Walrus Hurricane Hole

This is an external frame tent in that the fly holds the frame and the tent then hangs from the frame. Simply stated, what a great tent.

In the blowing rain it took two of us to get the frame into the fly. The sleeve pockets are a little hard to get started. Once the three poles are in the fly we staked out the fly and climbed inside to finish setting up the tent. Now everything is color coded and it was easy to set up the tent from the inside. It was great to be dry.

The other tent in our group was a dome and by the time they got the fly on the tent body was soaked and made for a miserable night for them.

Now in the morning the other dome had a couple of spots where the fly had sagged against the inner tent and had become frozen together. The Hurricane Hole did not have any spots where the inner tent had come in contact with the outer tent when it sagged under the snow load.

Taking down the tent was great also. From inside we started to take down the inner tent and pick up the floor foot print and rolled and stuffed them. Then we got out and pulled the stakes, pushed the poles out of the fly and rolled it up and stuffed it.

Now there are some drawbacks to this tent.

- the stuff sacks that came with the tent are too small if the tent has to be packed wet.

- No gear loft. It has gear pockets, but a gear loft would be nice to keep the floor clear.

- Vestibule is too small for two packs. We got them in but we had to stack them.

Overall, best tent I have had in a storm. Well, have to see how it does in the summer.

I have had the Hurricane Hole on the Washington coast line, the desert in Nevada, mountains in Utah, and numerous times on the superior hiking trail. I love the tent in all these conditions. It has persisted great, it stands up to weather like a brick (60 mph wind sand storm). Its advantages greatly outweigh the time of set up and its slight lack of ventillation. It is versatlie and I don't think i would have any other shelter to depend on.

While camping with friends I have found myself praying for rain. It is in the worse conditions that this tent shines! While I just zip up the front and rear vestibules (two zippers) others scramble with those nasty old rain flies. The European exoskeletal design is great. Unfortunately, like anything that's good, it is being discontinued. I highly suggest that everyone try out an exoskeletal tent if you get the chance.