Objects Database

Whillans Box Tent

Accession Number

037.2008.1

Object Name

Whillans Box Tent

Created

29/03/2008

Creator

Mick Tighe

Accession Date

29/03/2008

Brief Description

'Whillan's Box Tent, Nylon fabric, aluminium poles, cuboid shaped with Karrimor stencilled in black on both sides. Blue roof with red sides and orange snow valence. Made by Karrimor (printed on)

Materials

Heavy duty nylon with reinforced roof. Aluminium poles with 6 webbing tensioning straps.

Dimensions

200cm (L)x 125cm (W) x 125cm (H)

Number Of Objects

1

Inscription Description

"Karrimor"

Colour

Red, Blue and Orange

Maker

Karrimor

Provenance

Bit of a rarity this as not many were made and very few have survived. As the name implies,they were the brainchild of Don Whillans who had created a rough, wooden version whilst on an expedition to Patagonia in the 60's. A second version was created from angle iron and orange rucksack canvas with the resultant weight penalty.
The finished article came from a collaboration between Whillans and Mike Parsons of Karrimor who used their pack frame technology to fabricate the frame and a version of rucksack canvas for the covering and even though an early prototype blew away whilst being tested in the Cairngorms, several of the box tents found their way to the slopes of Everest and Annapurna in the 1970's.
This particular tent was given to Mick Tighe by Hugh McNicol who ran a company called Mountain Technology in Glencoe in the 1980's & 90's. Hugh had acquired it on one of his Himalayan trips.
See also Whillan's rucksack, Whillan's harness and the Whillan's Whammer which is in the ice hammer category.

Acquisition Date

29/03/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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