Page 65 - The Tent Handbook 2017

Blue Label tents combine a specific blend of Hilleberg performance attributes with task- specific design and construction
Blue Label tent users
Eduardo Cartaya: Atlas
Eduardo Cartaya is an expedition caver with 30 years’ experience, and he has a special interest in glacier cave systems. He is both an instructor and the Pacific Northwest (USA) regional coordinator for the National Cave Rescue Commission, and he coordinates three glacier cave projects in the region. In 2015, he launched his most ambitious expedition, to map and study the fumarole glacier caves buried hundreds of feet beneath the crater ice caps of 4392 m (14,411 ft) Mt Rainier, an active volcano in Washington state, USA. “On the summit of Rainier, you may as well be on the back side of the moon,” he says. “The wind and weather makes rescue in most cases impossible.” The expedition experienced up to 80 mph winds, as well as snow and frigid temperatures. “You lose your tent [up here], you die,” says Eddy. “I turned to Hilleberg because we did not just need tents, we needed life pods, akin to space capsules, and we treated them as such!” Along with a Saitaris, a Keron GT, and a Nammatj GT, the team used two connected Atlas tents as their “mothership base station.” 14 researchers called the Atlas “compound” home for 12 days. “I chose the Atlas for our mothership base station because it had the versatility to be linked to other pods, was trustworthy in terrifying conditions, was roomy, enabled us to install solar arrays through the ports, and could be assembled very quickly and intuitively,” says Eddy. “Climbers have died on Rainier because they could not erect their tent fast enough. The Atlas is brilliantly designed, goes up fast, is intuitive, can be double poled, and can be pitched in high wind with a small team.” On day six, they encountered a major storm, 24 hours of snow and sus- tained 113 kph (70 mph) winds in the crater. “The wind sounded like a freight train driving over our heads for a whole day, and was most disconcerting,” recalls Eddy. “[Our Hilleberg tents] did not move, break, tear, or do anything! If ever there was testament to how solid these tents are in deadly alpine conditions, it was this 24-hour period.”
Felix Berg: Atlas
Felix Berg
Felix Berg is an avid climber and mountaineer who successfully weaves his passion into his business. Since 2000, Felix has climbed all over the world, from Peru and Patagonia to the Himalayas, where he has summited Ama Dablam (6812 m, 22,349 ft), Kangchenjunga (8586 m, 28,169 ft) and Mt Everest (8,848 m, 29,029 ft), the young- est German to do so. He is also Managing Director of SummitClimb, which organizes trekking, climbing and other expeditions worldwide. With a mission statement of “Together to the top,” SummitClimb handles anything from weeklong safaris, to trekking to Kilimanjaro, to high altitude climbs, to months long Himalayan expeditions, including Mt Everest. “We use the Hilleberg Atlas as our mobile group tents for both trekking and as a base for climbing and high altitude expeditions,” says Felix. “Its excel- lent performance comes from both its superb quality and its great stability. We at SummitClimb have used the Atlas on a wide range of mountains, including Kilimanjaro, Muztagh Ata and Broad Peak. In one extreme situation in the Karakoram, we used the Atlas as an operating room for a surgery, under full anesthesia, to save a climber’s life. Reliable protection from the elements, whether that’s rain, snow or dust, makes the Atlas a practical place to store and setup sensitive equipment such as radio bat- tery charging gear, and of course it’s a great place for the whole team to meet. Whether on an easy trek or an 8000 m summit climb, the Atlas is our preferred group-sized dome.” (for more information, see SummitClimb.de)
Eduardo Cartaya
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