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Just curious as it's something that me and my partner disagree on.
If you have a tent with a door at one end (or a tent with a door at each end but with one porch being used as a kit store and the other for actually getting in and out), and if the sleeping compartment is otherwise symmetrical, do you sleep with your head at the entrance end, or your feet?
If you have a tent with a door at one end (or a tent with a door at each end but with one porch being used as a kit store and the other for actually getting in and out), and if the sleeping compartment is otherwise symmetrical, do you sleep with your head at the entrance end, or your feet?
In reply to Ramblin dave:
I tend to put my head uphill, or match anyone I'm sharing with. Otherwise I think I have done both?
I tend to put my head uphill, or match anyone I'm sharing with. Otherwise I think I have done both?
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
Head uphill. So for an symmetrical tent, the wide end (usually the door) goes up hill and head is at the door end.
In a tent with doors at both ends we keep half the kit in each. I use the "foot end" exist, as I'm more likely to have to get up in the night
Head uphill. So for an symmetrical tent, the wide end (usually the door) goes up hill and head is at the door end.
In a tent with doors at both ends we keep half the kit in each. I use the "foot end" exist, as I'm more likely to have to get up in the night
In reply to andrewmcleod:
Uphill / downhill isn't a consideration - we normally have the discussion when we're pitching the thing (or deciding which end to leave the gear in).
(Edit - I say discussion: in fact this is one of those things where she cares a lot more than I do, so I tend to take the "quiet life" option without much fuss...)
Uphill / downhill isn't a consideration - we normally have the discussion when we're pitching the thing (or deciding which end to leave the gear in).
(Edit - I say discussion: in fact this is one of those things where she cares a lot more than I do, so I tend to take the "quiet life" option without much fuss...)
Post edited at 12:54
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
For me, head has always been at the door, for ease of reaching for stuff in the porch, ventilation and I find it easier. But if wind direction and slope dictate that the other end needs to be uphill, then I'd swap around.
For the last few years though, I've preferred a tent where you sleep transversely so the doors are to the sides.
For me, head has always been at the door, for ease of reaching for stuff in the porch, ventilation and I find it easier. But if wind direction and slope dictate that the other end needs to be uphill, then I'd swap around.
For the last few years though, I've preferred a tent where you sleep transversely so the doors are to the sides.
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
Away from the entrance door. Keeps neck out of draughts and face away from where people will be kicking their boots off.
Away from the entrance door. Keeps neck out of draughts and face away from where people will be kicking their boots off.
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
Despite some others have said - door downhill (so if the site floods you don't risk filling up) and head uphill so when you sit up you are facing the door ready to exit/access you stuff,
Chris
Despite some others have said - door downhill (so if the site floods you don't risk filling up) and head uphill so when you sit up you are facing the door ready to exit/access you stuff,
Chris
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
I have one tent that tapers away from the door both sideways and downward so I have to sleep with my head at the door to avoid feeling claustrophobic. I've now just got into that habit regardless of the tent.
Al
I have one tent that tapers away from the door both sideways and downward so I have to sleep with my head at the door to avoid feeling claustrophobic. I've now just got into that habit regardless of the tent.
Al
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In reply to GridNorth:
Feet go by the exit door so you don't step on your mate's head when escaping for a mid-night pish.
Feet go by the exit door so you don't step on your mate's head when escaping for a mid-night pish.
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
Face the tent with the entrance downhill and put gear in the porch. This stops water running into the porch, helps keep gear dry. Then head at the uphill end. It's the only way
Face the tent with the entrance downhill and put gear in the porch. This stops water running into the porch, helps keep gear dry. Then head at the uphill end. It's the only way
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In reply to Greasy Prusiks:
I'm afraid most of you are wrong...
The only way, in a single door tent, is head by the entrance and tent pitched, if anything, sloping downward from the entrance.
That way you are next to the porch area for cooking and so on and not trapped claustrophobically in the depths of the tent.
Then again all my tents are tunnels or ridges so tend to taper towards the end.
