By Jonathan Hanson

Light, tight, and topflight: stormproof shelters to get you out there

Picture a glorious spring day in Baja. Sea kayaks repose on a white sand beach, it's 75 degrees, and the sun burns in a cloudless sky. Perfect, right? Yep—except when a 40-mile-an-hour El Norte wind suddenly whips up whitecaps on the Gulf of California, and a half-dozen department-store dome tents collapse like so many beached jellyfish while their owners vainly attempt to reerect them in the driving sand.

We've all witnessed similar scenes when backpacking, cross-country skiing—heck, even car-camping. The fact is, lousy weather doesn't always involve a life-threatening Himalayan ice storm; but no matter where you are, your tent is your front line of defense against the elements. Although you may not need a tent designed for summit assaults, you should choose carefully and plan to spend more on your portable shelter than you did on that portable espresso maker.

Selecting the right tent, however, has become somewhat difficult thanks to several new twists. The easily understood three-season/four-season classification is a bit amorphous these days, what with three-season-plus models and convertible tents that switch back and forth. But you can learn almost as much from flicking a tent with your finger as from reading a label anyway: If the canopy or fly twangs tautly when thumped, the structure is properly tensioned, which keeps it flap-free and rigid (but bear in mind that store display tents Velcroed to carpet are rarely pitched optimally).

So how bombproof should you go? That depends on the weather you expect to encounter, but the three-season designs we've reviewed can all stand up to strong winds and rain, and the four-season models can handle snow loading and subfreezing temperatures. In addition to deciding which
seasons you're likely to go camping in, choose your tent based on the latest design advances in weight, occupancy, and key features like skylights, extra ventilation, or headroom. We've lined up a stalwart selection for you to choose from, any of which would have laughed off that Baja gale.

INSIDE:
• Cutting-edge knives
• The lightest ice ax
• Books: Robert Young Pelton recalls a life spent in some dangerous places

Photo: Michael Llewellyn