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. Much of the material below is derived from interviews and/or correspondence with both Bob Howe and North Face head designer Mark Erickson, as well as my own research..... Editors: Please contact me 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.
Bob Howe, August 9th, 2006:
"Hi Bruce,
Here are a couple of pages I scanned out of "Dome Notes"
by Peter Hjersman published in 1975 in Berkeley. I included the
bibliography to illustrate just how many people were working with
geodesics at the time. Note that most of the dates predate xxx's
work by years. A quick look at the page regarding the "Great
Circle Dome" anticipates much of what xxx claims to be his
right down to the fact that it was made of PVC pipe and covered
with sheet plastic to make a greenhouse. Whether xxx arrived at
his ideas independently I cannot say, but all of this was happening
in a rather small community centered around Berkeley and certainly
predates his work.
The other comment I would make is that the "Great Circle
Dome" was the direct genesis of the first geodesic tent I
made for Snow Lion. I developed other unique geometries on my
own later, but my first one was inspired from this book.
I also included a photo I grabbed from the internet of the The
North Face Mountain 25, one of the most durable of my designs."
Bob Howe
Designer
Lafayette, CA 94549
In the Bay Area of California in the early
1970s Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes became all the
rage. Many folks had caught the geodesic bug and were experimenting
and building both temporary and permanent structures. A key resource
for the movement was published in Berkeley in 1975, named "Dome
Notes." Tent designer Bob Howe says that he was heavily
influenced by this book, and others published a bit earlier in
the "Dome" movement. In fact, he told me that his first
back-packable geodesic tent was directly derived from the geometries
of the "Great Circle Dome" that he found described in
such written resources... 
He
built his backpackable geodesic tent in 1975 (see image at top
of this page). This was the same year that North Face introduced
the "Oval Intention," which they proudly claim to be
the world's first backpacking geodesic tent. However, 32 year
old Ned Gillette, famous expeditioneer who had been sponsored
with North Face products on previous trips, did not choose the Oval Intention
for his Spring 1977 Arctic expedition.... Instead, Bob's new expeditionary
tent became the bombproof wonder that Ned trusted for his winter
expedition to the High Arctic's Ellesmere Island.... At page top,
please see picture of a young Bob Howe holding up the finished
tent prototype in his Berkeley backyard in 1975, and to the left
see the tent in actual use at Ellesmere Island under severe arctic
conditions. According to Bob, Ned raved about how much stronger
and better this geodesic tent was compared to anything he had
used in past expeditions....See page bottom
for an obituary about Ned Gillette.
Two Examples of Bob Howe Well-known Tents
The Meridian Tent: Bob's Great Circle-derived geodesic
dome was so successful on Ned Gillette's expedition that the two
variations of it that Bob was introducing to the public seemed
sure to succeed. Bob had hooked up with a major, well-regarded
gear company for the introduction. The company was Snowlion, a very well-known and well-regarded Bay-Area manufacturer
during the 1970s
.
Interestingly, Snowlion was concurrently one of the sponsors of
Ned Gillette's arctic expedition (described above)... Below is
an image of the Meridian from page 49 of the 1977 Snowlion catalog.
HOWEVER, In one of the most tragic ironies to be found in the History of Backpacking, the Snowlion catalogs got printed, but never made it into the hands of the public. In fact, I have corresponded with a fellow who participated in the photo shoot for the 1977 catalog (which was marked on its cover as a "1978" catalog*). This man related that the gear photography was shot high on Mt. Hood in Oregon....At the 1977 Outdoor Products Trade Show (Exposition) at the Houston AstroDome, where Snowlion was set to launch the new "dome" tents, an unexpected announcement was made: Snowlion was going bust and closing its doors. Snowlion's part in launching the geodesic tent revolution was erased from the history books. As for Bob Howe, he found himself launched on a lifetime career in the Outdoor Gear Industry. Interestingly, his design for the Meridian tent became popular: Bob writes, "...the tent went on. Wilderness Experience grabbed the design upon SnowLion's demise, and it also surfaced at of all places Cabelas, where it is still sold to this day." (I've also been provided with other images of the SnowLion Meridian tent, which I may post at later date)... * a note about that 1978 Snowlion catalog--- to me, the 1978 Snowlion catalog cover ranks very high as one of the most dramatic, striking, artsy covers in the History of Gear! I think it is rare and quite collectible should you find one in good condition. Should you happen across one, here is a image of the cover, taken of my personal, mint condition '78 catalog! Note the two climbers walking up the ridgeline in bottom center (one is walking into a drifting cloud and is nearly invisible).
Collectible Catalog Cover, designed by Master Illustrator/sculptor
Bruce Wolfe
The North Face "Mountain
25" Tent. 
The Mountain 25 is
an expedition-strong geodesic which Bob Howe designed in 1995.
He states it's been one of his most successful and longest-lived
designs, in an industry which increasingly changes tent styles
like some people do hair styles, it's a testament to the tent's
timeless qualities.
Although not originally a Bob Howe design, I add this section about the Sierra Designs "Tiros" geodesic because it is a tent that I personally own and like a lot!
The Sierra Designs "Tiros" -- The Tiros is another great tent that Bob Howe has had a hand in designing (he was not, however, the original designer, instead providing some design modifications for the tent much later, eg. 1997's version, the Tiros Guide CD model).... The Marmot Mountain Works store in Bellevue, WA had high praise for the Tiros about 12 years ago in their catalog: "The strongest 4 season tent Sierra Designs makes. This 2-person dome has a built-in vestibule and aluminum shock-corded poles. A large front door and smaller backdoor provide great ventilation. Vestibule will fit over either door." (click here to reach my page about the Tiros One tent in my ownership, with many images!).
He moved to Bend, Oregon and is still busy designing tents, as he has done for some 35 years. Over the course of these years, he designed tents and other products for nearly all of the major companys, and for several of the smaller ones as well. For example, early in his career, he created the "Earth Station" geodesic in 1978 for Bill Nicolai's "Early Winters"company, and in 1979 created the Great Arc Dome for Trailwise, a tent which he still says is probably the strongest backpacking tent he's ever designed, "You could do push-ups off the side of it." Backpacker Magazine loved its strength, but hated the weight and cost of its six-pole design..
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. Much of the material above
is derived from interviews and correspondence with both Bob Howe
and North Face head designer Mark Erickson.... Editors: Please contact
me 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.
Ned Gillette met an untimely end on August 5, 1998. He was sleeping in his tent with his wife in Kashmir, an unsettled border region between India and Pakistan, when he was shot to death by what appeared to be robbers. His wife Susy Patterson was injured, but recovered. So ended a life full of adventure. For details, see the fine Obiturary written by FRANK LITSKY that appeared in the NY Times on August 14, 1998.