During the late 1970’s I began to venture into the local mountains during winter to try my hand at backpacking and camping in the snow. My first purchase was a double-walled Sierra Designs Flashlight tent. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I am fairly certain that it was the late 70’s, as I remember getting stuck in my tent during a snow storm. I didn’t have snowshoes and it was a miserable trek back home.

The Flashlight only weights 3.5 lbs and it its day was extremely light and roomyy for one person (it was marketed as a two person tent). Because of the sleeves it was very stable in winds.

The main advantage to a double-wall tent is that condensation does not form on the inner tent fabric. The main disadvantage is that it is heavier. I quickly had found that the condensation under my tarp resulted in wet gear and in particular a damp sleeping bag. So I purchased my first double-wall tent.

The Flashlight was really a 3 season tent, not designed for snow. But I got up every hour or so to know the snow off the tent.

I am pretty sure the Flashlight came out in the late 70’s. The tent poles slide through the tent in fabric sleeves. In the early 80’s Sierra Designs came out with the Flashlight II, which used clips to attach the tent to the poles.