I'm afraid most of you are wrong...
The only way, in a single door tent, is head by the entrance and tent pitched, if anything, sloping downward from the entrance.
That way you are next to the porch area for cooking and so on and not trapped claustrophobically in the depths of the tent.
Then again all my tents are tunnels or ridges so tend to taper towards the end.
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In reply to mypyrex:
Damn! Nine responses before that old chest-nut came out, beat me to it.
I agree with Chris Craggs. Door downhill, head up in the nether regions.
> Isn't it opposite the "bell-end"?
Damn! Nine responses before that old chest-nut came out, beat me to it.
I agree with Chris Craggs. Door downhill, head up in the nether regions.
In reply to Chris Craggs:
Spot on for a ridge tent - just crawl in head first and it's also the easiest way of getting wet boots off and dumping them in the porch.
Thinking about it - how do do you wiggle in feet first with a small ridge tent - don't think I'm that agile !
> Despite some others have said - door downhill (so if the site floods you don't risk filling up) and head uphill so when you sit up you are facing the door ready to exit/access you stuff,
Spot on for a ridge tent - just crawl in head first and it's also the easiest way of getting wet boots off and dumping them in the porch.
Thinking about it - how do do you wiggle in feet first with a small ridge tent - don't think I'm that agile !
In reply to foxwood:
I have a TN Voyager, door at one end. This is CLEARLY the head end. No one exits a tent upright, you crawl out then stand up.
I have a TN Voyager, door at one end. This is CLEARLY the head end. No one exits a tent upright, you crawl out then stand up.
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In reply to Roguevfr:
I have the same tent, and the opposite opinion.
> I have a TN Voyager, door at one end. This is CLEARLY the head end. No one exits a tent upright, you crawl out then stand up.
I have the same tent, and the opposite opinion.
In reply to Dr.S at work:
Terra Nova publish a picture of how to lie in their tents on their website.
http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/tents-and-spares/all-tents/voyager-tent/
I have a Vango Tempest 200. I sleep the wrong way up if I'm on my own.
Terra Nova publish a picture of how to lie in their tents on their website.
http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/tents-and-spares/all-tents/voyager-tent/
I have a Vango Tempest 200. I sleep the wrong way up if I'm on my own.
Post edited at 00:21
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
I used to be very particular about head being at the door end (vaude suspension ridge tent) but recently pitched with door end down hill for social reasons and found that having feet by the door meant a lot less kerfuffle getting undressed and into sleeping bag. Maybe I'm getting old.
I used to be very particular about head being at the door end (vaude suspension ridge tent) but recently pitched with door end down hill for social reasons and found that having feet by the door meant a lot less kerfuffle getting undressed and into sleeping bag. Maybe I'm getting old.
In reply to Ramblin dave:
Most of my tents have a very definite head a tail direction due to shape but I used to have this amazing ultimate 2 man tent from the days before bendy poles and this tent had 2 entrances/exits and you slept across it. And it only weighed 3.5 lb! (it was so old they only had imperial units back then). Unfortunately it died of UV.
Most of my tents have a very definite head a tail direction due to shape but I used to have this amazing ultimate 2 man tent from the days before bendy poles and this tent had 2 entrances/exits and you slept across it. And it only weighed 3.5 lb! (it was so old they only had imperial units back then). Unfortunately it died of UV.
In reply to Dr.S at work:
That's just daft. So when you need to exit the tent you have to wriggle down to the door end and turn around before you can reach the zips. The voyager is allegedly a 2 man tent, so you'd wedge 2 upper bodies into the low,narrow end?
That's just daft. So when you need to exit the tent you have to wriggle down to the door end and turn around before you can reach the zips. The voyager is allegedly a 2 man tent, so you'd wedge 2 upper bodies into the low,narrow end?
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In reply to google:
The head end of the tent is the one closest to the trangia so that brews may be made without getting out of bed.
The head end of the tent is the one closest to the trangia so that brews may be made without getting out of bed.
