MSR ToughStake

The odds strongly favor the possibility that the manufacturer of the awesome bomb-shelter tent you bought skimped on the stakes to save cost and weight. Therefore you'll be needing a few more decent ones to get the job done. Consider these if your winter trips (or sand camping I assume) tend to be in pack-able snow.

 MSR Toughstake

I tested these stakes along with a four-season MSR Remote 2 tent. 

Regular stakes do practically NOTHING for you in snow when the wind comes. If you are in deep snow and can't find anything to bury as a dead-man you could be in serious trouble when it blows. 

Last summer I saw a tent take wing and blow completely away on Mt. Rainier, never to be seen again. The climbers were setting it up before staking it down (oops), turned away for a second, and it was gone. Bye bye $600. Luckily for JR and his partner, there was room in the shelter at Camp Muir. My tent was "full." 

Sizes

The two sizes of durable aluminum stakes I tested measured roughly 9 and 13 inches long respectively with stainless steel cables measuring 17 and 26 inches.

In my opinion, if you need a strong snow anchor the larger stakes are the only real option, even though they are huge and bulky because the little ones were too similar to regular tent stakes that your tent probably already came with. 

Testing conditions

Unfortunately, my experience with these stakes was in bottomless champagne powder snow near zero degrees F.  The snow was so powdery that I had to keep my skis on to set up my tent or risk sinking up to my waist. I tried really hard to stomp-pack the snow to make these stakes work but my efforts were futile. Imagine trying to pack chicken feathers and you'll get it. Waist deep pow is great for skiing, not so much for tent stakes. 

Since the snow wouldn’t pack, burying anything smaller than a Volkswagen was an exercise in futility.

I’d like to get more time on these stakes to confirm my supposition that, in the correct conditions, they would be pretty rad but deadlines prevent that for now. If I have the chance I’ll post more as I get more time with them.

It seemed like such a good idea if I had been in firmer snow.

The concept

Much like a fluke-style snow anchor familiar to climbers these use surface area to keep themselves buried in snow, which is a fine concept in pack-able snow. Unfortunately, I have yet to winter camp in such conditions this year.  In powder, they pull right out, making the old "find a rock and bury it" plan or using my skis as stakes my best options. 

Ready to bury

Drawbacks

I actually found myself kind of dreading bringing these stakes because they are so darn big and take up so much space.  Winter camping is for sure a big pack adventure but if I can get away with carrying less, I will. 

They connect with cables to the tent tie-down loops on your tent

I ended up just using skis and poles for stakes like usual.  

Who needs these

Anyone camping on spring or summer (packable) snow with high winds and nothing on hand locally to bury.   

I know I sound like I hate them but I think they'll perform really well on glaciated volcanoes this summer.