I'm in the market for a new dwelling; is there such a thing as an all season tent or is it a seasonal thing, school me please. I not pitching in overly exposed areas, usually lots of trees to act as a "windbreak".

A 4 season tent is just that. I have a Mountain Hardwear Trango. It’s about 10 lbs, and will take anything you can throw at it. It is miserable in the summer heat as ventilation is poor compared to other tent styles, but is otherwise bomb proof. I’ve camped in blizzards, pouring rain, high winds, on the sides of mountains, etc, and it hasn’t let me down. I’d buy a three season tent if I was looking now, as I’m done with winter camping now that I have an uninterested family. The four season tents hold heat better, keep wet out better, and handle wind better, but you pay for it. A solid three season tent would likely be good enough if you aren’t using it in legitimate winter.

Expensive but worth it.
https://hilleberg.com/eng/tent/

As suggested I'm sure the three season option is suitable, the winter aspect is more for shelter if forced down during the ski flying season. I usually have good wind protection so that should limit the technology required for that capability. The ventilation aspect of a full on winter tent isn't something I'd thought of so thank you for the insight.

I have a very old North Face VE 24 or 25 mountaineering four season tent. The thing just keeps keeping on. As noted above, not the most comfortable summer tent, but in really bad weather, it does the trick. North Face had a lifetime warranty on these tents, dunno if they still do. A couple years ago, I called them cause one zipper failed. And, the tent was long in the tooth. They said send it in. I did, and it was returned with ALL new zippers, and a couple rips in the screens patched. No charge except for shipping to them.

These tents were commonly used on serious mountaineering expeditions back in the day.

And, that tent is over 30 years old.

MTV

For emergency overnighting while ski flying, I carry a Gore-Tex bivy sack/mini tent, an insulated high quality inflatable mattress pad, along with a piece of foil bubble insulation and a Tyvak ground sheet for under the pad, and TWO sleeping bags. I've never used it for real, and yeah I know I should test it out some night at home but it either works or it doesn't! I leave my big tent at home, I'm not into winter camping, more just trying to not freeze overnight during an unscheduled emergency (as opposed to the scheduled emergencies.) The bivy sack would be operational more or less without any setup required, just roll it out, stuff the sleeping bags in, and call it a day.That might be a important feature.

I have a Marmot Tungsten 2-person that I’ve used everywhere from Oshkosh to Alaska. Excellent.

North Face, Mountain Hardware, Big Agnes have great options for 3-season tents.

Great intel, I'll source a good three season tent thanks to all.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Mapleflt wrote:I'm in the market for a new dwelling; is there such a thing as an all season tent or is it a seasonal thing, school me please. I not pitching in overly exposed areas, usually lots of trees to act as a "windbreak".

Airframes Alaska. The Arctic Oven line is bombproof amazing. I've got the Igloo model which is almost a 100 sq ft inside with a woodstove. Their new Jim Shockey line is really cool, quite a bit lighter than my igloo. I can't recommend them highly enough.

A few general things about tents are that four season and three season tents are very much not the same. If you need snow load and wind load capability, get a good brand, four season tent. Four season tents are almost always more expensive, heavier and more cumbersome to set up. If you don’t need the extra engineering, three season tents are usually significantly cheaper, lighter and quite a bit easier to set up. My good three season, three person, sets up easily in about four minutes. My Marmot four season is about double the weight and triple the set up time. Definitely go with the name brand though and REI is a great name brand.