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Oops

Littleskink I think I went through the same storm. I'm in Somerset here and last Friday our tent was 'challenged' to the extreme!

It doesn't help the site is on the brow of a hill with only a low hedge for some protection.

I pitched bum into the wind when we arrived on the Wednesday of last week. It was pretty blowy. I put up the extension which wasn't too bad initially, but through the night the elasticated bit popped off and I didn't get a wink of sleep because I sat up watching it. The next morning we took the extension down.

Then I put up the Quechua base seconds in place of the extension, thinking I'll use it as a kitchen tent. But the tent kept bowing and dipping and I had to hurridly get a table with a stove on top and a kettle full of boiling water out of there, and as soon as we did it blew completely flat. It was undamaged, but still, I'd just had the boiling kettle in there and it made me very nervous.

So the following night we were down to 'just' the Icarus five man. I'd replaced most of the pegs with rock pegs which had more grip in the soil. It blew such a gale that night, the fabric of the tent was strained to the point I thought it would tear but the pegs didn't budge. I sat up all night watching the tent bucking and straining, ready to rescue us to the car should the whole thing tear or take off. But, amazingly, for a tent that isn't all that 'low profile', it survived the night, and even better when I did my morning inspection all the guys were taught and the pegs were solid and the tent was fine. So now I have alot of trust in that tent as I think it's been well and truly tested.

So, back to original topic, I would take the Vango Icarus out in a storm again, but I would prefer the low profile canvas of your hypercamp. I would certainly not use a pop up tent but of all the options, I would prefer to be tucked up in my own house well out of the storm!

BTW holiday's going really well, storm survived and the last few days have been really sunny.