Tent Recommendations for Kilimanjaro

ZLP, I'm not familiar with these two tents, but taking a look at them, I think the Eureka is the better choice against the cold, should you go with one of these tents. The Sierra Designs tent appears to have too much ventilation to keep warm should the temperatures drop and winds pick up. Assuming the highest you'd camp is Barafu, you'll be at 15,000 ft, in an exposed area, which can be below zero at night.

I think you can do it with a 3 season tent given your camping experience. To supplement this tent, you'd want to have items that can help keep you warm inside the tent, like a quality sub zero sleeping bag, a good sleeping pad, and maybe a bag liner. Of course, you can wear your expedition weight base layer, down sweater and pants, fleece, socks, hat, gloves, etc. to bed if needed. But I think you'll be ok.

To be sure, give your Eureka a try in cold conditions in your home country before you commit to it on Kili.

Happy climbing.

My advice would go the other way. I've used almost entirely mesh tents exclusively for the past 6 years. While the mesh seems sketchy, it is actually very warm with the fly. See how close to the ground the fly comes on the SD tent? You won't get breezes in your tent with that kind of coverage. So, esentially, warmth is probably not going to be an issue with a tent like that.

Four season tents are not rated as such just for warmth, but for their stability as well. Four-season tents are made to stand up to winter storms more than winter cold.

The Eureka tent's partial fly is not good. Wind and rain can get right through into your tent without a full fly. The wind especially can catch under a fly like that and rip the whole thing apart. Additionally, while Eureka is trying to make a better name for themselves, their tents are generally sub-par, especially compared to SD tents.

Another perk is that the SD tent will have plenty of ventilation if you leave the fly unzipped, which you will probably need at the fist camp or two since they're at lower warmer moister elevations. ALSO,notice the weight difference: you'll really appreciate the pound and a half less on the SD tent.

Also, no matter which tent you get, a sub-zero down bag, full-length sleeping pad, and hat will be your best friends.

Happy hiking!
-Sarah-

Here's my two cents: on our second night, it went down to zero celcius, and on our summit night, it was minus ten celcius (not taking into consideration the wind chill). Also, if you get wet on the trek up, your chances of summitting will be greatly reduced....
Happy Travels!

Personally I'd avoid both of the tents you're contemplating. I have a 4-season SD and the SD Lightning - there's no question that you stay much warmer in the 4-season. In the Lightning you lose much of the heat generated by your body - in the 4-season, with full fly, much of that heat gets trapped in the tent. As for the Eureka - I agree with the previous comments - with temperatures as low as they go on Kili (and it won't necessarily be warm at the first camp) and the possibility of rain, why would you risk getting the interior wet by using a tent with less than a full fly?

On October 5th, at the top of Kili it was 20 below C the last day and one half.

Roberto! You are 69 years old????
WOW that's so amazing!
Did you successfully summit Mt Kilimanjaro? How many days was your trek?

Given the cost of a decent tent why don't you just find a company that does provide tents - it'll probably be cheaper overall

(Sorry for the late closure on this.)

Great advice! This thread has become exactly what I was looking for when doing my initial research.

We will rent tents from our tour operator (Shah Tours).

Thanks for all your help, folks.

POST-TRIP FOLLOW-UP:

We just got back and it was great. The tent provided by Shah tours was a Vaude Campo Grande (3-person, dual vestibules, full coverage fly) and it was fine. We could have gotten away with something lighter, but supposedly the weather was uncommonly nice. Looking around at the other tents I'm glad we didn't try to bring anything single-walled, but it seemed like anything with a full-coverage fly and decent wind-resistance would have been fine up there.

Pictures if anyone is interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpoff/sets/72157603711464721