Drift Air 4 Inflatable Tent

A drift is snow that the wind has piled into a shape, and it is the closest thing in nature to something that builds itself.

The Drift Air 4 carries its structure in four inflatable beams. There is one valve, a hand pump in the bag, and about five minutes between arriving and having somewhere to sleep, with nothing to thread through a sleeve in the dark and nobody needed to hold the other end.

It pitches alongside the vehicle and joins by a short tunnel, or it stands on its own if you would rather it did. The tunnel unclips in about a minute, so the tent stays up while the car goes to a trailhead and comes back.

Inflatable beams bend under a gust and come back where a pole reaches a point and snaps. The beams are independent of each other, so one losing air leaves the rest standing, and the repair kit is already in the bag.