Mineral King 2 All Season

The mineral king “all season” version is absolutely a true 4 season tent. It’s not a dedicated mountaineering tent like the Trango or AC2, but it is most assuredly suitable for camping year round in all 4 seasons. In fact the whole “4 season tent” thing is mostly marketing. I camp year round in weather as cold as -30, and have done so using all manner of shelters - from tarps to hammocks, ultra lightweight summer tents, bivvy bags, mountaineering tents and canvas hot tents. You only need a heavy 10lb tent like the Trango if you’re dealing with serious snow loads. If the weather is clear you can sleep out in the open on a tarp. A tent like the Mineral King is perfectly adequate for anything short of mountaineering, and even then, it would likely hold up just fine if properly guyed. These modern tents are profoundly higher performing than what climbers used even 30-40yrs ago.

I've been using the same 2p MTN hardware tent for yeaaaaaars at this point. It's nothing special. Yeah, sometimes I wish it could pack smaller (compression bags ftw) but I'm not that bothered, and I've set it up in the dark in 2 seconds when I needed it. A lot of the lighter and fancier tents seem to have more complicated pole systems, something to be mindful of.  Pretty much my one pannier is my sleep system (bag, tent, pad, clothes) and other is food and cookware. It comes down what packing system you have. Posting in bikepacking (seat bags, frame bags) will get you different styles of touring vs your post in biketouring (more pannier focused).

I have a mountain hardwear mineral king. They’ve since released a 4 season model but I have used mine in over a foot of snow below 0°F. On mine you can roll back half the fly to stargaze/ look around.

We've got an REI Kingdom 6 and love it. I think the new version is called the Wonderland. Also, if budget is an issue, I'd consider lightly used, good quality gear. We got an almost new Kingdom 6 with add on vestibule (plus a bunch of other gear I didn't want) for $100 on FB Marketplace. The good stuff tends to hold up well if it isn't abused. As an example, I've got a Mountain Hardware 2 person tent coming up on 30 years old that I had to reseal the seams but is otherwise still going strong. Spent a few nights in it recently and plan to continue using it as long as I can.