Testing the Tarptent....

So I was hoping to get into some weather the other day when I did my overnight in the Kettle Moraine area. Didn't get the winds or the freezing rain then, but was able to test the tent out in my backyard the last couple of days.

Winds were steady at 20 MPH with gusts up to 45 on Friday so I set my tent up in my backyard. Tent collapsed twice! The more I thought about it I realized that perhaps I need to purchase some stronger stakes. Went to REI and purchased some MSR Groundhog stakes. That seems to do the trick.

Now, we are right in the middle of a very heavy freezing rain/snow that is suppose to last throughout most of the day. Think this should be a very good test. First observation is that the tent holds up (that's a good thing), but droops quite a bit due to the heavy weight of the snow. I figure that I can knock it off from the inside throughout the night when I am stuck in a snowstorm...so it shouldn't be too bad.

Here are a couple of pictures...