Mountaineering tent research

I'm a product design student at the University of Kansas and I am just starting a project to design a four season tent specifically meant for mountaineering. My design process starts with some research about existing tents that are used for the activity and the best way to gather information is from current/past users. I would appreciate if anyone could take some time to answer a few questions or provide any other info they see fit.

How do tents specifically play a role in mountaineering? (Base camp, smaller camps along the route, do you carry them with you? etc.)

What is the overall experience like staying in a tent while on a mountain?

Do you have a preference about what tents are used/Do you see some tents being used more commonly than others?

Are there any features in a tent that you specifically like?

Have you or someone you know ever made any modifications to a tent while mountaineering? If so what was it and why?

Do you have any specific ideas for innovation for mountaineering/four season tents? (What is something you would like implemented that currently isn't)

Feel free to include any other information you feel would be useful

Thank you to anyone in advance! This will help me greatly on my project!

EDIT!!!

I understand this is a very specialized and cared for piece of equipment. I understand I cannot master the design of this kind of tent. However this was the project that was given to me and I can't change it. This is a school project and not something that will be mass manufactured anyway, so there really isn't much on the line here other than a grade and my pride. Being from Kansas there is not much I can do in regards to experiencing the life of being in one of these tents as much as I would love to go mountain climbing. So I ask again to please humor me and help give me some insight from people who have experienced it. I may not be able to design the perfect tent but the more helpful input and user perspectives I can get, the better. Thank you and please refrain from the sarcasm and sass - as much as it would be fun to add an espresso bar and skylight.

Have you ever used a tent for mountaineering?

Light cheery colors on the inside.  When you are stuck in a tent for long periods of time it helps. Lots of off the floor storage space. Enough space for all your puffy gear . Good ventilation.

My desires would be airy skylights, a perpetual full moon and an espresso maker on a timer. 

Matthew Berkshire wrote:
How do tents specifically play a role in mountaineering? (Base camp, smaller camps along the route, do you carry them with you? etc.)

Uh, its yer home away from home. Sometimes though it becomes a body bag.

What is the overall experience like staying in a tent while on a mountain?

Sucks, especially when yer partner is constantly farting, snoring, picking at an orifice.

Do you have a preference about what tents are used/Do you see some tents being used more commonly than others?

I prefer tents designed by people who have at least spent the night in one at least once.

Are there any features in a tent that you specifically like?

Tents that stay upright when it is pissing sideways with 100 mph winds.

Have you or someone you know ever made any modifications to a tent while mountaineering? If so what was it and why?

I once put a crampon through the wall, then got out the duct tape. Why? I had just finished a climbing several thousand feet at altitude and was knackered.  

Do you have any specific ideas for innovation for mountaineering/four season tents? (What is something you would like implemented that currently isn't)

One that builds a platform, self assembles, gets the stove going, rolls out my sleeping bag, and sets a mint on my pillow.

Feel free to include any other information you feel would be useful

You might actually think of a project where you already have some background experience. 

Four season tents suck big time, high mountain tents are different beasts altogether.

Jim Titt wrote: Four season tents suck big time, high mountain tents are different beasts altogether.

At the risk of turning this into another "What is alpine climbing" thread, how do you define the two?

Allen Sanderson wrote: You might actually think of a project where you already have some background experience. 

You'd be surprised to find out that most student and professional product designers aren't experienced in the fields they design for. Thats what research is for. Thanks for not helping.

Matthew Berkshire wrote:

You'd be surprised to find out that most student and professional product designers aren't experienced in the fields they design for. Thats what research is for. Thanks for not helping.

And that's how we end up with bad designs that don't actually work in the field. Poor design might not matter much when it's in your kitchen at home. But when I'm sitting out a storm in Patagonia I'd much rather be in a tent designed by someone who actually knows what it's like to sit out a storm in Patagonia and who has a background in product design rather than someone who's reached out to the internet for the most basic background research on their undergrad project. No offense to you, or a judgment on the quality of your program. It just seems like a very strange project for the University of Kansas and for someone whose line of questioning leads one to believe that they have no personal experience with the matter. 

Ryan Mac wrote:

At the risk of turning this into another "What is alpine climbing" thread, how do you define the two?

The question is how does the OP define them, they want to design it not me. I've a four season tent which is really two season since when it's warm weather it's hot, cramped and got poor insect protection. And a 3 season tent which can't cope with horizontal driving rain so really it's a summer tent. The four seasons are different in Florida compared to Baffin Island.

No reason to trash on the kid, it’s not like students get to choose their assignments. All he’s going to take away from this is that we need tents with built in  blue bag dispensers because there are a lot of assholes up in here.   

Is it just me or are we getting more school projects posted here these days? Whatever happened to “made for XYZers for XYZers”? 

Matthew Berkshire wrote:

You'd be surprised to find out that most student and professional product designers aren't experienced in the fields they design for. Thats what research is for. Thanks for not helping.

You are absolutely right, but you are trying to design a fairly specialized piece of equipment that though lacking the knowledge about you have no means to test or use. Though given winter is coming you could build the tent, set it up in a corn field, and wait for a good storm to roll through.

I made the suggestion I did because as a student you would have a better learning experience by choosing a project that you already have some knowledge. To whit my Jr/Sr engineering thesis project was on the environmental effects on the strength of climbing equipment. Good fun as I took my previous knowledge, applied it, learned more, did experiments (some worked, some did not), learned something. Best part, people who were experts in the area reviewed our work and gave positive feedback.

