Four Season Tents & 3 Season Camping Tents

Four season tents are what you need if you have any intentions on going camping in alpine climate.

Don’t consider anything else if you’re going to deal with heavy rain, strong winds and plenty of snowfall. These tents are built to winter specifications to keep you warm and also endure the harsh climate you will encounter.

The four season tents are generally made to be more durable and come with more support poles to endure heavy snow or strong wind conditions without falling apart. They also weigh more than three season tents so you’ll have to factor that into your camping or hiking trip.

A 4 season tent comes highly insulated and is built to keep the cold out and the warmth in. So as you might expect, these tents excel in the winter but they do not fair so well in the warmer seasons - they are way too hot in the non-winter seasons due to the lack of sufficient ventilation.

These four season tents also feature a minimum of four poles made of aluminum (usually a few more poles than that), to ensure stability in snow covered ground. While sleek in design to not collapse in gale force winds, they are also colored darker than three season tents to absorb as much heat from the sunlight as possible. The roof line architecture of the tents ensure that water and snow fall do not build up and most of these four season tents also can be used as standalone accommodations when there are no places for you to place tent pegs into the ground.

You might expect to may a lot more money for a four season model but it comes with additional features that other tents do not have. For instance, they have "bucket floors" which are waterproof and encompass the entire floor space and even reaches up to 6 inches in height to keep you dry, just in case of any slight flooding in your camp area or even the case of heavily melted snow.

If you are not a hardcore camper, it is probably best you get yourself a three-season tent instead. It’s cheaper and will serve you well in most outdoor conditions, while being extremely versatile in almost all but winter conditions. Not to mention much easier and lighter to carry around.

Coleman, MSR and The North Face all manufacture great four season tents. Here are some examples that you might like to consider:

The North Face VE 25

The North Face VE four season tents retail for between $500 - $560 at various online camping stores. They are extremely easy to find as plenty of retail camping gear outlets stock them. The tent is extremely fast and easy to set up. Featuring dual doors and vestibules, an nylon bucket floors, this tent provides plenty of space for storage and sleeping.

The North Face also designed polyurethane look-outs as well as vents for you to unzip if you find it too hot and stuffy in the tent. This four season tent holds up extremely well in high winds and is a favorite amongst mountain climbers as it is very durable. It also sleeps up to three people. The downside is that it comes with a very hefty price tag.

MSR Dragontail

This light-weight MSR tent fully protects you in extreme snow and alpine climates. As with all the 4 season tents, the MSR is durable, and provides great shelter while proving a spacious interior resting space. The canopy has a "super-strong" proven hooped design and it’s shape is aerodynamic enough to withstand high winds.

It also come with "Fastfeed" poles for fast setup and large zippers all around for ease of use if you have snow gloves on. The MSR four season tents also feature patented flow through ventilation system to reduce condensation build-up.