The Elements are No Match for These Great 4-Season Tents

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Winter camping is a great way to lose the crowds and experience something most people don’t have any interest in participating in. However, winter trips mean more preparation and specialized gear than three-season camping—conditions are harsher, and your gear needs to stand up to the potential for serious storms and snow.

Four-season tents come in several varieties, including lightweight mountaineering shelters, four-season backpacking tents, and basecamp models for ski expeditions and winter hunting. Winter tents are structured to resist snow loading, shedding loads with their steeper walls or dome shapes. These tents are made with burlier wall and floor materials, and often have special poles that resist cracking in sub-freezing temperatures.

If you’re heading out for some winter camping, it’s our duty to remind you to dress appropriately, know your route, bring navigation (and know how to use it) and be prepared for surprise storms and other winter elements.

Best 4-Season Tents

• Best For Most People: MSR Access 2

• Spacious Two-Person Basecamp Tent: Mountain Hardwear Trango 2

• Good For Extreme Weather: Rab Latok Mountain 2 Tent

• Big Enough For Group Base Camp Expedition: The North Face Bastion 4

• Most Stable: Black Diamond Fitzroy

How to Choose a Winter Camping Tent

Structure and Design

Consider what type of winter outing you’re anticipating, and how far (if at all) you’ll need to hike carrying the tent. Look at weight and ease of pitch, as well as interior space for your intended use.

Dome tents and tunnel tents are a common design for base-camp shelters. These have a high wind resistance and shed snow well. Both styles are heavier and more spacious than backpacking tents, with plenty of livable space and places to hang gear in the entry vestibule.

Winter backpacking or mountaineering tents look the most akin to three-season tents, with a similar pole structure and simple pitch, but with steeper walls and less roof area than their three-season counterparts. Some winter camping tents come with a body and fly, but many have a waterproof fabric instead of a mesh tent body, and sell the vestibule separately.

Capacity and Style

Consider your standard group size, and how much weight matters. Will you be hiking with the tent or base camping? If you often backpack or winter camp alone, a one-person backpacking or mountaineering-style shelter can work, but also remember that winter comes with extra gear, and it’s often wet when you get to camp.

If you can swing the extra weight, packing a two-person tent can feel more comfortable over the long term, allowing space for your gear inside and room to move around without hitting condensation-heavy tent walls.

A comfortable two-person shelter has about 27- to 29-square feet of interior space and two doors for easy entry / exit. For mountaineering, look for the lightest shelter that doesn’t compromise on strength and weather resistance. If you’re with a group at a base camp, you’ll be looking at a larger-capacity base-camp style shelter and weight will matter less. Not all tents will fit each requirement, but you can certainly find a good balance with careful shopping.

Single Wall or Double Wall?

Winter tents are split pretty evenly between single-wall and double-wall design. Carrying a single-wall tent saves weight, as the tent body is made of a waterproof fabric and you don’t need a separate rain fly. This does reduce air circulation, so venting and strategic moisture management are important.

Double-wall tents weigh more and can take more time to pitch, but you have the addition of vestibules for storing gear and creating more livable space. You can also have small mesh windows in the tent body on a double-wall tent (the rain fly creates the weatherproofing) though four-season tents have less mesh than three-season tents.

How We Selected

Winter tents are a pretty serious subject—the right one can keep you dry and warm in inclement weather, and the wrong tent can cause a whole host of problems, making your winter camping excursion not just uncomfortable, but unsafe. These tents are all highly rated, tested by experts, and I’ve used all of the backpacking models myself. The expedition / base-camp models have been used professionally on everything from skiing to mountaineering expeditions with objectives beyond the base camp. These picks represent a variety of models in intended use, weight, and capacity.

I’ve used the MSR Access 2 every winter since 2018, and I’m continually impressed at the high strength-to-weight ratio, livable space, and relatively decent ventilation. This tent sheds snow exceptionally well, and pitches similarly to a three-season tent, so it doesn’t have much of a learning curve.

At less than 4 pounds, it also doesn’t feel excessive to carry when split between two people. The Easton Syclone poles are made from a strong, flexible carbon composite that’s resistant to breaking in cold weather, and the steep walls mean minimal snow buildup. It has two 8.8-square-foot vestibules for stashing gear, as well as providing protection for cooking. The two doors and vestibules are a somewhat rare occurrence with winter tents, making this an excellent all-around option for packing, base camping, and livable space.

With a whopping 40 square feet of livable space along with two doors and two vestibules (one large for dry-entry, one smaller for gear storage), the Mountain Hardwear Trango is technically a two-person basecamp tent, but you can easily fit three or four people. This is a classic basecamp model that initially debuted in the mid 90’s, and while it’s quite hefty at over 8.5 pounds, the space and shelter make it worth packing into basecamp.

