Omnipotent No. 178
Omnipotent No. 178There are those who remember EW's
earliest tents with great admiration and fondness. The first to
be introduced was in 1972, a radically-styled, expedition capable
tent named the "Omnipotent." This tent still has quite
a cult following.....For quite a long time, the Omni was THE basic
product of Early Winters.... until in 1976, came the Goretex "Light
Dimension." tent, a smaller, single-wall tent designed for
somewhat less harsh conditions. In the late 70s, some Goretex
was added to the Omnipotent, I believe only in the front and back
panels of the tent, where the front and rear doors were, which
were single-wall and subject to condensation due to that fact.......
The basic Omnipotent was a non-Goretex, double-wall tent designed
by Mr. Bill Nicolai, reputedly after the failure of his traditional
A-frame tent nearly led to his death on Early Wi
nters
Spire in the North Cascades of Washington State...He was a poor
young man then, but the innovative direct catalog marketing of
he and his partner Ron Zimmerman grew his small company quickly,
especially after thye paired up with Bill Edwards, who became
VP of Product Operations, and a designer in his own right..
Please Note: All Material below, and in all my "History of Gear" webpages, is copyrighted, and no usage of my material is permitted unless explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce B. Johnson, owner of OregonPhotos.com...... Editors: Please contact me at oldgear@oregonphotos.com if you have interest in publishing....Others: if you were involved with one of the old-line, vintage gear companies and have a story to tell in these pages, please contact me soon.
Notable Design Features and Specs of the Omnipotent tent.
1. Tunnel-hoop design. Seemingly much like the proven design which Warmlite tents had been using since their early prototypes in 1958 (see Warmlite pages).
2. Double-wall design with integrated rainfly (again, similar to the proven double wall designs of Warmlite)..... The Omnipotent's inner tent is actually not the "strong" part of the tent's skin, being more or less suspended off the outer, waterproof skin via a scrim of mosquito netting-like material. The Omnipotent in this way was an early forerunner of modern ultra-premium tents such as the Hilleberg line from Sweden.
3. Poles--- Innovative super-slim, super-light, super-strong pole system.These poles were shock-corded, hand-laid fiberglass (see image). The Omnipotent's use of mid-poles which were flexible and exterior-mounted in a sleeve was not new, in fact, the famed GERRY Himalayan Expedition tent of the early 1950s used such a design.
FUN STORY about the Omnipotent: an ex-employee shared a story of high jinks about the Omnipotent, writing: "One of the wags I worked with suggested shipping out an Omnipotent without the poles, and labeling it "The Impotent" (because it wouldn't be able to stand erect). Story credit: Glenn K.
4. Needing only two tent stakes for mild conditions (14 stakes for the most extreme conditions on Earth).
5. Somewhat easier to move to a different place around your campsite than is true with a traditional A-frame tent.
6. Fairly lightweight for the extreme strength compared to geodesics or traditional A-framed expedition tents..About 6 pounds with four lightweight stakes.
Other notes: the interior dimensions
of the Omnipotent were slightly tight for two big climbers, especially
in the headroom department, which was just enough for a 5' 8"
man to sit up in the front of the tent (37-38 inches). The tent's
taper also led to the rear end being another 8-9 inches shorter.
There was a very well-designed and useful 11 sz. foot vestibule
(optional). It zipped onto the front (bigger) end of the tent
via a third zipper track up there (see picture, which is compliments
of Michael Hughes, 2015).... 
To
my mind, the vestibule was actually almost indispensable for true
winter mountaineering for two men. My used Omnipotent came without
one, and I'm thinking of designing and making one for it, probably
will use Goretex, or maybe one of the new Syl-nylons popular with
the Ultralight backpacking movement.....
Minor downsides of the Omnipotent include a bit of access hassle due to the multiple guylines obstructing the two doors (Note: at some point in the later 70s, the fabric pull-outs around the front door were reduced from four to three, which eased access)... Also, there's a bit of delicacy needed to insert and lock in the four poles into their sleeves at the top of the tent surface; and, conversely, removing them under cold, frozen conditions can require even more finesse (but please remember that this is true of virtually all tent designs, eg. under frozen conditions, both my Sierra Designs Tiros and North Face Oval Intention tents with the standard, shock-corded aluminum poles can be quite a hassle, with the joints perversely frozen together, and/or even frozen tightly into their nylon pole sleeves!)....
ALERT: BOOKS! As of mid-2020, I have publishe five books about the history of some of the great gear pioneers, as well as five other books with general outdoor themes/content. Most are offered in traditional book, eBook, or inexpensive PDF formats. (my ten books and links to order them, click here).
I would highly appreciate READER INPUT ABOUT the Early Winters tents, AND ALSO ANY STORIES ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COMPANY. .Contact: oldgear@Oregonphotos.com --CONTACT ME.
Please Note: All
Material above, and in all my "History of Gear" webpages,
is copyrighted, and no usage of my material is permitted unless
explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce B. Johnson, owner
of OregonPhotos.com. Editors: Please contact me at oldgear@Oregonphotos.com if
you have interest in publishing....Others:
if you were involved with one of the old-line, vintage gear companies
and have a story to tell in these pages, please contact me soon.