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
I'm impressed at how split this is. I've always gone with head to the door by default (so you can stick your head out to make a brew / pay the campsite owner / check how minging it is outside without getting out of your sleeping bag) while my partner's a feet-to-the-door fundamentalist (based on some rather hazy justification about mad axe-men trying to get into your tent having to work through your legs to get to your head). Naturally I'd assumed that I was completely normal and she was just being lovably eccentric, but it turns out she's in good company...
I'm impressed at how split this is. I've always gone with head to the door by default (so you can stick your head out to make a brew / pay the campsite owner / check how minging it is outside without getting out of your sleeping bag) while my partner's a feet-to-the-door fundamentalist (based on some rather hazy justification about mad axe-men trying to get into your tent having to work through your legs to get to your head). Naturally I'd assumed that I was completely normal and she was just being lovably eccentric, but it turns out she's in good company...
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
That does seem to be a rather drawn out and made up explanation for it
Maybe she's just fond of a 69?
That does seem to be a rather drawn out and made up explanation for it
Maybe she's just fond of a 69?
In reply to Ramblin dave:
Yes, there seems to be a similar vague justification that putting the door at the downhill end keeps the tent from flooding. Maybe in an old Vango Force 10, but I don't think the zip or the inner of my current tent is going to do much to keep the water out if it is streaming across the ground...
My door is at the side, but I would normally think of sleeping with my head closest to the door if that's the way my tent was laid out. I do currently sleep with my head at the narrow end, but that is because of a design quirk that means there is slightly more headroom there and I can get my head right to the corner of the tent (saves my feet jabbing the other end and touching the inner and outer together).
Yes, there seems to be a similar vague justification that putting the door at the downhill end keeps the tent from flooding. Maybe in an old Vango Force 10, but I don't think the zip or the inner of my current tent is going to do much to keep the water out if it is streaming across the ground...
My door is at the side, but I would normally think of sleeping with my head closest to the door if that's the way my tent was laid out. I do currently sleep with my head at the narrow end, but that is because of a design quirk that means there is slightly more headroom there and I can get my head right to the corner of the tent (saves my feet jabbing the other end and touching the inner and outer together).
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
Well, I've got a one man Vango Zephyr which I've had since circa 1984:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzM2WDk4OQ==/z/fRUAAOSweW5VecHP/$_12.JPG?set_id=8...
It's a sort of wedge shape with the door end being considerably wider and higher that the other end. There is no way anyone could sleep with their head at the small end without suffering serious claustrophobia.
It's nigh on impossible to crawl into it; more of a slide.
Well, I've got a one man Vango Zephyr which I've had since circa 1984:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzM2WDk4OQ==/z/fRUAAOSweW5VecHP/$_12.JPG?set_id=8...
It's a sort of wedge shape with the door end being considerably wider and higher that the other end. There is no way anyone could sleep with their head at the small end without suffering serious claustrophobia.
It's nigh on impossible to crawl into it; more of a slide.
In reply to Simon Caldwell:
Things get a bit more complicated when it's windy. Entrance door to lee side/end, kit to t'other. Logically stove tends to go to the less windy end, therefore head also goes to that end for bleary brewing in the morning.
> Head uphill. So for an symmetrical tent, the wide end (usually the door) goes up hill and head is at the door end. In a tent with doors at both ends we keep half the kit in each.
Things get a bit more complicated when it's windy. Entrance door to lee side/end, kit to t'other. Logically stove tends to go to the less windy end, therefore head also goes to that end for bleary brewing in the morning.
In reply to Ramblin dave:
What about bears? Best to have your head to the door for speedy escapes, since the bear is unlikely to be considerate enough to enter from the designated door-end to start with the feet (nor are mad axe men, really, if it comes to it).
> my partner's a feet-to-the-door fundamentalist (based on some rather hazy justification about mad axe-men trying to get into your tent having to work through your legs to get to your head)
What about bears? Best to have your head to the door for speedy escapes, since the bear is unlikely to be considerate enough to enter from the designated door-end to start with the feet (nor are mad axe men, really, if it comes to it).
