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Cabela's Guide Model Tents, etc.
Posted by Michael Strahan on Oct 09 2005
Hi Jason,
Your experience illustrates why a lot of folks favor the Bomb Shelter or Arctic Oven tents. There are many hunters who read this forum regularly (and some of them post here), who use the Cabela's Guide Model tents exclusively, and have had good experiences with them. Those users appear from their posts to have experienced a variety of conditions in the field, and many of them have vouched for that tent over and over. Some of these folks appear to know what they're doing, and others I'm sure have only done one or two hunts here in reasonably good weather. In sorting through all this info, I've come to the following conclusions:
1. The Guide Model tent is a popular brand with certain segments of the hunting population.
2. Hunter experience with this tent is widely varied.
3. Alaska weather is highly variable, and there are times when the only thing that will not blow away is a hole in the ground.
4. Some hunters have never experienced really bad weather in Alaska in their Guide Model tent (but some of them think they have).
5. This entire subject is highly subjective.
FAILED TENTS
Recently an associate of mine told me about a guide / outfitter in the Brooks Range who had LOTS of these tents in the field this fall (somewhere between 60-80 tents, if I remember correctly). As a result of the storms you mentioned, he lost over half of his tents; they were totally shredded by the wind, poles bent, etc. This is what I've been saying all along about this tent. It's a good tent in the right conditions, but if you get a really bad storm, you can end up in serious trouble. Especially if you don't pitch it correctly, neglect to use the tiedowns, pitch it in the wrong place, etc. The biggest problem is the high sidewalls; I haven't seen a tent yet with high sidewalls that can withstand the worst Alaska dishes out. The Bomb Shelter overcomes much of this by sloping the rain fly in such a way that the wind actually pushes down on the tent to help anchor it. This is supplemented by very strong poles and tiedowns that transfer the stress directly from the poles to the anchor points on the rain fly. In other words, when you tie your tent off from the tiedowns, you're essentially tying the rope around the poles and staking it out to the ground. It's very strong.
A TENT FOR ALL SEASONS
I believe there are times when even a Bomb Shelter isn't enough. In those situations you MUST go with a low-profile, four-season mountaineering tent from an established company with a proven track record in this field. I happen to use Terra Nova because I have NEVER heard of this tent failing in the field. In fact, I read of one climbing party who had to make a quick descent from Denali one year, abandoning their Terra Nova tent (which was erected on a snow field). THE NEXT YEAR another party using the same route found that tent, still standing and completely undamaged. Denali frequently sees winds in excess of 100 mph. Perhaps there were some freak atmospheric conditions that led to this situation, or maybe this tent was pitched in a depression where it didn't suffer the full wrath of the mountain, but whatever the reason, you can bet your rain fly that you won't find a Guide Model tent on The Mountain. If my life depends on my tent, I'm going with something that will do the job in the worst conditions. After all, nobody knows when they will encounter those conditions in the field, right?
Having said all that, I'll say that I once used a Eureka Timberline Outfitter Six (a high-sidewall tent) in perhaps the worst storm I've been in. We were hunting brown bear out of Moose Lake (near Iliamna) and we had actual waterspouts out on the lake in front of our camp. The trick was that we pitched the Eureka tent between four large trees and tied it off securely to all four. Plus we had high brush on all four sides, to help break the wind. Without that protection (our base camp was in a timbered area), we would have lost the tent. The wind was so bad that trees were blowing down and even being snapped in half like twigs. The Bomb Shelter we had with us (a 12x12) was shredded by the wind; well, the rain fly was anyway, and we had to pack it up. I think the rain fly was damaged prior by U/V degradation (something nobody really talks about).
RECOMMENDATION
For you I would suggest either a Bomb Shelter or an Arctic Oven. But I would also bring a spike camp tent with you too; a light-weight low-profile four-season mountaineering tent. This spike tent should be large enough to accomodate all your people, so it can be used when the other tents can't be used. That's what I do, and now I can be out there in the worst conditions without having to worry if my shelter will be disentegrated by the weather. Call it over-kill if you like, but this is one area where the Boy Scouts have it right: BE PREPARED!
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I should say that there are a few Guide Model "evangelists" out there; watch out! One of them got me to use one on a float this year down the Goodnews River. So now I can tell you from personal experience that the Guide Model tent works great on sunny days when there is no wind! Those were the conditions we experienced on our float, so I guess it wasn't much of a test. Oh well, perhaps another time! :-))
-Mike
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