ALPS Mountaineering  Tasmanian 3 Tent

I purchased this tent based on its price, online ratings and quoted 4-season usability. I am a cautious consumer who tries to research products prior to purchasing them. I am extremely happy with this purchase. The ALPS Mountaineering Tasmanian 3 tent offers a spacious interior (roomy for two people and could easily accommodate three as marketed), a large vestibule areas for storing gear and high-quality aluminum poles and stakes. I purchased the Floor Saver (Product Number 7711027) for this tent as well and I highly recommend doing so. Setup is simple! The tent is high-quality with two entrances, both with privacy doors as well as ventilated doors. The zippers are high quality as well. Ventilation is hindered with the rain fly installed. There are vents, however, I am considering a battery operated fan to place next to the vent. Completely closed up this tent should be able to handle a cold winter camping trip without any issues. The frame is sturdy and its shape shouldn't cause any snow buildup. I am considering an additional purchase as a spare for group camping.

The Tasmanian 3 is a great 4-season tent for the money. The interior is cavernous for 3 people, and the two poled vestibules provide plenty of room for winter gear storage and cooking if necessary. I can kneel in the center of the tent and my head just touches the included gear loft. This tent's mesh can be fully zipped up for 4-season use, and the body and fly pitched tight with sufficient guy-out points for stabilizing the structure. Pole structure is plenty strong to hold snow load. I haven't tested it in high wind, but there might be some deflection of the vestibule poles in high-wind if not guyed out properly. This tent comes with a lot of features I would not expect at the pricepoint - included gear loft, lots of storage pockets along the full length of each side of inner tent body, y-aluminum stakes, and Yunan brand poles. The pictures don't show it, but the fly contains two vents that can be propped open via stiff velcro rod. These can be accessed from the inner tent via a zippered opening along one edge of the inner-tent closable roof vents.

I really like the tent. Lots of little extras that I had not anticipated. Huge vestibules. The fly is a little bit of a pain in the posterior to set up, especially when compared to the ease the tent itself goes up. The tent is big and heavy for a backpacking tent, but I'm still taking mine on the High Sierra Trail in August because I want the added comfort and luxury. When you split the tent among two people, you're only carrying around 4ish pounds each.

This is one impressive tent that you could actually use year round. The design looks a little funky but once you have set this up a few times you can have the tent set up in less than 3-5 minutes. Inside it is very roomy. The tent material itself is the thickest that Alps, and most others, offer at 5000mm. You can use this tent without the fly in warmer weather and get plenty of ventilation using the zippered mesh windows. If you are in cold weather this will do a great job of protecting you from the elements. Of course, make sure to provide some ventilation unless you want condensation on the inside. One of the best features of this tent is the price. If you were to look at other true 4 season tents they are three to four times as much as this. And most of them are much heavier and a total nightmare to set up.

Its a great tent for the money and I will get to some low points but first the high points and things you can't see from the photos. 1. Main pole is one shockcorded unit. I thought you would have to plug poles into the hubs but the main "H" pole is one unit which makes it a breeze to set up. Stake the tent diagonally and it will be tight. Without the guylines about half the fly seemed to set up tight just clipped to the stakes but the other half was a bit less. This could be resolved by using the guylines which I did not use. I simulated pulling out the fly at the guypoints and it was tight. There are 6 guy points. One on each corner and each side. Should hold down in a strong wind. 2. There are 2 closable vents at the top center of the tent not shown in the photo. You can zip them closed or open (mesh). There is also a zipper next to the vent to reach your hand through the tent body and open the 2 vents on the fly. Cool! You can zip the doors closed or with mesh option (separate zipper) and end up very well ventilated. The fly does not touch the tent and leaves ample venting between body and fly. 3. Inside there is a small gear loft and storage pockets down both sides. 4. There is a seam running down the center of the floor that is sewn and sealed (not welded). They obviously didn't have a roll of nylon large enough to cover the floor with one piece. So I will be applying some type of permanent tent repair tape to cover this seam from abrasion and it will be fine. Otherwise its too exposed and will eventually become a leak point. p.s. I got the footprint and I would recommend it. The tent poles fit in grommets in the footprint and fly clips to the footprint. 5. The single big lowlight were the shock cords on the tent poles. Too weak. The end caps came off every time I took a pole out of a grommet or tried to work the poles out of the sleeves (front and rear) of the fly. So the fly poles (at a minimum) are going to require a stronger (or tighter) shock cord upgrade for sure. And if I feel plucky I will have to do the H pole as well due to the end caps coming off but that is a big job. Irritating. You can send these off and have them done. 6. The front vestibule zips up one side and across the top (L shape) then you roll up the door. It doesn't have a zipper down both sides. The rear vestibule is not a duplicate of the front but has only one stake point and a single zipper running down the centerline. When unzipped you can roll up the door. All doors in the tent and fly have toggles. - So other than 4 and 5 above I couldn't complain about anything else. Its a great tent for the price and should serve me well in the wind in Death Valley (car camping) and on my pulk sled into the Sierras. Would I buy it again? Yes...once I get the poles tightened up it should be a great tent for the snow and desert.

