My brother and I did a three day two night winter camping trip last year for our first winter camping trip and loved it. On that trip we rented a heavy duty snowtrekker tent and stove and it worked well but we were just base camping on Tuscarora. For our trip this year we want to do something more intense and go from Ely to the Gunflint on the boarder route and are trying to decide what tent to bring. Not interested in the snowtrekker due to size and weight. We have good sleeping bags, liners, and winter sleeping pads. Any suggestion on winter camping in more tradition tents? We have many small three season tents we could use, would that be crazy to use in February or March if all our other gear is winter worthy? Or should we look into investing in a true 4 season lightweight tent? Thanks.

I just recently picked up a Big Agnes Copper Spur Expedition 3. The list price is $549 but just before the holidays they were on sale several places for 25% - 30% off. Check it out.

I bought an Alps Extreme 3 Outfitter
specifically for cold and winter camping.
Used it a few times and very happy with it.

Lighter weight tents can work and I have used several. But reducing the mesh area and a good windproof fly, keep drafts down and feels warmer. Strong fame to hold up to wind and snow loads, big vestibules really help.

butthead

I used an old Eureka 3 season last winter a few times. Like you, we had good winter gear and this kept us out of the wind. Not ideal probably, but we slept through a -33º night! Trying a homemade hot tent later this winter which should be an improvement, but you don't NEED a new, expensive cold tent to get by.

Edited:
I should mention all my trips were one-nighters. For a longer trip my roommate and I agreed a hot tent would be the way to go in order to dry clothes and mittens and such. Everything gets frosty when cold tenting and open fires can only do so much... just stuff to consider I guess.

Thanks all for the advice. We are going to take a closer look at our current three season tents to see if we have any with little to no mesh and stronger poles (Probably have 4-5 tents between us). That said if not, we will probably shop around a bit for a actual 4 season tent so we can ensure that we have something that can protect us from the wind and trap some of our body heat in.

Still not interested in a hot tent just due to the size and weight in the pulk. We are planning to try and go at least 15 miles a day for three days so we want to optimize weight as much as possible without jeopardizing our safety overnight.

TuscTraveler: "....Still not interested in a hot tent just due to the size and weight in the pulk. We are planning to try and go at least 15 miles a day for three days so we want to optimize weight as much as possible without jeopardizing our safety overnight. "

Forgive me you already know this, but not all hot tents are made out of canvas like Snowtrekkers. CCS makes wonderful looking ones, not sure if GoLite Shangri-La's are still available but they seemed good, or if you or someone you know has basic sewing skills you could try making a pyramid tent. Stove jacks can be purchased form Snowtrekker for about $30 and are not hard to sew in, and even the smallest Kni-co stove would heat a smaller pyramid tent very well.

Portagekeeper's DIY pyramid hot tent

There are tents made of light weight materials. Expensive though.

seekoutside

My personal sil nylon hot tent is 6lbs with poles, (Tent goes in a 8" diameter x 12" long stuff sack ; the two poles 24" long and 4" around) and a steel kni-co stove is 12 1/2lbs (• 16" high, 10" wide and 23" long. ), sleeps 4 .

I would recommend studying how Scandinavians winter camp and recommend using Swedish (Hilleberg) or Norwegian (Helsport) four season tents. Personally I have a 1-man Hilleberg Akto and a 3-man Hilleberg Nallo with extended vestibule. They weigh 1.7 kg and 3.4 kg, respectively, if I recall correctly. I'll attach a couple pictures of them. Personally, I don't understand the Minnesotan hot tent tradition. Why you would go through all the trouble of bringing collapsable wood stoves and do all that wood cutting when you could just invest in a good sleeping bag.

JMSand: "I would recommend studying how Scandinavians winter camp and recommend using Swedish (Hilleberg) or Norwegian (Helsport) four season tents. Personally I have a 1-man Hilleberg Akto and a 3-man Hilleberg Nallo with extended vestibule. They weigh 1.7 kg and 3.4 kg, respectively, if I recall correctly. I'll attach a couple pictures of them. Personally, I don't understand the Minnesotan hot tent tradition. Why you would go through all the trouble of bringing collapsable wood stoves and do all that wood cutting when you could just invest in a good sleeping bag.
"

My tent is my fishhouse. I can standup in it, fish all day comfortably and most importantly dry all my clothing out. My tent and stove are the same weight as your 3 man. If you really want comfort bring a shower bag and take a hot shower with water heated on the stove.

I am not climbing Everest so I won’t need the wind capability of the hilleberg.

I have used 3 season tents on winter trips. I prefer free standing tents that can handle wind and snow loads. If you already have a quality 3 season tent and want to increase strength you can replace poles and add guylines .

I have spent time in hot tents but by choice always slept in a regular backpacking tent.

Mnpat: "

JMSand: "I would recommend studying how Scandinavians winter camp and recommend using Swedish (Hilleberg) or Norwegian (Helsport) four season tents. Personally I have a 1-man Hilleberg Akto and a 3-man Hilleberg Nallo with extended vestibule. They weigh 1.7 kg and 3.4 kg, respectively, if I recall correctly. I'll attach a couple pictures of them. Personally, I don't understand the Minnesotan hot tent tradition. Why you would go through all the trouble of bringing collapsable wood stoves and do all that wood cutting when you could just invest in a good sleeping bag.
"

My tent is my fishhouse. I can standup in it, fish all day comfortably and most importantly dry all my clothing out. My tent and stove are the same weight as your 3 man. If you really want comfort bring a shower bag and take a hot shower with water heated on the stove.


