I need to get another tent for sheep and float hunting. I need something that will hold 2 people comfortably, be freestanding, withstand high winds, wont leak in heavy rain and be fairly light. I'm not really sold on the single walled tents but I'm willing to take a look at them. 2 entrances/exits would be a huge plus. Keeping it under $500 is mandatory. Give me some ideas fellas.

Two entrances makes it tough to keep weight down. With a $500 cap I think the Big Agnes String Ridge is hard to beat for a freestanding mountaineering tent. Here is a thread about it from a while ago: String Ridge and Nallo 2 review
Two entrances, free standing, and under 6 lbs. about all that comes to mind for double wall's is the Terra Nova Superlite Quasar, but I question their toughness and build quality.

Just about any comfortable single wall is going to be 5 or 6 lbs easy once you tack on a vestibule. If you're sold on trying a single, the ID MK3 is the nicest built that I've been in.

Not sold on a single wall and frankly, i've never used one but condensation issues is the main reason why I haven't tried them. I do like the idea of the tipi's with the nest inside but again, single wall design gives me pause. Reason for the 2 entrances is for those late night nature calls so whomever has to go doesn't wake up the other.

Mountain Hardwear Skyledge 3. Roomy enough for two, two entrances, two good and equal sized vestibules. Light, not as warm as some I'm sure. Found mine on ebay for around 200.

I have no experience with this tent, but I'd LOVE for you to buy it and report back!

http://www.moontrail.com/exped-orion.php

I am sure I may get blamed for being affiliated with Seek Outside, but I am not. This company has a special right now and until May 15 for $65 off of a 4 person tipi , or $50 off of their 2 person. The size of the 2 person says that their is a 10' diameter, and 5'9" center height, which should be plenty of room for 2 and gear. I reviewed the 6 person. Here is the link:

6 Person VersaShelter Review

Depending on the expected weather, you may want to check out their Titanium stove. I recommend both items! Hope this helps.



NT

Looks like that tent worked out great. Hopefully you had good company on that trip and killed a couple rams

We actually slept 3 people in one of those on Kodiak for a night last year. Tight for 3, roomy for 2. Big vestibules, free standing, good price - especially on ebay.

Didn't I file a report on this one already?

They have a MH Skyledge on clearance at Beaver Sports for 295.
I betcha that they would mail it to you.

Sincerely,
Thomas

Still haven't given up on the thought of purchasing a tipi tent, would a Golite SL3 be big enough for 2 and some gear. I can get one at a pretty good price along with the nest.

AKMTNHNTR,

I would say a SL3 would be tight for 2 and gear to be honest. I have one and carry it in my day pack when hunting with my wife to use as an emergency bivy shelter (24 oz is heavy for a bivy shelter but if we gotta do it it will make the wife happier), and also use it as my palace of a solo shelter. But for 2 people to base out of for a week especially in crappy weather may be a bit cramped.

Hope that helps. To bad the SL5s are out of stock on GoLite.com as everything over there is 40% off.

I sent Golite an e-mail and asked them when they were getting some of those SL5's back in stock. Looking at the weight difference I might as well go for the bigger model. I've got a discount code that gives me 50% off anything on their site so I will probably wait for them to get some in stock. Thanks for the info Luke.

By the way, we cancelled the wifes sheep hunt for this year but i'm still headed down for my DS204 tag hunt.

So I finally decided on the tent I want and they don't have any in stock, luckily I am in no hurry so I can wait. I can pick up a brand new SL5 with nest for about $300 shipped directly from GoLite and they will have them in stock around the end of June.

Check out cabelas XPG tents.

This is getting to be a tough decision, not sure if I want to go the tipi route or not. I do like the freestanding tents with 2 doors/vestibules but also like the idea of the tipi's. Decisions, decisions.

Currently in the backpacking community, there is an energetic debate regarding which system is best, a single wall tent with a stove or a double wall tent with a floor. Each system has its� benefits and liabilities and much is dependent upon anticipated weather and terrain where you�re going to be using your shelter.

There are a bunch of good guys with lots of backpacking experience, that know what they�re doing, who advocate for single-wall tents with a lightweight, collapsible wood burning stove and no floor, as their primary backpacking shelter. I respectfully disagree.

I think I�m also a good guy who knows what he�s doing and I advocate for double-wall backpacking tents. I�ve been backpacking for fifty years and gone on maybe 300 wilderness backpack trips in that time. I�ve used every kind of tent that�s manufactured, and some that I made myself, including single-wall tents with wood burning stoves and no floors. I think there are more benefits and fewer liabilities when using double-wall tents vs single-wall tents.

