Camp Wind

How do you protect your tent and gear in high wind and even higher gusts? Do not count on your four-season tent unless you know how to rig it for wind.

I first ran into high camp wind at Helen Lake on Mount Shasta. During the spring hiking season winds can reach 100 MPH. Tents are literally blown off the mountain like large kites. Until that day, I never knew what wind could do to a tent! During that trip, all the poles on my tent were bent and the poles on my friend's tent were broken. He spent the night with a collapsed tent lying over him like a king sized bivy as the wind raged on.

When I was home again, I rigged each of my tents for wind by installing guys at each attachment location as provided by the manufacturer and I added lots of new connection points. I also installed internal guy cords. Each tent also now has snow anchors for anchoring the guys and tent floor down to the snow.

Now both my three and four season tents are rock solid when set up with the guys and anchors.

Cathedral Peak

Mount Shasta

Cathedral Range