The North Face  Bastion 4 Tent

After having a kingdom 8 destroyed by a 20 mph wind I wanted something more solid for i wind areas so I returned to my Mountaineering roots in my 20's and Special Operations in my 30's I'm 54 now. MY kids were terrified when the kingdom collapsed well that was quickly resolved the kids slept in it in 30-40 mph winds in the back yard on our test run set up. it took my 9 year old and i ten min to set up. The following morning my kids said the tent did not sway at all. I felt kinda Guilty I slept in my bed.

Generally a really well designed tent, large enough for 4, plenty of internal pockets, good sized vestibules, nice features like glow in the dark zipper pulls. Set-up is not hard but worth practicing ahead of time. However, the pole which holds the front vestibule up goes through an extremely tight sleeve. This is challenging when erecting the tent, but even worse when taking the tent down, especially if there's been any frost or snow. I always had to do this bare handed and nearly froze my hands. This would be an ideal tent if you were going to set it up at say, Camp 1 and leave it up, but if you are winter camping and plan to move camp frequently, make sure you can put up with this problem. I couldn't.

Bastion is a scaled up bigger VE 25 tent. Its adequate for 3 people and comfy for two. It has good headroom. It has 14 pockets including two ceiling pockets. The front vestibule is large. The rear vestibule is tiny. Both should be the same size. Front rainfly door zippers are too tight and zip with difficulty. Front vestibule is hard to stake out tight at full height and still get the door closed. The two roof vents are nice but 4 would vent better. Rear rainfly snap broke on first use. On an $850 tent that is not acceptable. This is supposed to be a Mt. Everest capable mountaineering windproof tent that can handle any conditions. I will return it.

I have spent roughly 35 days in this tent since last fall and it has been secure and comfortable through thunderstorm driven wind and rain, cold weather, frost, sleet without a moment of trouble. I am starting to believe those who say it is bullet proof. I have had a difficult time finding a well built 4 person tent but this one certainly is. It seemed expensive when I bought it but the quality is so high it is a bargain.

My wife and I upgraded from our small two person North Face Starlight tent (really a one person tent) to this epic unit. We definitely went against the tent learning philosophy and did our first maiden set up while many miles deep in the Inyo national forest; nothing was missing and the half page pictogram instruction sheet saw us through. We put it up in sustained 20 mph winds which was really difficult, but I mean trial by fire right? Hunting down some 20-30 lb rocks to hold down the fly's guy lines and some little 10 lb rocks kept the stakes down in the weak sand. Oh and the stakes are legit angle units that wont bend if they impact a rock like those old hook types. I used to straighten out a stake every other trip. I hit a lot of rocks this trip and this time just moved the stake an inch and got it to go. The afternoon gave us a good icing (I think it was being blown right off Mt. Whitney and its neighbors) and the cold evening was infinitely more manageable being able to literally sit in a chair under the vestibule and in the tent. Our old 2 person tent you could hardly sit up in. Wife and I plus med-large dog and enough room to have cloths bag in tent with room to share! I think this thing could really sleep 5 adults. Ok for critiques, keep in mind our old north face 3 pole ten I've set up so many times (under the rain fly in down pours to on top of 6 feet of snow at midnight) it's second nature. The half page pictogram set up was pretty lacking, I still don't understand why there are three holes for poles on some of the tents anchor points and only one or two on others. It took a while (5 mins) to figure out the rain fly's pole anchoring position, I am used to setting up our old tent in this amount of time. TIP! SET UP THE BIG VESTIBULE FIRST THEN ANCHOR THE LITTLE BACK ONE! There are 5 poles on this tent, 6 with the rain fly, it helps if two people can push two poles on the X pattern at the same time. While not absolutely necessary, it definitely would have been smoother if I had coordinated a little better with my wife, have a camp buddy help. With the wind blowing the bottom foot print did not always want to stay attached to the tent poles on set up, that being said I always used a tarp in the past so at least the foot print tried. We had no issues once tent was anchored and it was nice not having tarp baggage to tuck under the tent. Worth the 40 extra bucks? Yes, you've spent this much, protect your tent. In fact I might buy another for back up or the day our current footprint wears out. Inside is very nice, lots of pockets, even in the ceiling! Not all mesh walls like most other tents these days, good privacy and durability, rain fly has vents so very little condensation underneath (have not tested in down pour though) definitely can be set up in high winds and with proper anchoring withstands a long night of gale force freezing wind attack. Zippers are supple, not those little cheap teeth ones that bind all the time. The glow in the dark zipper tabs are actually quite handy. Our old tent always needed a little dirt removal after a couple days; low and behold we had no problem flipping this tent over (with the poles in) to get the dirt out just like old times. Seam stitching was very strong no loose ends even with that wind storm, I recommend definitely using the door ties if you want to have any thing open while the wind is blowing or it could probably get damaged. Treat these tents right and they will last 20+ years, my old 1995 Starlight is now our airplane/backpacking tent.

