Great choice on the tent the Hubba is a great tent. I have taken 3 season tents on many winter trips. What you get with a 4 season tent is, generally, a more rugged tent with stronger poles, thicker/stronger tent body fabric. Guying out the tent and putting it in a sheltered location are great ideas to make the tent "weather" the outing.

Well now, I have lived in Missouri all my life and if you were to go camping in MO, I'd say a 3 season tent would treat you just fine. I've never been to Wisconsin, but it looks like a winter I would not want to approach. I never said I was the toughest kid on the block and I don't mine chilly or even cold weather. Wisconsin in the winter, on the other hand, looks like something that would make sasquatch shiver. My advice would be get a 4 season tent and next year you may be able to backpack in Canada. :) Be safe out there!

I know this post is late in coming, but others might read the thread. I grew up in northern Illinois, and my Scout troop camped year round, including winter camping in Wisconsin. Not all 3-season tents are created equal. We used Eureka Timberline tents almost exclusively during those years, and I had no clue that they were considered 3-season tents. With their tub floors and a rain fly that came close to the ground, they did very well except in the most extreme conditions (teens below zero Farenheit), but in those conditions your sleeping bag and clothing are more important than your tent, which largely serves as a wind-break.

If looking for a three-season tent that should also work well in the winter, look for three features: 1) a tub floor (where the floor seams are raised above where the walls hit the ground) -- this is really the only type of floor I recommend to stay dry in any season, 2) a full rain fly that extends to the ground on all sides -- this is what will block the wind and help create an insulating layer of air around the tent, and 3) minimal mesh wall sections.

If the tent has mesh walls or ceiling panels for summer use, just remember that it will be much easier for cold air to get in. Even with a full rain fly, some wind will get under the edges (unless there's enough snow that you can pile it up around the fly edge). You do need some ventilation, otherwise your breath will condense inside the tent and everything will be damp or frosted in the morning. In a tent like the Eureka Timberline, that means you need to open one or both of the windows a bit for venting.

One thing to remember when winter camping--if you are in a zone where the ground freezes solid, you need an alternate way to "stake out" your tent. One effective method is to tie a small branch segment (say, two fingers in diameter) to a line and tie the line to the stake ring or loop. Then, pull the stick out a ways and bury it under the snow and pack it down. If you are on frozen ground without snow, you'll need to tie off to more substantial pieces of timber--for an A-frame type tent (like the timberline), two logs laid parallel to the tent walls works well.

I just bought an Alps Mountaineering Extreme 3 (I went a little large to make the space more comfortable for my wife who is a less experienced camper) and am itching to try it out. I'm going to make my first use of it in the spring, however, so I can get used to the tent and its setup. I plan on taking it into the Boundary Waters in May, and again next winter. It has all the features I wanted, and a fantastic price.