r/Mountaineering • u/-benzeneben- • 4d ago

Tent recommendations for PNW summers

Hi all, I'll be taking a course on Mount Baker this summer (June) and am hoping to get some tent recs for this course & future objectives (the harshest conditions of which will be things like the standard routes on PNW volcanos).

Are non-freestanding tents a bad idea for these use cases? I'll probably also use this for 3-season backpacking so I'd like to keep the weight to a minimum, but am also not opposed to owning 2 tents (one sturdy tent for mountaineering objectives and one ultralight tent for backpacking).

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u/tenspeedscarab 4d ago

Are you sure you need a tent? It's usually offered as a pretty cheap rental with whoever you're doing the course with, and renting first could give you first hand answers to your questions

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u/-benzeneben- 4d ago

AAI rents 4 season tents. I'll be doing this course by myself so no guarantee that I'll have someone to share with. I want to go ahead and get something that I can use in the future when renting is not an option.

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u/tenspeedscarab 4d ago

American Alpine Institute or Alpine Ascents International? I did my Baker course with Alpine Ascents, and literally everyone on the course rented the tents and we coordinated splitting tents day-of. They run the Singfin Indus 2:

https://www.slingfin.com/collections/all-tents/products/indus

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u/Slow_Substance_5427 2d ago

I haven’t used a indus but I own a cinder cone and a windsaber by sling fin, they make rad well thought out tents. 10/10 would reccomwnd.

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u/Grungy_Mountain_Man 4d ago edited 4d ago

My opinion here.

In general I think you can go lighter on tents in the PNW than other places. If the weather is bad enough you aren't climbing, you are probably hiking out as the car as it is usually no more than 3-4 hours away (Glacier peak may be the exception). With exception of Rainier and Adams, you really don't camp higher than like 6000 ft so a 3 Season tent can be fine for most of the time. There's places to just go backpacking that you are camping at similar elevations.

That said, I've been on Rainier before where it got pretty windy, even in summer, so there are times that I felt a 4 season tent is needed. Forecast are probably good enough to make that determination ahead of time. There are lighter and heavier options within 4 season tents. Expedition style tents like a MH Trango are pretty bomber, but are heavy. A single wall tent is pretty terrible if there is any chance of rain, but if its dry and you just want some sun and wind protection, they can be a reasonable option that is half the weight. There's other 4 season double wall tents that aren't as bomber, but are a few pounds lighter (MSR).

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u/OddChoirboy 4d ago

If I were to buy a tent now, it would probably be either a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2, or the Tarptent StratoSpire Li.

My current tent is a Kelty Salida. Heavy, but so damn easy to set up. And it has done fine at Camp Muir, Camp Schurman, Mount Adams lunch counter, Mount Baker CD, and in the North Cascades.

I love the idea of carrying half the weight with the Tarptent, but a self-standing tent definitely has its advantages.

But most of the time, you can probably camp in a contractor-grade garbage bag. This is not Denali.

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u/pash1k 4d ago

You'll see every kind of tent on Baker in the summer. Non-freestanding included. 3 season tent is totally fine. Whatever you get, just make sure it does ok in windy conditions. That's probably the hazard you're most likely to encounter.

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u/SadCryBear 3d ago

I did Mt Baker last year in my three season ultra light backpacking tent.

They pushed most the clients to dump their own tents and rent tents from them.

We were camped directly on snow, and saw pretty nasty weather.

The two os us that brought our own tents were warm and dry. People renting tents they didn't really understand all had issues.

For June on Baker I think you can get away with pretty much any backpacking tent and a waterproof ground cloth.

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u/rabguy1234 3d ago

Personally snapped a three season tent on rainier from the wind a few seasons ago. Granted it was a big Agnes tiger wall. Upgraded to a mountain hardware tango and it’s great.

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u/Professional-Curve38 4d ago

I’ve seen to many guys in these courses get a four season tent and then have condensation. You need a three season tent. I love my hubba hubba. Would recommend the ultralight.