Originally Posted by 458Win
Originally Posted by MarineHawk
These are just my own experiences, so take them with a grain of salt. I have spent a lot of time both in the Bombshelter and in my Alaskan Guide 8-man. They are both great tents. But if set up in the best way possible for each, I think the AK Guide tent actually is a little better. The Bombshelter is more rectangular and takes a bit more hit with the high winds. It still works, but I found that you have to go outside every so often and re-stake the heavy fly which tends to buffet in the wind and pull the stakes harder. The AK Guide has a more aerodynamic dome shape, more rigid, and in my experience, with the same type of high winds, it does not pull out stakes as much. Mine came with an attachable 7”x10” vestibule. The whole thing with all of the guy lines is held by 46 stakes. It’s pretty secure when you use all of that. Just my own experience.

All that being said, if you’re concerned about really bad weather, you might be better off with two 11-lb three man tents, which would be less than half the weight of either of the above. Last Sept. in SW Alaska, my guide had his 10x1 Bombshelter set up, and I brought the backup—Marmot Thor 3p tent. These are successfully used on Everest expeditions. It has six high-strength aluminum poles, has a lower profile, and mine is staked out with 36 stakes, including countless guy lines. When the winds got over 60mph, the Bombshelter stayed up, but it was constantly flexing and, as said before, we had to re-stake it several times. My Marmot (much smaller with the lower profile and staked out in 36 places) essentially didn’t budge. If the winds had picked up another 10-20 mph or so, we clearly would have been solely in the Marmot.

The obvious dilemma about bringing the two smaller tents as opposed to one bigger one is that they are more stable and trap more body heat. But they also don’t allow you to stand up or put a table in there, etc … Depends on your needs. If the weather was likely to be really extreme, I would prefer to have two smaller expedition tents. If not, a bigger stand-up tent would be better.

Here's the Bombshelter and Marmot. You can barely see the Marmot, but can get an idea of the lesser profile:

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This is it more close-up:

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A couple of pics of the AK Guide:

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MarineHawk is giving great advice. Even when I am setting up steel framed Weatherports, if they are likely to get severe winds ( 60-100 mph winds !) I will make sure there is a spare Mt Hardware, North Face or Kelty expedition dome tent set up and protected in the alders. As I have had Weatherports, Arctic Ovens and Bombshelters blow away during the night and when your tent departs at night during a 100 mph blow, your sleeping bag and cot are usually not far behind.


Thanks 458Win. It can be comforting when out in the middle of nowhere to have a good low-profile four-season expedition-like tent (there are many good ones). With the lower profile and smaller space, if set up and guyed out as well as possible, they are about as weather protective as anything not make out of concrete. They also can trap heat more efficiently. My 10-yr-old son and I recently backpacked locally with the same Marmot tent when the temps got down to about 10 degrees. Nothing crazy I know, but we did it a few weeks before with a three-season tent, when it was about 30 degrees at night. With the Marmot, even though it was much colder, we were sweating with the same gear and had to keep our bags unzipped to keep from sweating inside. Our water bottles were half frozen with the 3-seaon tent the first time, but, in much colder temps, were almost room temperature in the Marmot. But the main thing is that the 4-season expedition tent is seemingly almost impervious to winds up to about 70 mph (the highest I have had to experience). Any large stand-up tent is more comfortable in moderate conditions, but I like the smaller bombproof stuff when things get wild.