Pitching a tent in wind

What you need

• The tent, poles and every guy line it came with
• More stakes than the tent needs, some long ones for soft ground
• A few rocks or a bag you can fill with rocks or sand
• Cord for extra guy lines
• Someone to hold the corners, if you have them

How

1. Choose the lee side of trees, a bank or a big rock. Look up for dead limbs and leaning trees before you settle.
2. Work out which way the wind comes from and plan to face the narrow, low end of the tent into it, door downwind.
3. Lay the tent out and stake the upwind corners first, before any pole goes in. Now it can only fly downwind and it will hold.
4. Stake the other corners, then put the poles in and raise it low and slow, keeping your body upwind of it.
5. Put the fly on from the upwind side and clip it before you let go.
6. Run every guy line out, the upwind ones first, and tension them evenly. A tent with all its guys out stands far stiffer.
7. Drive stakes at an angle, leaning away from the tent, and pile a rock on each one in soft ground.
8. Walk around, tighten anything that flaps, and check again after dark when the wind shifts.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

The first stake decides it. Upwind corners down first and the tent cannot get away from you.

If it is too wild to pitch, it is too wild to be out in the open. Get lower, get behind something, and wait it out in the bag with the tent over you like a sack.