Backcountry shelter failures

[RCB]

I've been kicking around the idea of getting a floorless tipi for a bit. I've heard in general that they are a great 4-season option and they handle inclement weather well. But I've also heard of a few failures here and there in high winds and rough weather (like any shelter, I'm sure), so I thought to ask here about that. But then, I thought, why stop there? Why not ask the forum about general experiences, positive or negative, with shelter durability and weatherproofness?

So, please do share your experiences. How have different shelter types (traditional tents, tipis, trekking pole tents, tarps, bivies...) fared for you in high winds, heavy snow, rainstorms, and so on? Broken poles, torn tarps, slipped stakes, collapsed shelters - let's hear it. And, do share if you've found some types to be superior to others in some ways.

I don't have enough backcountry experience to kick off with anything useful. I have only ever used traditional floored tents of the kind sold at REI, and have yet to be in a storm heavy enough to cause them any trouble.

 

[reaper]

Only problems I've seen was hard times to find a good flat spot,one time the stove was super hot and we got a lot of snow load on the tipi so the aluminum pole got bend like crazy.Rocky Mountains have killed a lot of my stakes
Of course there always the pin holes on shelters from the stove pipe

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[sneaky]

What failures have you heard of besides poles collapsing? Floorless you can cut wood poles to support and eliminate most worries. They are sturdier than 99% of backpacking style shelters with those flimsy aluminum poles

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[BrooksRanger]

My Sawtooth got pretty beat up on Kodiak where the stakes attached to the tent and a few other lower ares of the tent. I had to have repairs made or it would have shredded the next time I took it out. I know Sawtooth's have a pretty impressive reputation, but all in all I'm pretty concerned about taking it out into those kind of winds again.

 

[mrbillbrown]

Only failure I’ve had was self induced. We had finished hunting the area and planning to change locations. I had unlaced my boots and was pulling stakes when a piece of paracord I had attached to the stake loop on my Tut caught an open eye of my boot and ripped the fabric just above the stake loop. About a 4” tear. Finished the hunt without an issue and Kifaru repaired the area for me after our hunt ended. No other issues for me so far


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[swampthing]

My son just had a bad failure with a seek outside silvertip. It was his first trip with it, a goat hunt. His first night in a snowstorm blew in. Between the wind and the snow the wall shredded during the night. He got wet and had a horrible sleepless night. He "survived" two more nights on the mountain by building a shelter out of his tarp and piled up rocks. He got his goat but has sworn off tipis. Seek outside had no problem sending him a new tent.

 

[5 shot group]

I don't know how strong the winds were, but my super tarp survived a damn bad wind storm one night while I camped on an open knife ridge. The winds were so strong that I took a piece of cordage and tied the tarp to a big rock nearby, thinking that if the stakes pulled out, it atleast wouldn't fly away. A few stakes bent, but she held through the night.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

My son just had a bad failure with a seek outside silvertip. It was his first trip with it, a goat hunt. His first night in a snowstorm blew in. Between the wind and the snow the wall shredded during the night. He got wet and had a horrible sleepless night. He "survived" two more nights on the mountain by building a shelter out of his tarp and piled up rocks. He got his goat but has sworn off tipis. Seek outside had no problem sending him a new tent.

I would love to see some photos from his trip, both the makeshift shelter and the Goat! Those are the most memorable trips, where misery and success collide.

 

[j3butch]

My partner and I have a Kifaru 12 man and 8 man tipi between the 2 of us and after a horrible couple of days in WY where the stove pipe bent in Half and we thought the tipi would give I’m not sure I”m going to chance it on our AK drop hunt.

 

[Deere83]

Don’t expect a wiggy’s hoop bivy to repel water, my brother in law still laughs about me hanging my sleeping bag in a tree to dry it after dark. But I’ll always use synthetic insulation because I climbed in it cold and wet and slept all night and was pretty dry in the morning.

 

[KChunter71]

Don’t expect a wiggy’s hoop bivy to repel water, my brother in law still laughs about me hanging my sleeping bag in a tree to dry it after dark. But I’ll always use synthetic insulation because I climbed in it cold and wet and slept all night and was pretty dry in the morning.

Even with synthetic it’s still not fun, until that wet bag warms up! Did that in Alaska 19 on a caribou hunt when my sleeping bag was in the bottom of the boat. Bag I had it in leaked water in. Put on long Johns and crawled in!

 

[Deere83]

Even with synthetic it’s still not fun, until that wet bag warms up! Did that in Alaska 19 on a caribou hunt when my sleeping bag was in the bottom of the boat. Bag I had it in leaked water in. Put on long Johns and crawled in!

Could have been worse, I’ve washed down jackets proclaimed hydrophobic that were basically unusable without a pair of shoes and a dryer

 

[Moserkr]

Have a tigoat vertix 7.5 tipi - around a 6 man size. 8’ tall and 13’ diameter. Withstood 30-40 mph sustained winds all night with 50+ mph gusts. I was expecting it to sail away all night or tear in half. We ended up taking it down at 5am since I was worried the stitching on the guy-line taking the brunt of the winds would come out. Worst part was we set up on dirt so being floorless, all 3 of us received a dirt shower all night. I will never set up on an exposed bench like that again.

Same tipi has also held through 6” of heavy wet snow one night. Countless trips of freezing cold. Tipis are incredible shelters to me and with a stove are a huge benefit. If set up in a proper spot, I have complete faith in mine.

 

[TomJoad]

I’ve run everything from double wall mountaineering tents to floor less tipis and tarps at sea level to 12k in all 4 seasons. Failures mostly come in three forms in my experience: poor site selection, poor setup and operator error (tripped on the guy lines). If site selection and setup are dialed and you didn’t buy a garbage shelter your not very likely to have a catastrophic failure. I’m always prepared for rips/tears with several wraps of duct tape around a nalgene and a needle and thread. Field repair with these two items have taken care of every problem I’ve encountered.

As for my preferred shelter type it’s floor less tipi (SO) from fall to early spring and lightweight single wall (Big Agnes) in the summer if I’m in mosquito country.

 

[Beendare]

Tipis in general take inclement weather and wind better IME.


I had my homemade tipi in legit 60 mph winds in Alaska.....and it shed that wind like no other shelter I've been in. Even my Cabelas Alaskan tent would have been rocking and rolling.

Tipis are a bit of a learning curve.

They shrink in the cold...and expand in the heat. If they are all shrunk up- a lot....they perform terribly in the wind...you have to tighten them up for them to perform well. Now I made mine from a little heavier fabric than the commercially sold UL Tipis [1.6oz vs the light 1.1oz stuff] as an extra 6 oz didn't matter as much to me as it staying up.

 

[RockChucker30]

The most common damage we see are animal inflicted - cats, dogs, bears, mule gets guyline wrapped around leg, etc.

Past that it's probably pole problems related to heavy snow without maintenance. Easy for the pin to pop a hole, or for an aluminum pole to bend a bit under heavy snow weights.

It's pretty rare to see other failures, but things happen.

One of the coolest I've seen - a guy in BC sent us a video of him in his tipi, buddy videoing him waking up. A grizzly bear had been outside the tent in the night and took a swipe at the tent, leaving 12 inch long perfect bearclaw marks.....about 18" from his head. Nobody woke up.

 

[Pro953]

The most common damage we see are animal inflicted - cats, dogs, bears, mule gets guyline wrapped around leg, etc.

Past that it's probably pole problems related to heavy snow without maintenance. Easy for the pin to pop a hole, or for an aluminum pole to bend a bit under heavy snow weights.

It's pretty rare to see other failures, but things happen.

One of the coolest I've seen - a guy in BC sent us a video of him in his tipi, buddy videoing him waking up. A grizzly bear had been outside the tent in the night and took a swipe at the tent, leaving 12 inch long perfect bearclaw marks.....about 18" from his head. Nobody woke up.

Maybe this is asked ans answered, but I would love to hear more from your crew on site selection.

I am often of the opinion that 90% of the time when something goes wrong it’s due to a poor decision on my part and not actually the gear. I would bet many of the failures have to do with poor site selection, bad pitch etc... are more likely to cause a failure than some sort of random catastrophic failure of the sowing or material.

Not directed at anyone above, it’s just much easier to blame the gear instead of our own mistakes. And I am as guilt of this as anyone else here.


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[TomJoad]

Maybe this is asked ans answered, but I would love to hear more from your crew on site selection.

I am often of the opinion that 90% of the time when something goes wrong it’s due to a poor decision on my part and not actually the gear. I would bet many of the failures have to do with poor site selection, bad pitch etc... are more likely to cause a failure than some sort of random catastrophic failure of the sowing or material.

Not directed at anyone above, it’s just much easier to blame the gear instead of our own mistakes. And I am as guilt of this as anyone else here.


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You are 100% correct in these being set-up and site selection user errors most circumstances. Site selection is not easy especially in the mountains at elevation where I do most of my BC recreation and hunting in CO and WY. Here are my considerations for site selection:

- Current prevailing wind based on next 48hrs of projected weather
- Natural features (rock/slope) that can help in mitigating prevailing wind, rock face can also help collect heat during sunny days in the winter and raise the ambient temp in your shelter location into the evening
- Deadfall: this is the number one consideration for CO below treeline. BK is so bad in much of the state this presents a serious risk especially if a storm system moves in. Finding an area that is clear to best extent possible of widow makers that are up wind from the site.
- Look for a slight convexity to the ground rather than a concavity. Less of an issue in the winter when everything is frozen but you don't want to be in concavity that holds moisture in the spring
- Proximity to water: This is a nice to have not a need to have and other considerations are way more important. I travel with a few collapsible bladders that weigh nothing so if my spike camp is not near a source I will fill up one at some point during the day for evening/morning use. If you do have a site with access to water don't camp on top of it, give it 100 feet of space.
- ground quality: Surface quality is of little importance to me. being able to stake out is nice but it's nearly as easy to guy out to rocks and often I have a mix of stakes, rock and tree guy anchors. I repurpose my stuff sacks for snow anchors in the winter, these do not fail when properly buried. I've also used this technique in desert sand often.
- Shelter door location: this is the one I see screwed up the most. People choose the shelter orientation for personal comfort getting in and out or facing a cook/hangout area for convenience. Shelter orientation should always be facing backside towards prevailing wind. I set-up like this even if it puts my tipi door right on a briar patch. When you need to batten down the hatches you want to be able to use sod skirts properly or crank down tarps to not let the wind get under their leading edge.

 

[RCB]

As for my preferred shelter type it’s floor less tipi (SO) from fall to early spring and lightweight single wall (Big Agnes) in the summer if I’m in mosquito country.

If you don't mind my asking, which Big Agnes tent do you use?

 

[TomJoad]

I've used lots but my current favorite is the Scout UL2. It weighs 1.5 lbs packed has plenty of room for 1 person + hunting gear or two people with gear outside and is crazy affordable. They make a Dyneema version but I just run the sil-nylon variant. I've had it in gnarly storms above treeline including summer hail events and winter storm cycles, its never had a failure. It's a single wall shelter so you have to know how to manage condensation to run it comfortably in different climates but I have used it consistently for 7 years in a wide variety of climates, regions, elevations, seasons and conditions and have not have issues. It's also crazy compact at the size of a Nalgene.