2 Person tents

Choose wisely, not all tents do well in exposed conditions… https://www.flickr.com/photos/treyguinn/1511097954/in/album-72157602313079543/

Thanks for your replies re: the Scarp 2. The 4 season option sounds impressive. The Big Sky tents sound good too but not sure how they'd perform in a wind. JETNZ, was that a trip on Manakau? We camped on a ridge in a storm once between Manakau and Te Ao Whekere. We had a Macpac Spectrum which performed very nicely. Unfortunately, the inner and outer were 2 different models so the entrances didn't match up - hilarious. Be interesting to see how the CUTC tents performed in the strong winds at Mt Somers the other weekend. The CTC trashed club tents about 20 years ago on the Polar range. They were Macpac tents but it was a wicked nor'wester. One young fella had suggested to the leader that they drop down and camp in a less exposed place but no, he had to learn the hard way...

@Honora, yes it appears it was an attempted climb of Manakau but the author of the photo (Trey Guinn) mentioned they abandoned the attempt after the tent was ruined. I stumbled on the photo last week and thought it was relevant to this discussion of tent robustness in NZ conditions… I tend to think that tents designed in NZ for NZ have an advantage over other brands in general. Wind load rating of tents is often missing when researching specific models. Would have thought this is as important as fabric ratings and pole types etc?

This kind of appeals: http://eu.blackdiamondequipment.com/en/tents-and-bivys/beta-light-tent-BD8005230000ALL1.html I like the way they've merged two wind-shedding pyramid structures, with a deep stable looking catenary in between. And 680g for something allegedly 4 season. mmm

Hmm. With no floor at least the occupants wont be carried off with the tent if it did break its moorings… :-)

Found a reasonably compelling video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=foX6VrqT-Ug For such a light tent it's handling the conditions pretty well.

Any brand and model of tent will do the job in exposed conditions as long as it is fitted with "the worry-proof roof" :)

"Any brand and model of tent will do the job in exposed conditions as long as it is fitted with "the worry-proof roof" :)" that's irresponsible advice on a serious topic.

@atico. not sure I'd like the idea of 'lightweight steel roof tiles' in gale force winds. Sound like a lethal projectiles.

@Honora Funny you mention the Canterbury Uni Tramping Club, Manukau and destroying tents in the same post. I did a trip with the club up Manukau Queen's Birthday weekend about 15 years ago. Despite a approaching southerly front and the inexperience/lack of fitness of some of our group members our leader refused to take my advice of heading for Hapuku Hut and we ended up camped high on the ridge. No idea what tents we had but on night two trapped on the ridge two of them collapsed. Glad neither was the one I was in. Seemed to have an eerily similar ring to you story!