Yes...........My primary choice for winter camping currently is MSR Twin Peaks which I've owned for about five years......... This of course, with snow banked around all the edges for warmth and windproofing. Very nice, though I think it's been somewhat radically redesigned recently--- with addition of snow flaps....

MSR TP has a fully coated canopy, in this aspect like a Wenzel, and I've NOT found the frost and condensation build-up unmanagable with MSR TP.

At times of snow and cold, however, in my defunct, cheap, coated puptent with integral coated floor, I found that the moisture would collect on the impermiable floor & of course, not drain, creating difficulties. The Wenzel S has such a floor. The MSR Twin Peaks has no floor.

Perhaps for this reason as much as any, I WOULD NOT WANT WENZEL STARLIGHT in winter. But a Wenzel Starlight has mosquito netting. The MSR TP does not. My earlier point is WS is optimal for summer --- not winter...


I've heard a few people call me a liar, but nobody has told me why dome poles, cheap or costly........... aren't a comparatively serious liability for breakage relative to a rigid pole or poles and prospects for their repair or field replacement..

The Wenzel in question (not any/all Wenzels and NOT my defunct puptent) is 24 inches tall at the rear, and not very tall in front. According to very rational and reasonable theory, a very low-profile tent will be more stable in wind, than a higher profile tent.

I think of WS as really nicely designed one-person, or maybe even 2-person tent, apart from stupid fiberglass A-frame front poles and a few other doubtful but entirely acceptable issues related to materials and construction.

RE MSR Twin Peaks (floorless) though designed good for snow camping It is notably less warm than my TNF Starfire (27 SF, discontinued -- a three-pole Frog dome design) with its double walls, for which I've lost the pole set and may some day decide to replace for about $200.).

This is a considerable drawback, despite TP's 1/3 + greater square footage....which is highly welcome with companion.......I might be untruthful here, so you'll just have to be the judge............I admit I don't have a coherent theory here about coated floors, except that a double-walled tent has less condensation than coated canopy....

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.............Getting somewhat back to the Wenzel Starlight: Relative exclusively to wind, I tend to think that rigid poles offer superior resistance to domes -- certainly two-pole domes.

I used an SD 2-pole dome quite a lot. (What was it called? It's now discontinued and was stolen at trailhead car break-in in `95 while I was doing Mt Stuart's North Ridge route in Washington. Grade Four route, class 5.7.....This is most difficult of about twenty alpine routes I've done in Washington, mostly in summer and never with cheap pup tent )

(You might say I'm fibbing..but we filed a police report you could maybe check in Leavenworth..... The parking lot was site of an intense forest fire on the following day. Icicle Creek area, first week of August as I slightly recall.)

I was disturbed any number of times by this particular dome's performance in the very typical summer on-shore beach breezes in afternoon/evening in So. New England/E. L.I. Sound. These breezes are 20 mph or more at times.

I recall similar conditions many times using the Wal-Mart puptent, that were somewhat less of a problem, especially when tent was pitched into wind. It blew up like a balloon.

My Sierra Designs Divine Light one-person (disontinued) which I've beaten to near death..has such a low profile, that getting totally flattened by the wind would be only slightly different than being fully and properly pitched. It is very low in profile.......

MSR TP is considerably higher profile than Wenzel, has a fully coated canopy, in this aspect like a Wenzel, and I've NOT found the frost and condensation build-up unmanagable with MSR TP.