[quote]From what I've seen in BC, the Akto is only "the pinnacle of winter tents" if you're camping in moderate weather.
That is to say... "it's fine, as long as it doesn't snow a too much.[/quote]
Yup...agreed; 2 feet of wet, heavy snow & the Akto don't cut it; the only Hilleberg's I'd go with are the Nallo & the Keron.
I'd bet on a well made tunnel or most Biblers.

I now have the Soulo, but haven't had the chance to use it in snow conditions yet. From all indications, it's going to be a near perfect one man tent for any winter condition.

Edited by Quoddy on 01/10/2008 16:41:53 MST.

Hey John,
I'd be intersted in your review of it. I was looking very hard at it, but it was too expensive to buy without knowing more info. RJ actually said that it felt too flimsy when he saw it. What are your thoughts?
Oh, and have you weighed it yet? Of course you have :)

Hey Steve...

The Soulo is the same as any Hilleberg 1200 model with 9mm poles. If you've seen any of them, then you know how strong and overbuilt they are. I saw absolutely no feature that even resembled flimsy. I weighed mine at: 3 lb 4.75 oz with the stuff sack. Poles are an aditional 1 lb 4.75 oz in their sack. Add in the weight of whatever stakes you're using to this 4 lb 9.5 oz figure.

I'll carry the tent and the poles separately with the poles under the compression straps and the tent inside my pack, unless wet (then it would be in the bear canister carrier of my McHale). By carrying the tent separately, I have it down to a 8" diameter sack 10.5" long, which is smaller than a Bearakade Weekender.

A few more photos here: http://tinyurl.com/2f7254

Edited by Quoddy on 01/11/2008 11:26:24 MST.

John - This is off topic, but it looks like you got one of the small spectra packs. If you don't mind my asking, what did it end up weighing?
Ron

Ron...

That's a McHale LBP (Little Big Pack) in a 36" circumference. Everything, except most of the webbing, is full Dyneema. In order to explain the total weight since I added a lot of options, here's a run-down. It's a 24.5" Q-Bayonet frame, which means that's the length of the pack (unless the bayonet is folded to 23" to shorten the pack). It has an 11" roll top extention giving it capability of another 5" (and 500 cu/in) above the top of the frame. It has a double summit with both a bladder holder and a bear canister flap built in underneath. It's got two bottle pockets, compression straps, and the bottom is double layered Dymeema. Also included in the weight is a Dyneema Crest hip belt pouch.

The double summit flap (along with it's attachments) and the bottle pockets are detachable.

Total weight is 3 lb 9.5 oz for an extremely comfortable, and literally bulletproof, framed pack. A pound could easily be knocked off by deleting a few options.

Hi John - I edited this because I just re-read your above post and it pretty much answered my questions. I must have been skimming through the post too quickly. It looks like an exceptional pack
Thanks...Ron

Edited by dillonr on 01/14/2008 15:05:16 MST.

Hey John,

You have excellent taste in gear, mind if I pick your brain some?

I have also been contemplating the Soulo tent. I am 6'6", 260, and have been confined to my eVent Unishelter for 2 years while searching out the perfect solo tent. Nobody wants to share a tent with me on climbs... I am big, loud, and need my own lair. On paper the Soulo seems to meet my space, weight, durability, and strength requirements. I would be grateful hear what your experience is with the tent. How well does it ventilate? How fast can you set it up? What kind of snow load can it hold? Could a little lady fit in there with me?

Out of curiosity.... is your Dyneema LBP the custom one that McHale displays on his website? I was browsing his site a month ago and at first glance of that pack my mind clicked into "MUST HAVE THAT GEAR" mode. When I contacted McHale for a quote, he said it would be in the 750-800 range give or take... guess I know where my tax return is going.

There can't be that many Custom McHale Dyneema LBPs in the universe and I think it is funny that the one I was quoted for was an exact copy of yours.

All your gear belongs to US!

Jim

Hi Jim...

At 6'6" (78") you will fit into a Soulo (87"), but won't have much room left over. The photos show a 6'4" bag, so a 6'6" bag will fit. There's enough width for you, too, at about 30" wide at the ends and almost a foot more in the center. All Hillebergs are strong and the Soulo's materials and design are excellent. Ventilation wise, this tent has a major vent in the top which has a good deal of adjustment. The venting in the door is excellent and can be adapted to conditions.

I haven't done an actual time trial for setup, but would guess right now that I'm in the 4 minute range (without racing). Much of the total time will depend upon how many stakes are used. Unfortunately I haven't had enough snow to fully test it, but see no reason to doubt that it will stand up to any amount that's thrown at it. The chances of fitting anyone/anything (except maybe a small dog named Lady) in there with you are slim.

