My take on it, using an ID silshelter for a number of years, with the wife, just a bit on the small side. For me alone thats probably exactly what I'd take though.
For us we take the paratipi now. Just right, plenty of room to sleep, to get up and dress and not much weight.
We do not use a stove as all of our hunting has been at 15 for lows and above, no need for it there. But I do have the tiny TI Goat tube stove on my list for an in case thing, IE pack it just in case we ever get snowed in unexpectedly etc....
And in a pinch the paratipi could handl 3 folks easily.
With the silshelter and fairly open front I could carry the small stove and put the pipe out the front and be fine.
I did call about sewing a jack into the front of the paratipi and they said were too busy. I have on my list to buy a good sewing machine one day and the first 2 things will be to add 12 inches of ground cloth to the bottom so I can seal it off with dirt if needed for really bad weather, and to move the stove jack to the front. Then will be to make a moisture liner for the sleeping area only. A few ounces of material can keep some of the drips off and keep the down bags drier.
We did the dumb thing and bought bivy bags the other year and might work super at some point, plan was to sleep without anything unless the weather turned iffy, and we had so much frost both inside and outside of the bivy that it wasn't worth the hassle IMHO to fight that every morning when packing up to move.... especially with down bags.
I'd do a tarp next time instead of the bivy and might still have the same problems.
Hammocks seem like a good shot but cool weather/cold weather would suck. Have to pack too much weight/bulk for the under liner for cold. But one could think about not using a sleeping bag in that instance but basically the bottomless blankets to cover with...
Unfortunately you'll spend lots of money and time and have this prefected by the time you can no longer do it most likely...
In laws have the Go Lite SHangri la basically for unexpected nights out and it will sleep 3 in a pinch and keep you out of the weather. Can't complain much about it in general.
