I'm not sure if this thing is awesome or a total piece of (). So here we are in the beautiful snowy
mountains of Idaho on a cold winter day and today i am reviewing the hexpeak three person teepee tent from luxe
outdoor gear. So why would you ever even consider one of these things well let me tell you how i
came across this teepee tent. When looking for a good winter shelter there's a lot of options i've seen
hammock setups i've seen mountaineering tents and all of them come with a pretty big price point.
The first thing i'll say about this teepee is it's very well priced for a shelter you can get into
just the hexpeak part of this for less than $250 bucks and when you're comparing that to say the
MSR access 2, a standard winter tent this thing is a much cheaper option as a four season setup.
Now it does come with options that can raise the price dramatically for example the stove option
which will cost you an extra $300 bucks and if you want to add an inner tent which i highly recommend
it's going to be another $50. Still reasonably priced compared to other mountaineering tents
and you get that cool stove feature on top of it. I'll get to whether you want that stove feature
in a second but before that i want to mention how i found this thing. I work with a lot of
Idaho raft guides a lot of Idaho hunting guides real mountain men and women that come out here
and do some of the gnarliest stuff. Actually one of the guides that recommended this to me
told me this story about how he was out here with this thing, shot a black bear with a pistol and
then started cooking the black bear on the stove. That is a real story you cannot make that up that
is Idaho for you. So once i started researching it and i found the price that is why i pulled
the trigger and took this thing for a ride. Now a couple other benefits that i like is one it is
light, it's gonna be lighter than the traditional mountaineering tent that you can purchase from REI
because it's really basic. It doesn't have a floor, it has the one tent pole setup and you would think
that that one tent pole setup means it's flimsy, it's not. The first night i tested this i was dealing
with strong winds and i've dealt with strong winds before, this thing handles like a champ.
I think that has to do with the actual shape of it. It just bends and curves with the wind so it works
really well in the four season conditions. That teepee shape too allows snow and rain to just snuff off
of it so it is truly a four season tent. Now again we're talking if you just take this base model out
without the stove. Once you add a stove once you have the inner tent, your weight goes up. Now you
don't need either of those things a ground sheet and the proper sleeping setup is more than enough
to keep you comfy out here and if you want to know how to get your winter sleeping setup all set up i
have a video on that link in the description below and a card up here if you want to check it out.
Now if you get the inner tent you're still going to be at much less weight than the traditional
mountaineering tent and i do like the inner tent feature. I mean i like the concept of the
inner tent feature it's nice to have that like half the teepee shelter in it. It just makes you feel
less exposed, i think it kind of helps with you know keeping your heat relatively in
one spot. It does feel like it's warmer when you sleep within that thing. The inner tent is a little
janky though and i don't want to judge it too much because i'm sure it's user error but it kind of
sloughs off the sides. I know there's supposed to be room in between the actual teepee and
the tent so that moisture doesn't build up. I don't know it's kind of like a bug net is laying on top
of me when i sleep. I'm sure i can make that more taunt with some guy lines or some i don't know
just better set up and that's the first knock i have on this thing it definitely takes a little
more skill a little more practice to use this i feel. You can't just pop it up and boom it's
all perfect it fits perfect. Learning how to get a good pitch. Learning to just set up that inner tent
to make sure your ground sheet doesn't move around, all those kind of like elements are
a little bit tricky instead of when you have the traditional mountaineering tent
and you just pop it open and boom it's ready to work. And i think that might be why those Idaho
outfitters and guides really like this thing. Like if you're a real experienced mountaineer
you probably want more control in your shelter. You want to be able to do things like pitch this thing
without any poles. You can hang this thing from a tree and not use any poles and have a shelter but
if you're just the casual person that's like, hey i just i don't know much i'm just trying to sleep in
the snow, i think that you might struggle a little bit more with this thing. Knock number two is and
this goes again to me not probably knowing how to work it real well but god there is a lot of
condensation that builds up in this thing. It is just always wet like when it goes back into your
bag in the morning it's gonna be wet. It's like a mini rain forest in there at night. Yeah
it's warm but holy cow i feel like clouds form in there sometimes. Now the stove. The stove feature
is a big thing about this i mean it just looks so cool. You see videos with a stove in your teepee tent.
First of all if you're going backpacking with this thing i would not take the stove. Like the stove is
light, but it's heavy, it's time consuming, i mean it's just a pain in the ass there's no way to say
it. It's tough to set up, there's a lot more risk involved with the stove. You can definitely cut
yourself trying to get that chimney put together. Make sure you have gloves. Make sure you have
a good seal so that it doesn't leak any smoke. I think when i think of a stove i think of something
heavy, something sturdy. But really because it's so lightweight it's kind of this like flimsy
thing that sits in there. The first night i used it i used it in the wind. The wind kicked up
blew the chimney off and all of a sudden there was smoke leaking in the teepee. Now again a little
bit of user error. Better outdoorsman would have guy lined the chimney so that it didn't move
but i didn't. I guess it was just one more thing to do out of the thousand things i needed to do
with that stove. For it to really produce a good amount of heat you really need to keep feeding it so
you'll have to be constantly collecting wood which will be wet in the winter time. It's just a really
time-consuming challenging process to just make that stove work. There's no back vent on the stove
and every time you open the door the smoke comes out at you filling the teepee with smoke again.
All of your clothing, your sleeping bag, it's gonna reek of smoke for the rest of time. It's just,
there's a lot of smoke in the teepee, it's a smoky teepee. And i know it takes a skill but like
keeping it going all night is just like not realistic in my mind. If you're car camping
or something like that if you're doing something real easy if you're not taking it very far maybe
the stove would be a nice option i'll give it that. I wouldn't recommend trying to really
keep it going like at night when you're sleeping or anything like that. Really trust in your sleep
system you don't need a stove to stay warm let me just say that to you. But when i woke up this
morning i was sitting in bed i was drinking some coffee i thought you know it might be nice to have
a stove going right now. A little fire just a nice little morning wake up fire and i think that's the
benefit of the stove. If you're just in a nice easy controlled environment, a place where you could
take it in take it out buy a car or something like that i think it might be nice. And you can have
a nice fire in the evening, let it go out as you sleep, wake back up, have a nice fire in the morning
just like you would your traditional fire pit. When you're out here don't forget that
the stove burns super hot when you have it going and just in case something happens you got to be
able to move it so make sure you buy some sort of gloves or something that allows you to touch
basically fire a very hot surface so that you can move it. Make sure you have some sort of
work glove for when you're rolling the chimney it's super sharp you don't want to cut yourself.
The chimney is difficult to roll with just one person the first time. So roll it once
before you take it out with you with another person. Once you've rolled it out, once you've used
it, the metal will remember. It'll have that memory and it'll just fold into the chimney super easily.
Check out this video to see how you set up your sleep system for the winter time.
More gear reviews with this playlist, thanks for watching i'll see you next time.