I have never owned a 4 season tent before, but wanted one for a couple of high-altitude, above the tree-line situations where I was worried my ultralight tent wasn't really up for the heavy, sustained wind loads you can expect up there. Realistically, if it is blowing 40-50+ mph all night long, a well-made ultralight tent will likely survive, but you sure aren't doing it any favors, and you also probably aren't getting a great night of sleep, either. I've been there, done that. Not too excited to do it again. I wanted something that could take those kind of conditions in stride, rather than barely survive them. I just set it up in the yard and haven't tested it in the backcountry yet, so this is more an initial impression than a full review. This thing is definitely heavy. It has easily 2x more poles than any tent I've ever owned before. Fortunately, you can divide the load pretty easily between two people. The fly weighs almost as much as the tent, and you can split the pole load easily too. You pretty well have to split the load, it is way too heavy for one person to carry alone. But with two people you can get the load down to a bit over 4lbs a piece, which is a completely plausible trade-off if you expect to encounter the kind of conditions that warrant this level of tent. Setup wasn't hard, the biggest hassle is the fly, where you have to thread two poles through little narrow sleeves on the underside of the fly. I can see that being a challenge in high winds. Once it is up, it is HUGE. I think two big people will fit very comfortably in it, with room to spare/spread out. I'm 6'4" and had plenty of room in it. The vestibules are enormous and there is plenty of head room to sit up in, change clothes in, etc. This is definitely a place you could ride out a long, rough storm in real comfort. Unlike most 3 person tents, you actually could fit 3 people in it if you had to. I will say it would be tight with 3, unless everybody is relatively small, but it isn't completely implausible, either. I'd characterize it as a 2.5+ tent, if that makes any sense. There are rain-shielded vents in the ceiling to help it breathe, and they can be opened or closed from inside the tent. You would want them open all the time, and it looks like they are appropriately sized for cold-weather venting. You can also keep the doors open, even in the rain, thanks to the vestibule overhangs and again you'd want to do that to keep condensation down. Fortunately there are doors on both ends for good cross-ventilation, and if you get a driving rain coming in from one side that requires you to button up, you could still have the leeward side open. There is an absolute ton of storage, with an overhead gear locker, and pockets running the length of both sides of the tent. The gap between the fly and the inner tent is also very thick, which I think will help retain heat to some degree. The whole thing seems very well-made and sturdy. The fly is full length and it has a bathtub floor. I have to think that, with all this structure, it would handle even very rough conditions pretty well. Although not a true dome tent, it does look like it would shed snow fairly well. This isn't a tent I plan to use often, and so I couldn't really justify the price of an expedition tent that could go to Everest. But I think this thing is going to get the call in the worst of the shoulder seasons and whenever I think there is a real risk of getting brutally hammered by wind or weather. We'll just suck up the extra weight on those trips. The peace of mind will be worth it.

Returned the tent because I could not get it to pitch tight - not a good thing for four season tent. I liked many of the features. It is tedious to set up buy not overly so. I tried every trick I've ever used to get a tent pitched tightly - didn't work. Called Alps they had no suggestions I hadn't tried. It could have been a manufacturing defect - don't know. Returned the tent.

The tent does a good job and is made well but I was looking for a fly that would not depend upon being staked down. I will keep this tent but am still searching for the "perfect" one.