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4-Season Tents Bivy sacks Minimalist 4-Season tent Samaya Radical 1 tent Solo tents Tents Ultra-light Dyneema tents

The Samaya Radical1: First Impressions

Updated November 11, 2024. This post began with my first impressions. I have had time to use the tent extensively in various weather conditions and can add some important new observations for potential buyers and the makers of the tent.

The French outdoor gear company Samaya sent me one of their groundbreaking ultra-light Radical 1 tents to try out. This is a minimalist 4-season solo tent.

I don’t review gear that I wouldn’t myself use, and there are not many tents I would even consider, but this one meets many important criteria, so I agreed. I took it out to the Mount Baker area, which gets an annual average of around 16 meters of snow. This was a short trip in deep snow conditions and almost constant snowfall. The persistent snowfall wasn’t our expectation. We assumed the clouds and snowfall would clear in the morning as forecast but that never happened. It was an enjoyable trip anyway.

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4-Season Tents ARAI Tent Backpacking Tents Big Sky Chinook 1 Leipen Air Raiz 1 MSR Advance Pro 2 Ripen Air Riaz 1 tent Snow Peak Lago 1 X-frame tent design

The Ripen Air Raiz 1, a 4-season Tent for the Pacific Northwest

I maintained for a long time that the 4-season tent most ideally suited for backpacking in Pacific Northwest winter conditions was the Snow Peak Lago 1—once made by Snow Peak and originally designed for mountain climbers. Snow Peak stopped making that tent years ago.

4-season tents
4-season tents on a frozen alpine lake. Photo courtesy of Nancy Yu.

The good news is that there is another company in Japan making a similar and better tent — the Ripen Air Raiz 1, that can be shipped to the USA.

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3-Season Tents 4-Season Tents Backpacking Backpacking Tents Bivvies Expedition Tents Hammocks Hammocks Tent Stakes Tents Ultra-Light Tents Wind Protection Gear Winter Backpacking Gear Winter camping Winter Tents X-frame design

3-Season vs. 4-Season Tents

Will a 3-season Tent Work in Pacific Northwest Winters?

For an update on 4-season solo tents, be sure to checkout my review of the Ripen Air Raiz 1, a 4-season Tent for the Pacific Northwest

The short answer is yes. I’m not going to do a detailed review of particular tents, but I want to mention a few models that I see often on our trips. I’ll also discuss a few pros and cons of using 3-season tents in the Pacific Northwest winter conditions and some of the best 4-season options available. In context, I’ll be referring to small and light tents for backpacking rather than tents that are used for basecamps and long stays in one location.