I'm looking for something pretty specific in a winter tent. I'd love to hear if anyone has and ideas or can share tents that have worked for them.

I'd like a floorless freestanding single wall tent for one and two night ski trips in Colorado. I have an MSR Twin Sisters, but as it's not freestanding I'm looking for something else. I like its weight, the snow skirt surrounding it, and its two doors though I don't really use both of them. Aside from not being freestanding, I'm also not a fan of the two center poles because it doesn't allow me to use a double bag when I go with my wife and it limits my ability to use all the space when I'm alone.

I've been looking for a freestanding tent for quite a while because there's nothing better than digging down into the snow to make more space, but so far the best option I've come across is the now unavailable GoLite Utopia. It looks like the Hilleberg Jannu might be an option using just the fly, but I can't tell if there's a strap across the middle like there are with some floorless freestanding tents. Obviously a tent like this has to have a strap around the edges including the door opening to retain its shape, and I'm fine with that, but it can't be anywhere else in the tent. I've also toyed with the idea of of buying a single wall tent and cutting the floor out while keeping enough of it to push outside to create a powder skirt, but the only good options for that approach seem to be the Direkt 2 and Firstlight, and those are just a little too small for me.

Has anyone else run into this problem and figured out a solution?

keith.angstman wrote:I've been looking for a freestanding tent for quite a while because there's nothing better than digging down into the snow to make more space,

I guess you mean floor-less tent in this instance? Freestanding just means it can stand up intact without guying out (as a tunnel needs). I'd say any genuine 4-season tent will have a floor, as it forms an integral part of the structure, providing support for the poles, particularly in BD/Bibler models like the I-Tent, Eldo, Firstlight etc. But I think you know this.

I've used a Jannu but I can't remember if it has a floor strap or not.

Plenty of people use Megamids in pretty serious places, but I would not consider them a true 4-season tent, mainly when it comes to wind and snow loading, and of course you don't like the centre pole and they need guying out. Nor are Firstlights truly 4S, despite where they have been used (and I have two of them).

But if it's just overnight trips in CO and you don't go out in storms then you could just use a Megamid and make sure you have a fight with your wife before you leave.

Or find a 2nd hand Firslight going cheap and experiment with cutting the floor out and adding a couple straps?

Has anyone else run into this problem and figured out a solution?

Not me.

Haha, yeah I probably won't have to work too hard to end up going alone... Anyway, thanks for the reply. I'm probably going to end up having to do some experimenting on a tent or two to see how that works, so if it happens anytime soon I'll post here with my results.

Can you have a "freestanding" tent by definition without a floor? I can't imagine what would keep it up without the floor providing the tension for the poles.

My old Kelty Windfoil could be pitched (just the fly) free-standing.

I don't know of any other designs that are floorless and free-standing.

WELL< Ive run into the same issues and have not found a definite answer to them. I've used a number of floorless shelters for snow camping and have looked at every option I could find as far as a self-supporting floorless shelter. To my knowledge nobody makes what you are after - a two-pole, rectangluar dome without floor. The Golite you mention was the only one I ever saw; you might find a used one. I used to have a BD lighthouse - the big brother of the Firstlight - and I came very close to cutting the floor and the net door out of it and using that. But I ended up selling it and getting a small pyramid instead; for solo use mostly. Significantly lighter since no poles, I just use one of my ski poles.
Big Sky - http://bigskyproducts.com/ - makes some models of tents where the poles are in the fly and the inner is suspended and you could just leave the inner at home. But pricy if you don't need the inner.

Also - though not a dome - you could use the outer of a Tarptent Stratospire 2. Uses two poles but both occupants sleep between the poles so double bags are no problem.