In reply to Roguevfr:
whats all this wiggling about stuff?
when I lie on my back my feet are at the door, feet out of door into boots, erm, stand up.
Not back cautiously arse first out of tent only to discover that the isolated campsite was not quite so isolated and you should have put some kecks on.
whats all this wiggling about stuff?
when I lie on my back my feet are at the door, feet out of door into boots, erm, stand up.
Not back cautiously arse first out of tent only to discover that the isolated campsite was not quite so isolated and you should have put some kecks on.
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In reply to Dr.S at work:
You must be tremendously limber to be able to undo the door zip(s) with your feet, then stand up. Some sort of limbo champion, no doubt.
Head at the door end.
You must be tremendously limber to be able to undo the door zip(s) with your feet, then stand up. Some sort of limbo champion, no doubt.
Head at the door end.
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In reply to Chris Craggs:
In 50 + years of camping that has never happened to me (fingers now firmly crossed!), but I have felt a huge volume of water running under the ground sheet during a thunderstorm in the Drakensberg Mountains - it felt like a moving water bed! Brilliant groundsheet which didn't leak.
I also once camped in the dark, in a depression on the Purbeck Hills to get out of the wind. When I woke up, after a night of heavy rain, I found that my "depression" was in fact a dried up pond which had become a pond again, with me lying in a foot of water and the "shore" about 5ft away in every direction....... My inflatable mattress was foating inside the tent!
> Despite some others have said - door downhill (so if the site floods you don't risk filling up)
In 50 + years of camping that has never happened to me (fingers now firmly crossed!), but I have felt a huge volume of water running under the ground sheet during a thunderstorm in the Drakensberg Mountains - it felt like a moving water bed! Brilliant groundsheet which didn't leak.
I also once camped in the dark, in a depression on the Purbeck Hills to get out of the wind. When I woke up, after a night of heavy rain, I found that my "depression" was in fact a dried up pond which had become a pond again, with me lying in a foot of water and the "shore" about 5ft away in every direction....... My inflatable mattress was foating inside the tent!
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In reply to Trangia:
It has never happened to me either but on my 1st trip to Yosemite 25 years ago there was a big thunderstorm in the night and the tent next to mine was pitch 'door uphill'. By dawn the water in the downhill end was 10" deep and all their stuff was trashed - I learnt summat that night!
Same logic why, if I leave my shoes at the base of the crag, I always turn them upside-down with the heels downhill.
Chris
It has never happened to me either but on my 1st trip to Yosemite 25 years ago there was a big thunderstorm in the night and the tent next to mine was pitch 'door uphill'. By dawn the water in the downhill end was 10" deep and all their stuff was trashed - I learnt summat that night!
Same logic why, if I leave my shoes at the base of the crag, I always turn them upside-down with the heels downhill.
Chris
Post edited at 15:22
In reply to Roguevfr:
I have this revolutionary new thing called hips... these allow me to sit up from where I can reach most stuff
> You must be tremendously limber to be able to undo the door zip(s) with your feet, then stand up. Some sort of limbo champion, no doubt.
> Head at the door end.
I have this revolutionary new thing called hips... these allow me to sit up from where I can reach most stuff
In reply to Chris Craggs:
What sort of tent allows the foot to be under 10" of water without letting any of it in?
What sort of tent allows the foot to be under 10" of water without letting any of it in?
In reply to Ramblin dave:
When camping with Mrs Num Num its normally best to have my head near a source of fresh air.
When camping with Mrs Num Num its normally best to have my head near a source of fresh air.
In reply to Simon Caldwell:
The tent was on a slope, there was a thunderstorm and a stream ran into the tent and filled to overflowing.
Chris
> What sort of tent allows the foot to be under 10" of water without letting any of it in?
The tent was on a slope, there was a thunderstorm and a stream ran into the tent and filled to overflowing.
