discount. He is also a shooter and occasional participant in this and other forums, but I suspect he would prefer to remain anonymous. What I looked for in a winter tent was solid panels, good ventilation, and the ability to take snow load. None of them are going to keep you significantly warm; that is your sleeping bag and a Nalgene bottle of boiling water's job. But they do keep blowing snow out, as well as rain and dust. The last time I camped in Great Sand Dunes, America's grittiest National Park, the wind just pulled dust and sand through the mesh bodies of all of our three season tents and it was miserable. Did Pawnee Grasslands in the Trango and even though it was hotter than I would have liked, I at least had solid refuge from blowing grit. These tents are not particularly lightweight, and most of my winter camping is either car or sled based. I have snow-shoe'd the Trango about a mile in from the trailhead in Medicine Bow, but it isn't something I'd want to have to backpack in more than that. From roughly May through October, sometimes November, I usually camp in a Big Agnes Copper Spur Bikepacker. I have not ever bike-packed, but I like the compact poles that allow me to put my whole tent into my pack. At 4 pounds, there are a lot of lighter tents on the market. My MSR Hubba Hubba weighs about a pound less. But for 2 and 3 day backpacking trips and car camping where weight is less of an issue, it is a roomy, well-thought out tent.  Tents have come a long way since I did Philmont in the early 90s with a 9 pound Eureka Timberline. |
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Originally Posted By Mach: I used to solo camp and climb in mountains in winter and used a Northface WestWind. It was long enough and wide enough for 2 climbers, climbers are usually not wide people. It was 6.5 pounds and bomb proof but was not free standing which was the only drawback. I still have it but after 30 years the inside polyurethane coating is sticky. @Mach Something that works for tacky, deteriorating internal pack coatings is spraying with clear flat sealer. I've used Rustoleum on my ALICE Medium and a twenty year old Gregory Palisade. Might do the trick on your tent. |
"What is socialism? The most difficult and tortuous way to progress from capitalism to capitalism." -Stated at an intel conference, East Berlin, Oct. 1988
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
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Originally Posted By JohnnyEgo: Tents have come a long way since I did Philmont in the early 90s with a 9 pound Eureka Timberline. That's the truth. My troop used those for a couple decades. I took my own single man tent to Philmont the first go-around and an MSR Half Dome with my brother the second. The kids with those Eurekas did not care for carrying them. 
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"What is socialism? The most difficult and tortuous way to progress from capitalism to capitalism." -Stated at an intel conference, East Berlin, Oct. 1988
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
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Originally Posted By lew: @Mach Something that works for tacky, deteriorating internal pack coatings is spraying with clear flat sealer. I've used Rustoleum on my ALICE Medium and a twenty year old Gregory Palisade. Might do the trick on your tent. Originally Posted By lew: Originally Posted By Mach: I used to solo camp and climb in mountains in winter and used a Northface WestWind. It was long enough and wide enough for 2 climbers, climbers are usually not wide people. It was 6.5 pounds and bomb proof but was not free standing which was the only drawback. I still have it but after 30 years the inside polyurethane coating is sticky. @Mach Something that works for tacky, deteriorating internal pack coatings is spraying with clear flat sealer. I've used Rustoleum on my ALICE Medium and a twenty year old Gregory Palisade. Might do the trick on your tent. Sounds like a lot of work since I no longer go backpacking / climbing in winter or at all right now. Currently packing for a week long kayak trip in my Nucanoe kayak with an electric motor.I really hope there are some sunny days so I can recharge the battery. Really going to rough it |
Mach
Nobody is coming to save us.
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Nobody is coming to save us.
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I bought a seek outside redcliff for my family camping. Wanted a hot tent that did not weigh a ton. Also lucked out and bought a brand new cabelas outfitter guide 4 person tent for $50. Wife is happy as it has a floor. Nortent makes some nice tents also. Looking at their vern series as it can be has the option for stove jack. |
| I never learn. Been in the 90s daytime temps here at about 5000 feet for weeks now. I went about a hundred miles east and rolled out the sleeping bag in the valley at 6500 feet. Just a light shirt and no tent. Temp got down to 34 degrees befor sun up. |
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN
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Packing 3 tents for the upcoming trip. A 2-man for up on the mountain, and a pair of 1-man tents for when we are down at frontcountry sites. 3.5 pounds without the vestibule, and the 1/2 pole at the apex gives this tent a noticeably wider feel than similar tents in its class.  And one of the little 1-man tents doing its thing a few years back. This upcoming trip will probably be its retirement trip...   So, the cramped 2-man when weight/conditions dictate, and the separate 1-man tents for car camping, where spreading out and personal space is paramount. We'll have an MLD Trail Star with tall poles to use as a cooking/common area for when we are down in the front country sites. A 20 day stretch with 2 of us, and maybe another month just on my own. The separate tents are going to be clutch for preserving sanity. |
A couple weeks ago I found a TarpTent Arc Dome 2 Ultra on eBay, with everything - solid & mesh inners, Syclone and carbon fiber poles, and ground sheet. I’ve only set it up once in the yard but it’s pretty intuitive and very roomy for one. So I’m looking forward to trying it out this winter, floor length is 92” so I should have plenty of room.   |
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That’s awesome, Hillebergs are pretty incredible tents. I go towards the opposite end of the spectrum though, I’ve been using a Durston X-Mid pro 2x for the last few years and can not say enough good things about it. 1.5 pounds, extremely roomy and easy to set up, just a brilliantly designed tent. Holds up to wind surprisingly well too, though definitely not in the same class as a Hilleberg. |
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I bought a used Luxe Outdoors Lightwave tent on eBay about 10 days ago and got it yesterday. Tonight I set it up and it is HUGE inside. It’s a tunnel tent, I’ve wanted to try one for a while but never found one for a good price. I might give it a test tomorrow night on a local mountain summit, 30-35 mph winds are forecast so that should be a good test. 
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