The fly and floors are fully taped, and the body has generous bathtub floors to protect against mud, slush, and splashing rain. This has mesh windows high on the tent near the roof as well as on both doors, which helps increase airflow in a historically low-ventilation category. This is built with a heavy-duty 70D nylon, and while it takes longer to pitch than a single-hub pole system, the tensioners and guyout points make a taut, stable pitch.

Sturdy enough for base camp needs but light enough weight to carry up the side of a peak, this sturdy, weatherproof shelter has a high wind resistance and enough venting to withstand days trapped in the tent as storms rage outside. This is a single-layer shelter built with 15-denier Pertex Shield Air, which is an air-permeable waterproof / breathable fabric.

It will feel different than a standard backpacking tent with a separate body and rain fly, but the simple pitch and breathable membrane helps keep the weight low without losing weatherproofing. This has a zippered main entry with a vestibule sold separately, and a zippered ventilation window near the foot of the tent.

This tent was designed to withstand deep cold and high winds, making it our pick for high-exposure expeditions, as well as a good all-around four-season option for everything from basecamping to backpacking in inclement weather.

Perfect for guided groups, base-camp ski tours, or larger expeditions, this house-like shelter was designed in conjunction with backcountry athletes who provided input for structure, weatherproofing, livable space, and entry passage necessities. This is a highly rated shelter for deep cold, with weatherproofing tested and rated down to -60 degrees F.

This can work for groups of varying sizes, with enough space for more than four, but enough room for long-term comfort for smaller groups. It has multiple weatherproof venting windows, interior pockets, and gear loops for organizing, and a generous dry-entry vestibule so you can keep the wet slop out of the living space. This tent is time consuming to set up, so the idea is to leave it at base camp for an extended trip, and use it for sleeping and gear storage during expedition days or summit pushes.

This single-wall, freestanding tent was built for severe weather, with a tight pitch, squat design, and steep walls that can withstand high winds without accumulating snow. The simple, streamlined build leaves little chance of flapping materials, and the strong pole architecture can withstand severe winds without flattening or snapping.

The poles are pitched from the inside, which can take some getting used to (practice in your yard first!) but will get you out of the weather faster once you have the technique dialed. This is a good option for campsites with potential high exposure and strong winds. Like the Rab Latok, the Fitzroy vestibule is sold separately and adds some weight to an already somewhat heavy shelter.

With a weight of less than 3.5 pounds, this four-season tent is a top pick for solo winter backpackers or mountaineers who want the extra space of a two-person tent without a weight penalty. This shelter ranks higher in breathability than other shelters of similar design and size, utilizing a three-layer material called Nanovent for the tent walls.

This weighs several pounds less than the Fitzroy, and while the structure doesn’t have quite the same stability, the livable space feels more generous thanks to a ridge pole for increased shoulder room. The removable roof and bathtub floor are made with Dyneema, which increases the cost, but it’s still one of the best materials when it comes to strength-to-weight ratio, waterproofing, and abrasion-resistance.

This is an expensive shelter, but if you’re looking for a lightweight, all-around winter tent that can serve you well on alpine expeditions and extended winter backpacking trips, this is it.

Q+A

Do I really need a special tent for winter?

A four-season tent (or winter camping tent) is a hefty purchase, but winter tents are designed for extreme elements. These shelters are optimized for mountaineering trips and wintertime excursions, including poles that can handle sub-freezing temperatures without snapping, architecture that sheds snow and doesn’t collapse under snow load, heavier wall and floor materials, and less mesh.

Four-season tents are designed to stay warmer than their three-season counterparts, and can withstand high winds and white-out conditions. While there are plenty of heavy-duty three-season tents out there, these four-season tents are built to withstand intense weather and are worth the purchase if you’ll be outside camping in all four seasons.

Can I use a four-season tent all year?

You can certainly use your four-season tent in spring, summer, and fall, but many tents on this list will feel like overkill during the warmer months. Four-season tents are heavier and have a higher percentage of solid tent body materials than three-season options. They have less mesh, so they weigh more and have fewer vents.

My recommendation is to have two tents: a solid, lightweight option for warmer months, and then a versatile, winter-ready tent best based on your primary winter activity. That way you can carry the lighter, more breathable shelter in the summer and stay cozy and protected in your winter tent during the snowy months.

Do four-season tents really keep you warmer?

The design, materials, and structure of a four-season tent is designed for warmth and protection from the elements. While three-season tents have a high level of mesh for venting and breathability, winter camping tents have just a few (if any) small mesh windows on the tent body.

Fly and body material is a higher denier and can have increased waterproofing rating as well as wind resistance. This helps trap heat inside the tent and can seal you off from the elements better than a three-season tent. Four-season tents are also more structurally sound, with burlier poles, wind-resistant architecture, and better snow-shedding capabilities.

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