Purchased the tent, footprint and square gear loft. Impressed with the engineering and quality of everything. All of the features have been accurately covered in other's well written reviews. Know that I echo their comments. There were a couple of areas that I wanted to experience for myself, to know if I made the right decision in purchasing this tent. One being the weather integrity of the tent and the other being the ventilation capability in warm weather. Here are my initial reactions after setting up the tent, sealing the seams and spending one night in what hopefully would be a 'dry run' in the backyard during a heavy rain: There is so much storage capability engineered into the tent...the gear loft seems like over kill. However the loft location near the ceiling makes sense in that everything stored up there is out of the way...out of sight from outside the tent...and quickly accessible from anyplace in the tent. Hence, it is a good place to put things that you don't want lost and/or might want access to quickly...light, keys, iPhone, wallet, firearm, etc. The glow in the dark zipper pulls, the reflective guy lines are great in the dark. However, the guy lines supplied with my tent are black and difficult to see during the day...and therefore easy to trip over. I would like to see the guy lines, beside being reflective, supplied in a day glow neon color. Regarding the foul weather and warm weather ventilation questions...I got these answered over the Fourth of July weekend. That weekend in Minnesota was hot and humid in the high 80's with rain predicted Sunday evening. I set up the tent on Sunday afternoon in the heat of the day. With the front and rear vestibules open along with the ceiling vents...it stayed cool inside the tent. In fact, more comfortable than outside the tent. So far, so good. The only major question that remained was how good of a job did I do sealing the fly and the floor. The only way to find out was get my sleeping bag and check it out during the coming rain. For this test I closed the vestibule doors, but just zipped up the mesh covers on the inside tent doors and ceiling vents. From 2 AM to 8 AM Monday morning we showed three inches of rain on my neighbor Jim's rain gauge. Wind was blowing 10-15 mph. The low temperature that night was only 72 degrees. Shortly after the rain started, I checked for leaks and not a drop inside. And shortly after that, I fell sound asleep during that heavy rain. In the morning...I checked everything again and still not a drop on the inside! And, even with the vestibule doors closed, it remained comfortable inside. I will mention one other item I purchased for this tent that others may want to consider. Years ago our family found ourselves in a not so ideal campsite during a long weekend rain. The landscape drained everyone's camp sites through the middle of our tent! One of the key rules of family camping is if you can keep everyone, (including dogs), dry and warm, you can survive just about any condition, and more importantly, prevent an all out mutiny against the family patriarch. It is one thing to have your wife and kids unhappy...but when your dogs are mad at you...you know the FUN Meter is at zero and it is time to break camp. So after that weekend, I bought a large Floor Saver tarp from Eureka, (available at REI), cut it about six inches larger in every direction than the floor of our tent and placed it on the inside of the tent. It served several purposes: (1) It saved wear and tear on the floor of our tent. (2) Cleaning the inside of the tent was fast and easy. Just pick it up, along with all the dirt...take it outside...shake it out...replace it and we were back in business. Especially nice if a drink were spilled. And (3) A three inch deep stream could run through our tent and every one and thing inside would still be dry! (Remember the rule of keeping every one warm and dry.) I understand when backpacking...it is not practical to carry an internal tarp...but when car camping...it works ideal. Also, the two Basset Hounds, (short legs), have been replaced with a German Shorthaired Pointer, (long legs). I find Aage can withstand a lot higher water in the tent than Dagmar and Gertie could. :-) So yes, I purchased another Floor Saver for this tent. If you get the Eureka 9' x 9' Medium Square from REI (Eureka Product Code 2660158), you will have six inches of tarp up every side of the tent. To custom cut it for the angled corners of this tent, measure 19-1/2 inches from every corner of the square Floor Saver and trim off the corner edges. These are just my initial observations. Will provide additional updates as we get to use the tent. Hope this was helpful. And, THANK YOU to all the others that have previously reviewed this tent and provided your insights. They were very helpful in my purchase decision. Safe Travels!

It's made of thin lightweight material, don't let this fool you as it did me, I was concerned it wasn't durable enough, I set it up outback of my apt complex where we have a grassy hill, to waterproof it, as the directions on my waterproofing said to leave overnight I did, I was worried the sprinklers would come on automatically and they did at around 3am, I happened to be awake with worry, I didn't notice a sprinkler head was right under the tent spraying it had popped up and must have been spraying back and forth for a good 20 minutes before I got to it, these are industrial sprinklers with power that shoots 50+ feet. I got drenched trying to protect the tent and move it! the tent would have been floating on water if I didn't stake it down! I figured I'd find a hole in the bottom, not only was there no hole it didn't even have a mark or any wear that I could see, inside it was bone dry, which was also another surprise, as 3 of these sprinklers were spraying the tent and hitting it from all sides spraying across, I'm sure most rain comes straight down or slightly to the side, I figured the inside would be wet... I wish I'd taken a video to show how much water and how forcefully it put it out, I was pleasantly surprised.

I have been looking for a "true" 4 season tent for 4 persons for a very long time. So long, in fact, that my friends make fun of me and believe that I am insatiable. For starters shouldn't a 4 season tent have zippable covers for the mesh windows? Good luck finding one until now! I tent mostly in the Sierras and Cascades and when it blows 40+ to 80+ mph, the wind goes between the fly and tent and then into the mesh windows on any other tent. And if you're trying to keep heat in at night, you don't want mesh. It gets very cold and uncomfortable. This tent, not a problem with the zippable covers. As an engineer, I like the pole design and layout as it provides a very, very strong structure while remaining light. The front vestibule is well protected and provides ample space for packs. It also includes about a 5" clear window between the two front mounted doors on the vestibule to see the weather conditions outside without leaving the comfort of your sleeping bag. It is roomy and comfortable inside with plenty of pockets. The fly velcros onto the tent in numerous spots as well as going through the grommets on the poles. The fly has zippable windows to allow air flow thru to the tent mesh windows and the geniuses at The North Face even included a little prop to make sure the fly window stays open to maximize air flow. The tent comes with sand/snow bags to secure the tent if stakes are not possible. The shape of the tent/fly suits it very well to deflecting strong wind gusts. We plan to use the tent for car camping to backpacking to mountaineering as it provides the creature comforts while providing a high-end mountaineering design. Haven't used it yet to provide a full review, but have set it up outside just to see what it has. Love this tent already!!!

I'm too old to have to low crawl out of my backpacking tent. This is fantastic! The only thing that's missing is indoor plumbiing.

Have only set it up in the living room so far. I was happy with the innards. Unhappy that I had to pay extra for the gear loft: At this price point shouldn't that be included?