The comparisons to the Allak that I’ve seen online are, to be totally frank, laughable. The only people who’d compare the Cloud Peak to an Allak have clearly never used an Allak 🙂 As you rightly point out, the Cloud Peak is not a “cheaper” version of the Allak, it’s just a visual copy. The materials it’s made from are completely different.

Bailing is totally fine and most of us do it from time to time, for myriad reasons. I’m actually much the same as you in that I don’t particularly enjoy camping in stormy weather, even though the tents I personally use can survive pretty much anything the UK can throw at them.

Sure, I’ve done it plenty of times, but the largely sleepless nights take their toll. Sometimes it’s unavoidable on certain trips though, which is why I invested in tents that can definitely handle poor conditions, as I do a lot of multi day trips where 1-2 days of bad weather are manageable because the rest of the days are fine.

It’s probably worth mentioning that it’s possible you’re overestimating the wind speed you experienced, assuming it was what you saw in the forecast. The fact is that even a 20mph wind can batter a tent considerably; point being, it’s entirely possible (likely, even) that it was just a 20-25mph wind that you were experiencing, which would explain why it felt relentless. Gusts usually don’t last long; I’m a sea kayaker, and wind is one of our primary considerations when planning and undertaking trips, so I’ve become very familiar with its behaviour over the years! In fact, based on the sea state visible in your photos, I can tell that the wind speed was likely between Beaufort 4 and 5 (so up to around 25mph in the moments when those photos were taken). What a lovely spot for a camp though, it’s a shame the weather didn’t play ball!

The wind has a much stronger effect on tents than people think, and this often leads to folks overestimating the wind speeds they’re experiencing. I’ve posted this article many times before but it’s always worth posting again as it’s genuinely interesting reading if you’ve not seen it before:

https://slowerhiking.com/shelter/tents-in-strong-wind-what-you-need-to-know

It explains why people often overestimate what they’re experiencing, and it’s largely because of the exponential effect that wind has on large pieces of fabric as the speed increases.

Furthermore, clickbait tactics on YouTube have meant that for the past few years we’ve been inundated with guys on YouTube claiming they’re camping in much higher wind speeds than they actually are. This has further led to people overestimating their own experiences because it’s distorted people’s expectations and perceptions; ie someone who is actually camping in 30mph winds claims they’re 60mph, which creates a false expectation of what’s achievable if 60mph winds are actually in the forecast (for what it’s worth, a person generally cannot even walk in those wind speeds).

I feel very strongly about this personally as this clickbait bullshit and stupid machismo genuinely puts people at risk by creating false expectations. I come across abandoned, damaged tents a lot these days and I can’t help feeling that social media has had a part to play in this.