The double summit lidded LBP on the McHale site is basically identical to mine (not mine), but I don't have the utility pocket (at least yet). I also strongly considered going with a kangaroo pocket and a single layer summit flap. The quoted price is quite accurate. The pack, as I have it is around $750 but shipping for the demo and then for the final pack boosted that up to around $780. I believe that that price would be the same up to a 38". It was tempting to go slightly bigger initially, but then I would have been edgeing toward a bigger pack. BTW, I can just (barely) fit a Monbell SS #0 in a tight compression sack into the bottom of the 36" horizontally. As a side note, the Crest pocket in regular size is one of the biggest hip belt pockets I've ever seen and will hold all my items easily.

Good luck in choosing options. The mind boggles just thinking about them.

Edited by Quoddy on 01/19/2008 08:26:15 MST.

I just got my McHale LBP 36 in full Dyneema. Dan is making a removable mesh kangaroo.

Wondering if youve had a chance to further test the Soulo? Ive been looking hard at it. I have the Akto at the moment and whilst it hasnt given me any problems, strength wise, its taken everything the scottish weather can throw at it, (1 do like to double pole it and you do need to kick heavy snow falls of) However i'm 6.25" and find the space very restrictive. I went a bit mad for ultralite a few years back but am now willing to carry a few more grams for extra comfort and the soulo looks near perfect for me. I'm curious if hilleberg have given room for double poling on the soulo? although 3 extra poles is a little to much :D just curious. How did you find the cut of the fabric? ive heard a rumour or 2 hilleberg aint quite as careful as they use to be, one guy mentioned this in this thread. How do you find the temp inside the tent compared to outside? any other info greatly appriciated.

Dave...

I've still not had the Soulo out in significant snowfall yet. I'm 6'1" and the Soulo seems to have considerable space (no more length) than the Akto I had. I used a 10mm pole on the Akto rather than double poling. So far I don't think that the Soulo is going to need stronger poles. A double pole would not work since the tent is clipped onto the pole, not feed through a sleeve (if it was possible the weight of another set of poles would add 588g). The quality seems as good as ever. While it's certainly warmer than the outside temperatures, being a tarp and tarptent user I suspect that I tend to vent it much more than the average person would, so the contrast is not too great. I have no regrets, whatsoever, about this purchase.

Thanks for the further info John. Ive made my mind up and will be purchasing a Soulo shortly. I think it looks like it will suit me. I've trust Hilleberg after living though some atrocious weather in my akto... really some of the worst weather to hit Scotland in 20 years on one occssion. I want a little more room now im not quite as fixated on weight. I considered the Unna whuch has even more room inside the inner tent than the Soulo but would miss the vestibule area. I think I'm making the right choice and your comments have helped so thanks again.

Pitched correctly, with the proper end into the wind, any of the tents from the awesome Tarptent family will take several inches of snow and pretty strong winds. Learning how to pitch it correctly is the key, but isn't that the key with all tents? I've been in 2 different models in some pretty stiff conditions and they've held up beautifully. Imagine getting 3 inches of snow and 30mph winds and waking up in the morning and not having even a bit of snow on the tent. Tarptent baby, Tarptent...

The only issue with a Tarptent is when you have wind driven snow. The low and high ends of any Tarptent will have exposed netting. You can remedy this slightly with a properly built wind break but without being fully enclosed you're still going to get major spindrift inside your tent.

Also the winter conditions you described using your Tarptent in aren't very bad; three inches of snow and 30 mph winds are not bad winter conditions, especially if you're below the tree line.

In reality...any shelter, when pitched correctly, is good for "winter" use. The term winter is fairly broad - so it's best to give specifics of conditions. My Taprtent Double Rainbow is my winter tent, but the Soulo and DR are in VERY different catagories and built for different situations.

3" of snow? I still mow my lawn when we have 3" of snow :)

Edited by Steve_Evans on 01/31/2008 07:30:54 MST.

> three inches of snow and 30 mph winds are not bad winter conditions,
Snicker. I've had significantly worse than that in mid-autumn.

Hey John,
I was just looking (again) at the Soulo on the Hilleberg site. It wasn't clear if this could be set up with just the outer fly and poles, creating a floorless freestanding dome to hang out in. I think it is called "Fast Fly" option on some tents - or something like that. Any thoughts?
Really, I'm just trying to convince myself that I need it.
Steve

Steve... It will definitely setup using just the fly with no added parts needed. I was just considering the possibility that I might need to do this on an upcoming hike. My hiking partner doesn't want to carry the weight of a tent and is banking on making it the ten miles, through the snow, to a shelter deep in the Green Mountains. If the worst happened, I figured I could just pitch the outer and we'd both have shelter... tight though it might be. Otherwise, I'm using the warmer tent when we do get there.

John, this is fantastic news..I have the credit card in hand...but there is just one last question. :)

Let's say, hypothetically, that I was crazy and just had to know the weight of the outer fly and inner fly so I could figure out the different weights for each configuration. Would you have been equally as crazy and actually weighed them seperately?

I apologize for my problem and thank you for all your help.

Steve