How do I pitch a tent on sand or snow?

In sand or snow a thin peg pulls straight through, so the thing that changes is the anchor, not the technique. Holding power comes from the ground pressing against whatever is buried in it, and loose ground can only press if you give it much more surface to press on.

Why a normal peg fails

A Y or V cross-section peg in turf works because the soil grips the flats and resists being pushed aside. Sand does not grip, and unconsolidated snow grips even less. Under a guyline the peg cuts a slot and slides up it.

Adding length helps a little and adds weight; changing material does not help at all. What helps is area, depth and, in snow, time.

Wide stakes, and where they stop

The purpose-made answer is a wide plastic or alloy stake, sometimes sold as a sand or snow stake: a broad channel or blade section that presents far more area to the ground than a Y-stake does. In firm damp sand and in packed snow these hold well and go in easily.

They are bulky and they are not a universal peg — the same width that grips loose ground makes them awkward to drive into anything firm. As with steel nail pegs for stony ground, the sensible approach is to carry a few for the main guy points rather than a full set.

The deadman, which is the real answer

A deadman is anything buried horizontally with the guyline tied round its middle, so the pull has to lift the whole mass and the ground above it.

Almost anything serves. A stuff sack or dry bag filled with sand, snow or stones. A stick, a spare peg laid flat, a section of driftwood. A stone. Dig a trench across the direction of pull, lay the object in it with the line running up the side of the trench rather than over the lip, backfill and tread it down firmly.

Two details decide whether it holds. Depth: the deeper it sits, the more mass has to lift. And the line’s exit angle, because a cord dragged over a sharp lip cuts a channel and works itself free. Run it up a sloped side.

Snow behaves differently from sand

Snow has one property sand does not: it sinters. Snow that has been disturbed and pressed down sets over a period of hours as the crystals bond, and a buried anchor in set snow holds far better than one placed in fresh powder.

That gives you a sequence. Stamp out the platform first, over the whole footprint and a little beyond, and leave it while you sort other things. Bury the anchors, backfill and pack the snow over them, then leave those too before you take up full tension. Retension once things have set.

Building a low wall or digging the platform slightly below the surrounding surface reduces the wind loading the anchors have to resist in the first place, which is worth more than any single anchor improvement.

The pitch itself

Loose ground is usually flat ground, which removes one problem and creates another: there is nothing to shelter behind, and wind loading is what pulls anchors out. Orient the tent so the smallest, strongest end faces the prevailing wind, and set the main guylines on that end first.

A footprint is worth having here, cut slightly smaller than the tent floor so it does not stick out past the flysheet and funnel water underneath. On sand it also keeps grit off the floor fabric, and grit against a coated floor is what wears it.

Expect to retension after the ground settles. Sand consolidates under the tent as you move about, snow compacts under body heat, and in both cases the pitch that was taut when you set it will need a pass round the lines before you sleep.