I am not climbing Everest so I won’t need the wind capability of the hilleberg. "

What kind of fish house do you use? I would like to try a trip in the winter and using a fish house as my tent was a thought I had.

I use an Eskimo hub house if I’m only going a couple miles from the car.

I was in pursuit of a good 4 season tent option last year (or was it the year before?) as well. Considered hillebergs, mountain hardwear trango, etc. What I finally settled on was a tarptent cloudburst 3. It's a similar design to some of the more popular 4 season tunnel tents (hilleberg keron, warmlite, helsport, etc.).

The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that the third pole goes inside the tent which makes pitching it a pain because you have to remove the liner and go inside the tent every time. I was also worried about the pole rubbing the inside of the main fly in rough conditions. I solved this by adding a 3rd pole sleeve to the tent myself and an additional guyline attachment to the side as well so it now has an equalized two-point line. Ended up having the regular poles replaced with heavier 9mm poles as well.

Materials are comparable to something like the hilleberg red label and the structure is more than sufficient for anything a midwest winter would throw at it. It's also still much lighter than most other 4 season tent options... Something to ponder if you're not against doing some custom work...

Tarptent Cloudburst 3 is interesting looks much like my old Walrus Hurricane Hole but probably lighter. That had a full sod cloth and fabric mesh interior, 3 pole exo frame. 4 stakes all that's needed. Could separate the interior or leave it snapped in place. It did take pack space and weighed 11 pounds though. I don't think I ever used a guyline, it was that stable.




butthead

JMSand: "I would recommend studying how Scandinavians winter camp and recommend using Swedish (Hilleberg) or Norwegian (Helsport) four season tents. Personally I have a 1-man Hilleberg Akto and a 3-man Hilleberg Nallo with extended vestibule. They weigh 1.7 kg and 3.4 kg, respectively, if I recall correctly. I'll attach a couple pictures of them. Personally, I don't understand the Minnesotan hot tent tradition. Why you would go through all the trouble of bringing collapsable wood stoves and do all that wood cutting when you could just invest in a good sleeping bag.



"

The great part about the BWCA is you can camp how you want. Some people like to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time, some like to base camp, some like to fish & some don't. We plan our trips around fishing and the hot tent works well for us because we spend a good portion of our day out in the middle of the lake exposed to the cold and elements. Last year (December 2017) on our 5 day trip we only had 1 day get above 0 and that was our travel day out. Other than that the highs were in the negative teens and our ability to fish would have been limited if we didn't have the hot tent.

As for the OP take a look at the winter camping website. I know there is at least one trip report similar to what you are looking to do. There are a couple very long distance trips on there are I know the guys who do them are very particular about their gear.

butthead: "Tarptent Cloudburst 3 is interesting looks much like my old Walrus Hurricane Hole but probably lighter. That had a full sod cloth and fabric mesh interior, 3 pole exo frame. 4 stakes all that's needed. Could separate the interior or leave it snapped in place. It did take pack space and weighed 11 pounds though. I don't think I ever used a guyline, it was that stable.




butthead "

Very similar! It's not a new design by any means. I'll have to get some pics of the cloudburst with my modifications, but it should be pretty easy to visualize it with a third pole sleeve in the middle...

Thanks again for everyone's advice on this front. We ultimately did decide to go with a true 4 season winter tent. Given we will be out for a couple nights we want to make sure that we have a good shelter.

That said we discovered that the University of Minnesota offers low cost rentals to anyone (do not need to be a student) and while they are not listed on the website they do have Mountain Hardware Trango 4 Season Tents. We would of rented a 2 person tent but they were already booked for our dates so we got a 4 person instead. Cost is just $35 for the first three days and $9 for every day after that. Looking over the rental prices for all their gear it is a lot cheaper than most outfitters (I used to work for one) so they are a solid option for anyone in the Twin Cities who is willing to get gear in town.

http://recwell.umn.edu/outdoor-adventures/gear-rentals

Nothing wrong with a GOOD 3 season double wall tent IF they have:

1. good pole support design (such as a 4 pole dome tent)
2. adequate vestibule for cooking and storage of packs - 2 vestibules is better and the fly needs to keep out windblown snow to permit cooking during a raging storm.
3. many guy-out points AND fly hem stake loops for nailing down in high winds. The guy lines protect the poles from breakage and the hem stakes prevent the fly from flapping all night, damaging the tent and keeping your awake with the noise. (Don't ask...)
4. interior "clothes lines" to hang headlamps or lanterns from and to dry some clothes.

BTW, make some VBL (Vapor Barrier Liners from silnylon and a men's pajama pattern. These keep yer clothes dry all day and yer bag dry all night. Skurka uses this in all his winter treks. Otherwise clothing and sleeping bags get wetter, heavier and colder each day, until by day 4 they are working at 50% warmth.

FEETS: The best VBL for feet is 3 mm closed cell neoprene divers' socks with thin poly liner socks (one pr. per day). My choice id US Divers brand B/C they have factory sealed seams and a Left and Right foot to prevent material bunching at the toes.

Eric B.