Re: [Philmont]: 1 Person Tents

I have seen many Crews use three-man and even larger tents at Philmont -
I think my all time favorite was an entire Crew inside two quite large
dome tents at Miranda during one of my treks during the mid-90's (I'm
sure they had a privacy screen inside one of them for the adults;
right). How they got this combo past Basecamp I'll never know.

There are three *minor* drawbacks to larger tents: First, it can be
difficult to find space to fit large tents in a few campsites,
especially if you're the last Crew in and end up with the last site in
the camp (sometimes, the "end-of-the-line" sites at some trail camps are
more wishful thinking than actual). I've been in a few sites where
finding spaces for even all of our tight 2-man tents was a bit of a
challenge. Again, this is not a big issue, but at least be aware of the
possibility. Second, larger tents are significantly colder tents - so
if you have a lot of high altitude camps on your itinerary (by me,
defined as over 9,000 feet elevation), you may/will need warmer sleeping
bags and/or better sleeping pads. If you don't already have such, and
have to buy them, this offsets some of the weight savings, and increases
your overall trek costs. A "summer-weight" sleeping bag inside a high
peaked tent isn't going to be a lot of fun when it's 27 degrees at
Copper Park or Mt. Phillips. A "tight" (low profile) two man tent, with
two people in it, is equivalent to about a 10-15 degrees lower rated
sleeping bag. Third, large tents - especially large dome tents - can
have some difficulties in strong winds. Most campsites at Philmont are
reasonably well sheltered (that is after all one of the selection
criteria), but you can still get some pretty stiff winds when weather
fronts come through. Way, way back when ('92???), I helped a
neighboring Crew repair a cracked fiberglass pole for one of their dome
tents - damage resulting from wind gusts the previous night. Again, not
a big deal, just another something to keep in mind.

JS1864@aol.com wrote:
> Has anyone used 3 person tents with three scouts sharing a tent? Any
> thoughts on this? We are considering this since the overall weight
> shared 3 ways is lighter than most 2 person tents shared 2 ways. With 9
> Scouts in the crew, this is easier to arrange sleeping too.
>
> Joe Simonis
> Troop 6
> West Chester, PA

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Received on Wed Mar 24 05:35:39 2004