by Moondog55 » Mon 20 Mar, 2017 8:35 pm
There truly is no one tent that does everything
A true Alpine winter tent is unbearably hot and stuffy in summer, a good summer tent could kill you in an Alpine winter storm or at a minimum make your W/E totally miserable.
Alpine tents are usually not light, definitely not ultra lite unless you want a single skin Cuben pyramid
A good summer compromise may be a LW or UL bug shelter plus a tarp except in the mountains where you may need good shelter at any time of the year.
A good 3-season tent will cope with all but the worst of any climate but may not excel in any of them
Any tent can be improved with the use of a tarp in any but Alpine storms, two smaller LW tents can be joined with a tarp to make a palace. good rule of thumb is to deduct one person from the manufacturers rating, so for 2 people to be comfortable you usually need a 3 person tent, double this sometimes in snow except that in snow a smaller tent can be warmer
Every serious walker needs at least 2 tents; a summer tent plus a 3-season tent or if you are like me; a 3-season tent plus a dedicated Alpine tent [ or 2 or 3 or more] my 3 season tent is a 4-man Paddy Pallin japara from somewhere around 1980 when they stopped production of them
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart