I promised to post about winter camping for a Heartland Mushers Association a few weeks ago but as usual it is taking me a while to get around to it. My first post I will talk about tents in very general terms.
First you should have a frame of reference to my background to see if I’m full of BS or even looking at this the same angle you would be. I’ve been mushing for about 20 years, very recreationally, I’ve never had more than 3 dogs. My longest dogsled trip was about ten years ago when I did an Outward Bound Veteran’s trip in the Boundry Waters for a week. The post on my Blog is not from that trip but a mountaineering trip I did with Outward Bound Veterans. Where my main camping experience comes from is backcountry winter camping and a little bit of mountaineering, I also worked for an outdoor retailer for 11 years selling gear.
When I talk about a winter tent I usually look for something that is multi-purpose. Meaning not just to pull out of my car but one I can carry on my back or in a sled bag, that usually leads to a mountaineering tent. Any tent I use will have a full coverage rain fly and a separate tent body. This system allows for the exchange of moisture, in theory the water vapor passes through the tent body and condenses on the fly and then runs down to the outside of the tent, keeping you dry. In the winter the water vapor hits the tent fly and freezes then if you spend much time in your tent, thaws and drips on you. For reference you breath out about a pint or one pound of water a night.
There are several things that make a mountaineering tent different from a standard backpacking tent one of which they are heavier. The rain fly is also different, it will usually go within 3-4 inches of the ground allowing for less air flow and more heat retention. A mountaineering tent will also have less mesh fabric, most modern backpacking tents the interior top of the tent is all mesh, which is great for ventilation but sucks for heat retention. A mountaineering tent will have uncoated fabric instead of mesh, both of the mountaineering tents I have there is a fabric panel that zips in to cover any mesh. A mountaineering tent is usually lower in height, again for heat retention, and the ability to with stand high winds and snow loads they also have more pole crossings for greater strength. The price is also a huge difference, to say a mountaineering tent is expensive is an understatement but properly taken care of they can last more than 20 years.
There are also winter tents that are more along the lines of a hunting tent to be set up at a base camp. These generally are much bigger and roomier but are harder to heat. Most of these are designed for a Yukon style wood burning stove. If you’ve ever stayed in one of these with the stove going it is amazing, if you don’t have much experience with them at some point you’ll have all the doors open, no matter how cold it is outside, because it will feel like the Bahamas in July inside the tent. These tents are not freestanding or very strong in high winds. Due to their large space they generally need an external heating source to keep them warm. Because of this need for an external heating source they are not made from nylon. Nylon melts don’t use any type of external heating source in a nylon tent. Unless you have a large sled with a big team they are usually confined to the car camping scene. They also lack a fly so the heating source is important to drive out the moisture, they become a frozen block that is impossible to get to its original size if you don’t have something to dry them out.
We always slept with dogs in our tents but learned the hard way of things we had to do. Most important was when camping on snow to put something below them. A northern breed dog will melt the snow under your tent creating a void, then their claws will puncture the floor of your tent. We bought a cheap closed cell foam mat at Walmart and cut it to fit the area where our dogs slept. This was only after we repaired the holes in the floor of our very expensive mountaineering tent with Seam Grip.
When looking to buy I like Sierra Trading Post, their gear is last year's model but who cares, it is usually way cheaper than any place else. Cabela’s/Bass Pro have great hunting tents and all the accessories plus they carry a few backpacking style tents. The sales people are generally friendly and knowledgeable they also won't give you the head tilt questioning look when you say you are a musher. REI has many good backpacking and mountaineering tents, though they probably won’t even know what a musher is and will probably try to push a REI brand product off on you. If you buy from a Walmart style store you will get what you pay for, at some point you’ll have a blue tarp over the tent because it leaks and it won’t last half as long as a tent that cost twice as much.
Please feel free to comment or give your opinion, we all have different points of views and experiences. I am constantly learning.
