Ultralight Tipi Tent and Stove
Colorado
Hey Folks, My buddies and I will be packing into the alpine for elk and deer this Fall. We've hunted the area before, but this time we're all a bit older and definitely interested in some comfort. We've decided to chip in and buy a Tipi-style tent and a titanium wood stove, keeping things as light and functional as possible. Price is not the FIRST criterion, but of course we'd like to minimize expense.
With that in mind, does anyone have opinions/recommendations regarding the following models? (Tents)- SeekOutside 6-person Tipi... Kifaru Sawtooth Tipi... LiteOutdoors Plateau 5 Tipi...
(Stoves)- Winnerwell Foldfast Titanium... Luxe 3W Titanium...
I should note that the LiteOutdoors tent/stove combo is by far the cheapest option. Personally, I really like the Winnerwell stove best, but am totally on the fence about the tent.
Thanx in advance...
No on Sawtooth for three people and a stove. From what I hear, I'd go for an eight man if you know you are all always going to go. I'm a big Kifaru fan, but haven't really ever heard anything bad about Seek Outside, unless you really have your heart set on cooking on the wood stove, get a cylinder stove and not a box stove, they burn wood more efficiently. Get the liner with whatever you get and use it all the time, not only do they cut down on condensation, they keep out some of the sun on hot days, reflect rays back out because the SilNylon shelters can really heat up, much like a green house!
Thanx, you Ol' Goat sumbitch! About the box-style stoves, I'm a fan of the Winnerwell because it'll also function as a firepan when I'm float-fishing some river in the future. Good call on the tent-liner, it sounds like condensation is a major issue.
We're also thinking we'll need a floor-sheet. Bad experiences in the past with mice, although you don't have to shed boots to come inside...
FYI, I live on the West Slope, and my two buddies live on the Front Range. Seek Outside is based in GJ, so Kifaru and SeekOutside are both keeping it local-AF. LiteOutdoors seems to be a 1-man outfit from Alberta. Any of these would be a good choice for fighting off the Chinese invaders, in a Red-Dawn (redux) scenario....
Cylinder stove is half the weight, at least it is with Kifaru. There Lite Outdoors with baffle is supposed to be the shit! I just stick with Kifaru though, I'm friends with the guys there and they take care of me and the wife pretty good! It's because of them I'm sleeping in the back country instead of the truck camp!
I have one kifaru (sawtooth) and one seek outside ( timberline) and both are good makes.
So, buy with confidence either way.
a 6person tipi is the smallest I would go with your tent. If you watch Seek Outside they usually have a couple seconds sales per year. As a matter of fact I purchased an 8 man from them that I honestly cannot tell is any different. Also watch Rokslide, Kifaru, and seek outside forums. I'd go and post a list of items that you are looking for and you will probably get several bites. I love this conversation.
Thanks to all for the input! The conversation is ongoing between my buddies and me, and we haven't made any final decisions yet. But for now, we're leaning toward the LiteOutdoors setup (tent and stove). Hard to beat the price for both, despite the fact that the price JUST went up. I was hung up on a box-style stove so we could use it as a cooktop, but we've decided against it in favor of a cylindrical stove. Realistically, you're gonna cook on your cook stove, and use the wood stove for warmth. Some friends have been using the Kifaru Sawtooth with a box stove, and they haven't once used the stove to cook with. LiteOutdoors doesn't currently offer a liner, but apparently you can rig something up with a painter's plastic drop cloth, cheap and easy.
Another option is BPWD on the tent. We have slept 3 with the stove in a luna 6. I have the lite outdoors 18" stove and it is awesome. I don't have the baffle, but need to retrofit. You can cook on the stove the rods will support the pot.
Seems like "keeping it as light and functional as possible" would mean being able to cook on your stove instead of packing a cook stove & fuel too?
Is this for September archery? If so, why the stove?
Then there was this one year, up in the Medicine Bow, when it snowed about 4 feet (during archery) , and we were "stuck" ( happy as bugs in a warm rug) for about 3 days... "Be prepared" (or be prepared to fail). We could have stayed for a month (were prepared to).
Floor or ground sheet does not mean you will not have trouble with mice. Have had them chew thru my tent floor befor even when I was in the tent sleeping.
You have hunted this area before, so you should know, but is there plenty of firewood within reasonable distance? And of course that means you also need to haul in a saw and hatchet.
If you enjoy the act of firewood gathering and fire making/ maintaining (including feeding the fire in the middle of the night), then it might be worth it. But I generally just have a quality sleeping pad and sleeping bag, and I stay toasty warm at night. Not worth it for me in a backpack hunt to carry the extra weight of a stove, bigger tent, etc.
I would agree that packing in a cooking stove is the best. My pocket, gas stove is small, light and can be started almost instantly vs building a woodstove fire before you can cook.
Thanks SoDakSooner, that sounds like a legit combo! Looks like BPWD is out of Fort Collins, which is cool. One of our crew lives there.
Regarding the other questions, we're packing in for an Early Rifle Above Timberline deer hunt..... in an OTC Archery Elk unit. So yeah, we're gonna be dual-wielding. We're also going to hire some horse-support. All trips in the past, we've gone "full granola" and packed everything on our backs. Not really feasible with 6 tags, plus we're all a bit older now and my knees creak like a rusty screen door. A souvenir from those past trips into the same spot, I suppose.
It rains or snows every day up there in early Sep, then clears up after dark and gets cold. We plan to camp at treeline, where there's firewood and meat-trees. But that also means we're climbing about 1000' (on a trail) each morning to glass. When we've camped up top in the past, we were pushing the limits of our gear.
Some other stats: The pack-in is 5 miles and 4000' vertical. The plan is to walk in light and have horses carry the gear. Like I said, we did it on our backs before, and I no longer wish to prove my badass-ness. Comforts like a fire, real potatoes, and some extra whiskey will go a long way to keep spirits up.
Thanks again for chiming in, folks. I keep forgetting to check the thread, but you have all been helpful.
With horses, you are in a different league on what you can take. Sounds like a fun hunt! My last timberline early rifle deer Hunt was in ‘03, when I was in my late 40s. Would be a different story now. Was in the Sangres and even then the steepness and distance was an adventure. Have fun!
Well, the research continues. Haven't found the bottom of this rabbit hole yet, but I put together a spreadsheet to compare the 4 tent models mentioned above. I populated the sheet with what I could glean from each manufacturer's website. Not all websites are created anywhere near equal, but here's the spreadsheet.
Pretty sure we've settled on the LiteOutdoors 18" cylindrical stove, just have to choose a tent. I'm favoring the SeekOutside 6-man Tipi.
Good stove. Don't think you can go wrong with any of the tents. We did the Luna 6 because it was a tad bit cheaper. We also did screen door. The snow skirt wasn't an option when we bought ours.