Single-wall tents are significantly lighter than double-wall tents and weight is a primary concern for anyone who does more than the occasional casual backpacking trip. But moisture will condense on the inside of a single-wall tent unless you use a stove to keep the interior warm. If you don�t use a stove inside, the condensation will get everything inside the tent wet, even if it�s dry outside. By the time that you add the stove and ground cloth, the entire assembly is as heavy, sometimes heavier, than a double-wall tent.

I own several single-wall tents and one is a small ultra-light that I use for solo backpacking. It�s ventilated some and when you can leave the windows down condensation is not too bad. If it�s cold enough that you have to zip up the windows, condensation is a problem. I keep a cotton bandanna readily available and the first thing I do in the morning is grab that bandanna and wipe the condensation off of the inside of the tent. It�s small enough that I can reach the entire ceiling without getting out of my sleeping bag and the process seems to work OK. But it�s not so easy on a bigger tent.

I do a lot of camping in places where there is no wood available. In that situation wood burning stoves are superfluous extra weight






Double-wall tents do a better job of keeping out insects than single-wall tents without floors. There have been times when the vampire mosquitoes would have eaten me alive if I had been sleeping in a single-wall tent. One can employ methods such as repellent and staking the walls tight to the ground, to reduce the insect problem inside a single-wall tent, but it�s a lot of trouble and never quite as good as a double-wall tent. It�s much easier to keep out insects when using a double-wall tent.

Some people like the warmth inside a single-wall tent with a stove, in cold weather. That�s hard to disregard but that warmth comes with a price. Since single-wall tents are lighter than double-wall tents, you can carry a single-wall tent with a bigger floor area than a double-wall tent for the same or less weight. But the stove presents a hazard that must be accounted for. A good way to ruin a sleeping bag is to roll up against a hot stove while you�re sleeping. So you have to give up some floor space to the stove and the end result is the same or less usable floor space for the same or more weight. However, even with all that taken into consideration, it�s real nice in the middle of a snow storm to be able to lounge around inside a heated tent.

The small, lightweight, collapsible stoves require constant work to keep them going. You can only use small pieces of wood so you have a big pile of twigs and you have to keep feeding them into the stove to keep it working. If you go to sleep, which is of course what you�re hoping for, the stove will go out. The tent will get cold inside and moisture will condense and freeze on the inside of the tent wall. In the morning when you restart the stove all that frost will melt and things will get just as wet as if you had no stove at all.

I guess in the final analysis I just don�t want to have to deal with the stove. I usually wait until last light to setup my tent and settle in for the night. By that time I�m usually pretty tuckered out and I just want to get inside my sleeping bag and get some rest. I don't want to have to collect a bunch of firewood and break it into pieces small enough to use in the stove and I don�t want to have to mess around with a stove inside my tent.

When I rent horses for an extended trip, I take a big standup dome tent and a small propane space heater. I run the space heater for short periods of time to heat up the tent. The effect is about the same as using a wood burning stove because both heaters are running when you�re awake and they�re not running when you�re sleeping.

There�s an art to keeping warm when sleeping in temperatures below zero. Start by insulating yourself from the frozen ground and then use a really good sleeping bag. I suggest that you use both a closed cell foam sleeping pad and a self inflating pad like a Thermarest. Wrap one inside the other for packing and sleep on both of them. You need a mummy style sleeping bag rated at 0� or colder.

A good 4-season, double wall backpack tent with a vestibule will make a big difference. It's important to keep the inside of the tent free of snow and dry. So leave your boots in the vestibule. One big advantage of sleeping directly on the snow is that there won't be any rocks, sticks or bumps under you and the snow will eventually conform to your body contours. If you setup your tent on the snow then first put a light waterproof tarp on the inside of the floor. Any moisture will run under the tarp and freeze between the tarp and the tent floor. Next build a nest inside the tent with extra clothes, stuff sacks, backpacks, etc. This keeps you from rolling off the sleeping pads onto the frozen floor of the tent. Wear only clean dry clothing to bed. Wet clothes, even those wet with only perspiration, will take several hours to dry. Wear your knitted hat to bed as a nightcap. Also sleep 2 to a tent and the extra body heat will make a difference. If your feet are cold, zip up your coat and slip it over the bottom of your sleeping bag. If your chest is cold, put your coat on inside the sleeping bag.

