Tent Gets A Proper Hammering - Video

Wondering if family tents are up to the British summer, check out this Wild Country Citadel getting a kicking from the weather...

You might trust your mountain tent to cope with British mountain weather, but what about a big bunker of a family tent? Apparently Wild Country was wondering the same thing, so they set up a nine-month wear test with one of their Citadel 5 family tents in the Peak District.

The tent was set up in October 2011 and left to tough it out with the worst the weather could throw at it, which turned out to be everything from 65mph winds and blizzards through to deluge conditions and deep frost and it survived it all. Which is good news. 

The video above is short clip of the tent dicing with a blizzard, but there's also a full video of the test if you want a bit more background.

We've been using a Wild Country family tunnel tent of our own for the last five years or so and it's been brilliant in UK conditions, mostly we'd say it's a big tent with the build quality and strength of a proper hill and mountain shelter. It's not been completely flawless - we had a pole snap the other week, easily fixed with the repair sleeve supplied - but it's one big tent we'd confidently pitch on a mountain camp site without fretting over its ability to take a real hammering from the weather if things get gnarly, so we're not surprised that the Citadel 5 survived the worst of the weather.

And here's that full version for you.