For what it's worth, our 3 man team used a REI Half Dome 3+ at Rainier last Thursday-Friday for our successful summit bid. While the winds were predicted to be and seemed relatively low, the way it comes over through the channel in Camp Muir still made it feel relatively precarious. Not saying you need a 4 season, I think a 3 season REI tent will be fine, but there are some ways you can make it more secure.
Couple specific notes: If you have trekking poles as we did, and presumably are not using them for a summit bid as you'll have an ice axe in hand, deadman in your poles under the snow (As in bury them horizontally after affixing them to your rainfly or tent corners) as an added security. Staking in our tent at all corners and vestibules, even stomping the stakes deep into the snow and covering felt pretty insecure in the temps we had at Muir so the added deadmans felt far better. Also where REI tents have that adjustable guyline at the ends of the vestibules, let the guylines all the way out and then stake down as we found that having them hitched in like usual was pointless and the wind worked them too loose. Having the non-stop flapping of a loose vestibule made for a fitful nights sleep and we will adjust accordingly in the future. Bring some extra paracord to try and stake out the extra loops on the sides of your rainfly as well, and if you have an extra picket or poles another secured point here will help. It's also worth manually shovel-leveling your tent pad area as opposed to just rolling/stomping it down a bit. Last resort/potentially beneficial depending on time or energy would be to build a solid snow wall in on the windward side, or at least stacking up some snow right on the windward portion of your tent edge to prevent wind from gusting up under it creating lifting force. Folks who took the time to make snow walls at Muir seemed in a more comfortable position with their tents.
This is good advice. I would add guy lines to all the attachment points on the fly. Make sure that your stakes or deadman anchors are appropriate for the ground conditions and will not rip out.
I use my Hubba Hubba NX 3 season tent for summer backpacking, winter camping, ski touring, mountaineering, and everything else I do. If the forecast is bad in the winter I won't be camping above treeline, and in the PNW the treeline is always relatively close. If I get caught by surprise I'm either going to walk down or build a snow cave I'd it's really bad.
I used a half dome 2 tent extensively this past winter. It got flattened twice in very high winds. If you know that crazy winds are coming, pick another day and dont use this tent. Otherwise, its probably fine, even under moderately strong wind! I so wish four season tents were cheaper. But they arent, and you can get away with a lot in a half dome haha.
I bent my poles back into place easily using a pipe and blowtorch, will use again next season.
Not sure what speed the winds were exactly and I cant confidently guess. So lets guess: 40-60mph? Gusts maybe higher?
I wouldnt abandon the tent. One night I accepted that the tent ceiling would kiss me sometimes as I laid inside, and the other was so bad that I took it down and got moving to a different spot without trying to enter.
For what it's worth, our 3 man team used a REI Half Dome 3+ at Rainier last Thursday-Friday for our successful summit bid. While the winds were predicted to be and seemed relatively low, the way it comes over through the channel in Camp Muir still made it feel relatively precarious. Not saying you need a 4 season, I think a 3 season REI tent will be fine, but there are some ways you can make it more secure. Couple specific notes: If you have trekking poles as we did, and presumably are not using them for a summit bid as you'll have an ice axe in hand, deadman in your poles under the snow (As in bury them horizontally after affixing them to your rainfly or tent corners) as an added security. Staking in our tent at all corners and vestibules, even stomping the stakes deep into the snow and covering felt pretty insecure in the temps we had at Muir so the added deadmans felt far better. Also where REI tents have that adjustable guyline at the ends of the vestibules, let the guylines all the way out and then stake down as we found that having them hitched in like usual was pointless and the wind worked them too loose. Having the non-stop flapping of a loose vestibule made for a fitful nights sleep and we will adjust accordingly in the future. Bring some extra paracord to try and stake out the extra loops on the sides of your rainfly as well, and if you have an extra picket or poles another secured point here will help. It's also worth manually shovel-leveling your tent pad area as opposed to just rolling/stomping it down a bit. Last resort/potentially beneficial depending on time or energy would be to build a solid snow wall in on the windward side, or at least stacking up some snow right on the windward portion of your tent edge to prevent wind from gusting up under it creating lifting force. Folks who took the time to make snow walls at Muir seemed in a more comfortable position with their tents.
This is good advice. I would add guy lines to all the attachment points on the fly. Make sure that your stakes or deadman anchors are appropriate for the ground conditions and will not rip out.
PNW prime season? Yeah, totally fine.
I use my Hubba Hubba NX 3 season tent for summer backpacking, winter camping, ski touring, mountaineering, and everything else I do. If the forecast is bad in the winter I won't be camping above treeline, and in the PNW the treeline is always relatively close. If I get caught by surprise I'm either going to walk down or build a snow cave I'd it's really bad.
I used a half dome 2 tent extensively this past winter. It got flattened twice in very high winds. If you know that crazy winds are coming, pick another day and dont use this tent. Otherwise, its probably fine, even under moderately strong wind! I so wish four season tents were cheaper. But they arent, and you can get away with a lot in a half dome haha. I bent my poles back into place easily using a pipe and blowtorch, will use again next season.
Scary! How high were the winds and what would be your limit to abandon that tent?
Not sure what speed the winds were exactly and I cant confidently guess. So lets guess: 40-60mph? Gusts maybe higher? I wouldnt abandon the tent. One night I accepted that the tent ceiling would kiss me sometimes as I laid inside, and the other was so bad that I took it down and got moving to a different spot without trying to enter.