The invention of strong, flexible aluminum poles set tent designers loose on an orgy of innovation that still hasn't stopped. Dome tents, shaped like a half-sphere, offer the greatest interior volume of any tent for a given surface area of tent fabric, which gives them a good volume-to-weight ratio. The tent walls are almost vertical near the ground, so occupants can sit up anywhere in the tent, greatly increasing the usable amount of floor space compared to an A-frame or pyramid. Geodesic domes, or geodomes, are supported by an interlocking structure of three or four poles that intersect to form triangles. This design means that only small areas of fabric are unsupported by poles. Dome tents easily shrug off high winds and resist the weight of accumulating snow. Most winter and expedition tents are geodomes. All domes are free-standing, which means they don't need to be staked in order to stand upright; however, all must be staked to prevent them from taking off like a kite when the breeze blows. When empty, free-standing tents can be picked up and moved without disassembling them, a convenient feature if the first site you pick proves to be an ant hill.

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