Bring a good thermos with an insulator. I couldn't find an insulator big enough to take a thermos, so I built my own using foam rubber and duct tape. At night first temper the thermos and then fill it with boiling water and put it inside the insulator and then inside your backpack. In the morning you have hot water for instant cocoa and oatmeal without getting out of your sleeping bag. Bring a wide mouth pee bottle so that you can urinate in the middle of the night without leaving the tent.

There�s really no right or wrong way to do it. Each system has its� benefits and liabilities. The important thing is that you go, do it and enjoy yourself.

Good writeup KC, appreciate that info. You pretty much confirmed my thoughts on the condensation issue and that's not something I want to deal with at all and carrying a wood stove, no matter how light, is not something I am willing to do.

Now to find a good double wall with 2 doors and vestibules and that is freestanding.

I like the Hilleberg Allak. By "like" I mean I don't think any other free standing double wall can hang with it.

There are points of the post KC made that I will agree with. However, single wall doesn't have to mean that is the only way the tent is used. For instance our 6 person tipi, with a liner and stove is under 9 lbs. Hard to beat for warm , dry and large. Yes it's floorless, but if bugs aren't an issue then floorless is an advantage. A sod skirt certainly aids in reducing bugs to close to what you would see in a double wall tent which is from when you enter and exit.

I will admit, that there are times when a double wall / vestibule tent make sense, but I will also say I've gotten wet in those as well, especially when cramped, and I've had moisture come in through the floor as well. The size of a tipi, provides a different sort of comfort that can't be matched in a little tent.

edit spelling

AKMNTHNTR,

If you like you can swing by with the wife for dinner sometime during the next time I am home and you can check out the GoLite SL5 setup I have as well as the black diamond skylight tent as well if you like if it would help to see some tents live in living color.

One big advantage to a smaller non-tipi style of tent is that it stays warmer with just body heat when you are sleeping overnight. My wife and daughters sleep in a single wall golite dome that is no longer made. 6lbs and it sleeps 4, 5 in a pinch. It keeps them a lot warmer overnight than the tipi I sleep in does. Plenty of condensation though because they don't like to keep it ventilated (which it does quite well if you choose to).

On the other hand, we've also got a tipi with stove along to have meals and warm up in. When they roll out of their tent in the morning, it's right into a tipi that already has the woodstove going. That's a nice combination.

I spent 10 solo nights in a golite single wall freestanding 2-man floorless tent - the Utopia 2+ - on this last fall's sheep hunt. About half the time it drizzled. When the wind did not blow, there was condensation inside. However, I did not experience anything remotely close to the "condensation soaking everything in the tent" phenomenon mentioned by KC.

I spent 6 solo nights in a golite SL-4+ the previous 2009 sheep trip with a partner. It drizzled off and on the whole time. Again, there was condensation on the walls, but we easily stayed very dry and comfortable.

There's a good reason for this - the walls of the golite rigs are sloped pretty steep, and accumulated condensation will run harmlessly down the wall if you pitch it right. The golite rigs have a ton of room if you use the right one, and therefore you never are brushing the walls as you would be in a smaller tent. If you're that concerned about it, bring a cotton bandanna and wipe down the walls.

Add to that the ability to set the tent over weird lumpy terrain (you only need enough flat space to lie down on) and the ability to waltz through the door and zip it shut without taking your boots off, and singlewall floorless tents have it all over anything else where terrain allows. Add also to that the ability to open the door in rain and glass out it with rain harmlessly falling on the ground inside your tent.

I've not yet run into a situation where a floored tent is superior to a floorless tipi, tent, or tarp (tarp where feasible in deep and subalpine timber). That's in Washington's Cascades, Idaho's Frank Church, coastal Prince William Sound, Kodiak, the south Wrangells, the south slope of the Brooks (along a river), and interior alaska along rivers and far above on tundra.

Vek,

I think you'd *really* like this setup:

I'm rolling something close to that in a SL4+, but I hesitate to cut into the utopia. At least for now. If and when I move back down to the L48 and hunt the colder seasons where there's wood and things are a bit dryer, I might be so swayed. I envy your green tent color!

Well after all that I decided to throw down on the Marmot Limelight 3p. I did a lot of reading on tents over the last 2 weeks and this one sounds like it should work perfectly for me.This will be my sheep and float hunting tent and when i'm in the mountains it will be split between 2 hunters to cut down on the weight. Only issue I have with it is the color and I can live with the orange, it might help me see it better when i'm a long ways off. Should be here in a couple of days.


http://marmot.com/products/limelight_3p?p=11871