Research is not done by tossing out generic questions on a random climbing internet forum. You probably picked MP cause has the name "mountain" in it. I would be willing to bet that less than 10% of the active members who post have actually been on a hill were a mountaineering tent was needed. So the replies are going to be a mixed bag. I am not trying to be harsh but, your professor should be mentoring your projects closer and giving better guidance. I would not let students under my charge run off on a project where they have no knowledge, that rarely creates a successful project with little learned.

Matthew - while it may seem like people are shitting on your project, they ARE helping. And don’t dismiss their advice. There are people posting who not only have a lot of climbing experience but also research experience. 

A tent is a highly specialized piece of equipment, one that our lives may depend on - don’t expect us to bend over to answer your very basic questions when you are clearly not an alpinist and this is just a project for you. 

As far as your assertion that people designing stuff don’t have any field experience, that may be true in most cases but not here. Bibler Tents, Rab, Mountain Hardware’s EV tents are the first to come to mind. Those are people’s names. People’s names that climbers recognize that either designed or had input into the final product. 
As others have said, do yourself a favour and pick something you can at least answer basic questions on without turning to enthusiast forums. 

I think focusing on more of a backpacking ultra light tent would be better option.  That way you only have to focus on it being lightweight, packable, and keep you dry in moderate weather.  Mountaineering tents have a lot more going on.

Matthew - you would do well to listen to the opinions of others here; the first step to thinking about building a better tent would be to spend time in a tent and figure out what works and what doesn't. Like Graham mentioned, the very best mountaineering tents are creations of some of the best mountaineers, and those mountaineers have spent hours upon hours suffering in poorly designed tents to come up with their iterations.

That said, here is some general beta for you to research and explore. There are two principal types of four-season tents; double-walled tents and bivy tents (single walled). Double-walled tents are generally larger, more comfortable, and heavier - great for spending a lot of time in, very strong, but also significantly heavier than bivy tents. Good examples of double-walled mountaineering tents would be the North Face Mountain 25, VE-25, Mountain Hardwear Trango series, and the Hilleberg Jannu or Staika.

Bivy tents are typically carried on route, are significantly lighter, and do much worse at managing condensation. They are super light, lack space and features, and can be pitched in small areas. The most popular bivy tent is probably the BD Firstlight (based on the Bibler iTent but with lighter weight fabrics), but there are a number of other bivy tents which are commonly used (Mountain Hardwear EV2, MHW Direkt2, Rab Latok 2, or, my personal favorite, the Crux Assault).

Beyond the basic divide between double-walled tents and bivy tents, there are hundreds of other design choices which impact how the tent functions and what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Hoop-style or dome tent? Free-standing or staked? How many poles, and what diameter are they? Interior pitch poles, clips, or sleeves? What is the guy arrangement, and how do they attach to the body of the tent or the tent poles? Options for ventilation? Vestibule? What fabrics are in use (especially relevant for single-walled shelters)? What internal organization systems exist?

Anecdotally, I have 5 four-season tents (depending on whether or not you count my pyramid hot tent), and I use each one for different style trips. My favorites are the Hilleberg Jannu (which I love for ski-touring missions, it's a nice balance between livability, strength, and weight), and my Crux Assault (which I use for mountaineering trips, since it offers a small vestibule area and decent headroom in the front of the tent). As far as things I would improve - I wish my Crux Assault was a happier color (it's black), and I also wish that it had maybe one more interior pocket somewhere. Otherwise it's perfect. For my Jannu - this is hard to understand unless you've spent a lot of time in a tent, but the vestibule pitches slightly asymmetrically, and it can load with snow weird. I have to pay extra attention to keep my packs from getting buried. Also I'm not a fan of the fact that Hilleberg footprints extend all the way out under the vestibule, but I might be alone in feeling that. 

I hope this gives you an idea of the complexity of the task here, as well as the degree of nuance. If I were you I would start by focusing on a narrow niche of tents (eg bivy tents), find out what the most popular bivy tents are, what makes them good choices, and what people don't like about them.

So many haters... this is for a school project, not a tent you have to use on your next weekend warrior mission.  Calm down.
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How do tents specifically play a role in mountaineering? (Base camp, smaller camps along the route, do you carry them with you? etc.)

This depends on the objective.  In the case of an expedition to high altitude, a large, comfortable base camp tent is typically used at base camp.  A much smaller, lighter, less comfortable tent is carried up the mountain for high camps.

What is the overall experience like staying in a tent while on a mountain?

Sometimes it's ok, but often it's not very fun.  To achieve the lightest weight possible, most people use tiny tents that almost require spooning with your partner.  If the weather is bad, things get much more grim, because single wall tents have bad condensation issues.

Do you have a preference about what tents are used/Do you see some tents being used more commonly than others?

A good example of a "base camp" tent is the Mountain Hardwear Trango series.  The most commonly used single-wall tent is the Black Diamond Firstlight.

Are there any features in a tent that you specifically like?

Light weight and small packed size is paramount if I will be climbing with the tent in my pack.  Ventilation (to combat condensation) is also important.  For base camp tents, comfort is king and size/weight is not as critical.

Have you or someone you know ever made any modifications to a tent while mountaineering? If so what was it and why?

Not really, aside from cutting the bug netting out (which I regretted later).