Chris
In reply to Chris Craggs:
>> Same logic why, if I leave my shoes at the base of the crag, I always turn them upside-down with the heels downhill.
Ditto!
>> Same logic why, if I leave my shoes at the base of the crag, I always turn them upside-down with the heels downhill.
> Chris
Ditto!
In reply to Ramblin dave:
Head to the door, though my tarptent is symetrical with two doors either side end so its the same no matter what end you place your head (however I can never get the doors to align with the best views).
As for my vaude tent, it tapers down from the door, so, yeah, head at the door: fresh air, avoids claustrophobia and gives you the ability to peep out and also drink in the tent without balancing the container in the tent.
Head to the door, though my tarptent is symetrical with two doors either side end so its the same no matter what end you place your head (however I can never get the doors to align with the best views).
As for my vaude tent, it tapers down from the door, so, yeah, head at the door: fresh air, avoids claustrophobia and gives you the ability to peep out and also drink in the tent without balancing the container in the tent.
In reply to balmybaldwin:
My thoughts exactly. The only time I'll have my head at the door end, is if there's a strong uphill wind and I need to put the back of the tent into it.
My thoughts exactly. The only time I'll have my head at the door end, is if there's a strong uphill wind and I need to put the back of the tent into it.
In reply to Ramblin dave:
It's like a lightbulb moment for me. My ex boyfriend put forward as irrefutable fact what I now realise was only his opinion of which is the head end. He did that a lot.
It's like a lightbulb moment for me. My ex boyfriend put forward as irrefutable fact what I now realise was only his opinion of which is the head end. He did that a lot.
In reply to Ramblin dave:
My one person tent has a side door which I love. Head uphill, door to the side.
My 2/3 person tent has 2 doors, so we put heads at one end with brewing up stuff and shoes at the other for getting in and out.
His 2 person tent has one door so head at the door so easy to undo zips, or more to the point do them up from in the sleeping bag.
The ridiculously big bunglalow family tent has 3 doors. Maybe you should get one of those.
My one person tent has a side door which I love. Head uphill, door to the side.
My 2/3 person tent has 2 doors, so we put heads at one end with brewing up stuff and shoes at the other for getting in and out.
His 2 person tent has one door so head at the door so easy to undo zips, or more to the point do them up from in the sleeping bag.
The ridiculously big bunglalow family tent has 3 doors. Maybe you should get one of those.
One of the funniest things I ever saw was a friend try to avoid the boot dance (bum shuffle on to knees crawl) while exiting a tent with a snow diaphragm type door. He managed to get his boots on with his feet outside and his plan may have worked if he had zipped the bottom of his jacket up. The gentlemanly thing would have been for one of us to help him by lifting the fly. However seeing as he had whinged for two days the extent of the aid he received was one of us shouting "Nurse, fetch the forceps the ugly little bastard is a breech!" The ten minutes it took for him to untangle his jacket from the door drawcords in the dark with legs thrashing about outside resulted in what I consider to be one of the finest streams of swearing I have ever heard.
I'd always want my head by a door in heavy snow. It's nice to be able to half crawl out and see if you need to get out and clear.
Generally, I have a strong preference for side doors and ideally one on each side if I need to cook at all while in the tent; it is a small weight penalty for a tonne of ease.
I'd always want my head by a door in heavy snow. It's nice to be able to half crawl out and see if you need to get out and clear.
Generally, I have a strong preference for side doors and ideally one on each side if I need to cook at all while in the tent; it is a small weight penalty for a tonne of ease.
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In reply to Ramblin dave:
In my double-entranced tent, I always use the storage porch end as the head end, and the entrance/cooking end as my foot end.
My wild camping tent (Wild Country Duolite) doesn't really give me the option of choice, however!
In my double-entranced tent, I always use the storage porch end as the head end, and the entrance/cooking end as my foot end.
My wild camping tent (Wild Country Duolite) doesn't really give me the option of choice, however!
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