Keep sand out of your tent during a windstorm.

[Slot Machine]

We were camping recently in Escalante. It was VERY windy during one particular night. A lot of sand blew up and under our rainfly and sifted in through the screen above us. It was no fun to wake up with eye sockets filled with sand. Needless to say, this made sleeping very difficult.

What is a good strategy for battling the sand during a windstorm?

Bob

[Byron]

None...har, har!!! I try to pitch the tent on slickrock, away from the sand. Sometimes however, you can't. I've tried piling sand up along the fly edge as a "barrier" but it finds it's way in regardless. You can keep a majority of it out by doing that, but you still get that "talcum powder" haze all over everything.

The worst is when you're trying to eat dinner and it's like "crunch, crunch"...

I did some backpacking with Mike Kelsey (a very rare occurrence) and he had a single wall tent. He had sewn solid fabric over the mesh vents, as he's completely freaked out my mosquitoes. I remember thinking it would be pretty sand proof, albeit a bit stuffy.

[accadacca]

Some said, "pitch a tent..."

[Iceaxe]

What is a good strategy for battling sand during a windstorm?

Motel with a pool, a couple margaritas, and a hot young stripper wife works great for me..... I don't even notice the wind...

YMMV

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[Slot Machine]

Motel with a pool, a couple margaritas, and a hot young stripper wife works great for me..... I don't even notice the wind...

YMMV

Here's the story. We camped at the bottom of Fence, got sandblasted, all woke up very groggy. All 4 of us voted 'no' on Choprock. Bad times and a waste of a good day.

I'm usually a fan of the pool/margarita combo, but that is a loooong way from Choprock.

[Byron]

Some said, "pitch a tent..."

Yeah man...who needs tent poles, eh?

You are sooo bad, but I walked right into that one!

[denaliguide]

Motel with a pool, I don't even notice the wind...

YMMV

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

beat me to it!!

[powderglut]

Ha! We were car camped out at HITR rd same day. We did a day hike into Willow Gulch that day, and came back to camp. It was going to be our last night anyway as we had been out there for 8 nts. My Ez up (even though, double staked and guylined in 6 spots) was pretty compromised. I looked at my friends thinking, this is going to be a joke cooking food, and chewing sand, and not having a fire, and endless sand finding any little hole to enter our tent. "Pack up you guys, we should be able to make it to town in time for calzones and pizza at Escalante Outfitters. And.... a hot shower and a real bed at the Prospector Inn." So... that's what we did. My answer, to keeping sand out of the tent.

[DOSS]

If you are car camping I have found that thin cheap sheets are the answer... When you leave the tent lay a sheet over all of your gear in the tent.. once in the tent hang the sheet(s) from the ceiling (usually from the little loops that are in the tent already) to the floor making like a second or third wall of the tent inside of the screens.. this does make it a touch warmer but provides a sand barrier that the screens don't seem to do (you will still end up with sand all along the edge of the tent where it sifts down the new wall you have just put in but it is soooo much better than without.... Also if you only have a very few openings then some form of barrier just at those works as well

[Slot Machine]

If you are car camping I have found that thin cheap sheets are the answer... When you leave the tent lay a sheet over all of your gear in the tent.. once in the tent hang the sheet(s) from the ceiling (usually from the little loops that are in the tent already) to the floor making like a second or third wall of the tent inside of the screens.. this does make it a touch warmer but provides a sand barrier that the screens don't seem to do (you will still end up with sand all along the edge of the tent where it sifts down the new wall you have just put in but it is soooo much better than without.... Also if you only have a very few openings then some form of barrier just at those works as well

Nice!! Thanks for the non-motel, non-pool, non-margarita response!

I'll give it a try.

[DOSS]

Nice!! Thanks for the non-motel, non-pool, non-margarita response!

I'll give it a try.

NP... tis a trick I learned from my grandmother who said that she and my Grandpa used to do it when they were living in tents mining Uranium at the bottom of what is now lake powell :)

[Bootboy]

Or just get a single wall, 4 season tent. My bibler ahwahnee is the perfect desert tent. That's why I bought it.

[2065toyota]

X2

Hilleberg Tents

http://us.hilleberg.com/EN/products/...jan/anjan2.php

[Slot Machine]

Or just get a single wall, 4 season tent. My bibler ahwahnee is the perfect desert tent. That's why I bought it.

Thanks @Bootboy for the recommendation. ... Whoa, it better be perfect for $650!

I wish tents had some kind of wind rating. Our cheap Coleman tent flattened to the point where it was almost touching our faces during 60-70 mph midnight gusts in Escalante this past spring. Amazingly, it did not break. We need something better if we are going to get any sleep in those kind of conditions.

[Slot Machine]

X2

Hilleberg Tents

http://us.hilleberg.com/EN/products/...jan/anjan2.php

That looks like a sweet option as well. Thanks Kody.