Hello there,
First time posting on here-just thought I would give a little review on my new tipi tent from Wyoming Lost and Found. I got a 3 man dyneema tipi with the triangular stove and one piece roll up stove pipe. According to my cheap little hanging scale, the whole setup with tent, stove, stove pipe, stakes, and individual bags for the tent and stove weighs in at 9 pounds. I could have shaved some weight by cutting my stove pipe down because it extends approximately 3.4-4 feet above the top of the tent, but I opted to keep it full length for now. The tent itself appears to be very well made-all of the critical seams and high wear areas are well reinforced and look like they should withstand some serious wear. The stove and pipe are extremely easy to set up and take down. The stove folds down perfectly flat and makes for easy packing, and the stove pipe rolls up into at 3 inch by ~8 inch tube. I had plenty of room in my 80 liter pack for the tent, stove, pipe, sleeping bag, thermarest, 5 days worth of food, spotting scope, tripod, odds and ends like a headlamp, lighter, and sunscreen, and snowshoes strapped on the outside.
I used the tent on a solo 5 day/4 night trip into the mountains of western Wyoming to look for shed elk antlers. I camped at elevations of around 8500-9000 feet. The tent is pretty easy to set up, but seeing as I haven't used it that much yet, I usually have to adjust some of the stakes to get all of the sides tight. Not a big deal, but the ground was frozen good and hard, so it made it a little more challenging. I used MSR triangular profile stakes, and will not use them again. They proved to be very hard to remove from frozen ground, and I ended up breaking a number of them in the process of trying to pull them. I think a round stake with a little flexibility would be best. The stove was more than adequate to heat the tent, and I found myself unzipping one or both doors sometimes because it was so warm. I don't know exactly how cold it got up there, but they were calling for temps in the teens in town, and I was 3-4000 feet higher than that. I did all of my cooking on the top of the stove, and found that with a good fire going in it, I could boil 2 quarts of water in a primus titanium pot in 10 minutes or so. It sure was nice to know that I had a warm tent to go home to after hiking around all day up there. It snowed a couple of nights-not more than 2 inches, and was extremely windy the first night. In fact, the wind blew hard enough to break one of the afore mentioned msr stakes off. The stake loop on the tent was not damaged.
The 3 man model that I got would be fine for 2 people plus the stove, and you would have to leave your packs outside. As it was on my trip, I had plenty of room for my bedroll, a firewood pile big enough for one night and the next morning, and all of my gear in the tent. I am planning on another trip later this week with myself and 1 or 2 more people, and will report back on how things work on that outing. Also, for those who might be interested, I didn't hit the jackpot, but I found enough to get my pack up to 89 pounds on the way out. Post-holing with that much on your back will make you think about finding a new hobby.
