How to pick the best cold weather tent

When looking at purchasing a cold weather tent there are a few considerations that you would want to make that you may not make with a normal camping tent.  What features

A cold weather tent will be designed with a few different options that will make it nicer to camp in cold weather that a normal camping tent would not have. A cold weather tent typically has thicker materials as well in contrast to 2 or 3 season tents that usually have more mesh material on them.

3-Season Tents

What is a 3-season tent? A 3-season tent is designed to be used in spring, summer, and fall seasons hence the name 3-season tent. That means that a 3-season tent will typically be designed with a decent amount of mesh to be able to cool the tent in the summertime and will be able to stand up to a light amount of snow in the fall/winter months.

A 3-season tent, however, is not designed to be used in large amounts of snow or in the dead of winter as it won’t have adequate insulation properties to keep you warm in the cold winter months

4-Season Tents

4-season tents, on the other hand, are designed to be used in all 4-seasons of the year and can be used in the winter months and should be able to hold up to a decent amount of snow in winter. 4-season tents are typically more expensive than 3-season tents because of this.

If you are planning on taking a camping trip in the dead of winter though you would want to make sure that you pick up a 4-season tent as you don’t want to get caught out in the snow and freeze to death.

Some 4-season tents are designed to be able to be used with a stove as well for the really cold winter months.

Strength and weather resistance

Cold weather tents are usually designed to be more rugged than their summer tent counterparts. They are usually designed with thicker tent walls and a larger rainfly to try to keep snow and water off of the surface of the tent walls.

With that said dome tents are going to be better designed to be used in cold weather as dome tents are going to be better at keeping snow from standing on top of the tent. The easier the snow will roll off of the tent walls the more heat will remain in the tent.

Vestibule

A cold weather tent with a vestibule is a smart option to get. A vestibule is essentially a front porch for your tent; many of them will also be screened in which is nice.

What is nice about having a vestibule connected to your tent is that you can take off your boots and other cold-weather gear before you get inside of the tent so that you don’t track snow and water inside the tent. You can also use the vestibule as an additional storage area that you would not otherwise have.

Good ventilation

Another item that you want to look at when buying a cold weather tent is that it has a good ventilation system to be able to vent condensation that can get built up inside of the tent. This is more important for summer camping trips than winter trips but you don’t want to trap water inside of the tent in the winter months either.

Space

With a cold weather tent, you may want to look at buying a larger tent to fit more people as you may be spending more time inside of the tent on your camping trip trying to stay warm instead of being out in nature.

If you are planning on spending a lot of time in your tent on your winter camping trip it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get one that is more spacious so that you can lounge around a bit. It’s not fun sitting in a tent when you can’t move around that much so I’d go with one that has a bit more internal space.

Storage

Depending on how many people you are planning on having to stay with you in your tent you may want to opt for a tent that has a bit more storage solutions within it.  If you are going to have a bunch of people staying inside your tent things may get cramped if you don’t have a place to store your camping gear while you are hiding out in your tent.  

Some tents have the option of storage pockets at the top or on the sides to allow you to put your stuff in the pockets or hang your things from hooks within the tent.

Doors and windows

You will want to find a tent that has at least one window and door on it. If you can find a cold weather tent that has two doors that would be preferred over one so that you can enter and exit the tent through two entrances it makes it easier to get in and out of the tent instead of having to climb over your stuff or another person laying down inside the tent.

Tent type and shape

When selecting a cold weather tent, you would want to keep in mind the tent shape that you end up going with. A tent that is more of cabin style tent will be more likely to hold snow on top of it in the event of a snowstorm because the roof will be flatter than a dome style tent.

A dome style tent will be more likely to have the snow roll off of it in the event of a snowstorm because of the shape of the tent and the top of the tent will be more rounded than a cabin style tent.

Portable Heater

Another option that you may want to investigate is to bring along a portable propane heater. If you are planning on camping in subzero temperatures a portable heater would ensure that your tent remains hot enough that you don’t freeze to death overnight. The Mr. Heater portable space heater uses portable propane tanks as fuel for the space heater.

One thing to keep in mind though would be that a propane space heater is going to produce some carbon monoxide, so you want to be aware of that and potentially bring along a carbon monoxide detector to make sure that the levels inside your tent don’t get too high.

You could also look at getting an electric space heater if you knew that you would have electricity at your campsite but if you don’t know that electricity will not be available then the propane space heater would be the better option. Using an electric space heater though would not produce carbon monoxide so it would ultimately be the safer option to use inside of a tent.

If you are interested in checking out the prices of a propane heater that I would recommend on Amazon I’ve included a link here Mr. Heater F232000 MH9BX Buddy Space Heater

Cold Weather Camping Tips

• It’s a good idea when going cold weather tent camping to bring along a few changes of clothes or at least wear layers of clothes to help protect you from the elements.
• It would also be a good idea to bring along some waterproof boots if you know that you are going to be walking in the snow a lot on your trip.
• Along the same line of boots, you would want to make sure that you bring along enough socks so that they don’t get wet from the snow melt as that is no fun and a good way to get frostbite in your toes over time. Having a fresh pair of socks when your current pair of socks are wet is crucial to keeping your feet warm in the winter snow.
• Bringing along a tarp would also help keep snow off of the outer shell of your tent which would keep the walls of the tent from getting as cold.

Cold Weather Tent Recommendations: